What makes a hero? from past polarities to contemporary ambiguities

Abstract

Most narratives found in literature usually have one central point in common – characters, who are at the heart of the story. Throughout literary history, characters exist often as a representation of a conflict, a reflection of society or a symbol of the message the story intends to convey, in the form of “tropes.” One of the most common character tropes to exist since the time of ancient Greeks, is that of the hero and the villain, who are a black and white representation of good and evil. However, in contemporary times we find more and more narratives exploring the grey area between these two popular tropes, in the form of morally ambiguous characters. In these narratives, there is no hero or villain; the hero comprises of various villainous characteristics and the villain possess many heroic qualities. What was previously viewed as two opposing ideologies have now merged into one single character – the morally grey character. This thesis aims to explore the notions of good and evil associated with heroes and villains, by examining morally ambiguous characters in literature from the past till present, and addresses the question of whether good and evil are represented as binary opposites. Through analysing Sabaa Tahir’s contemporary American YA fantasy fiction series An Ember in the Ashes from a post-structuralist lens, this research seeks to prove that good and evil are contextual, and the notions of wholly good and wholly evil do not exist, since one concept is always contaminated with its binary opposite.