  Action/Adventure
This week: Nobody's Perfect Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading  
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Welcome to this week's edition of the Writing.Com Action & Adventure Newsletter.
Each day is a blank page, an adventure to be written, action and re-action ~ be pro-active when you write and allow your readers to react as they move about the adventure you've created for them.
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Greetings, fellow adventurers  Today's exploration is fueled by my preparations for this November's NaNo, and I'm currently exploring the character and potential of my protagonist.
While 'interviewing' my protagonist (I hesitate to say, hero, as I do not yet know how she will act and re-act as our story evolves), I found myself realizing that she's not 'perfect', without fault or doubt. She's flawed, she has doubt, miscues, imperfections in deed, motivation, intent. So I ask, when did the anti-hero, the flawed protagonist, supplant the adventurer's role of the 'good guys' of old? When did Superman's 'truth and justice for all', give way to Batman's battle against the forces of evil, as well as his own demons?
First, the 'good guys' still have some good adventures. Indiana Jones is the altruistic archeologist who uses his knowledge and skills to find and return an artifact or two to its rightful owners (despite one film where he's accused of seeking 'fortune and glory'). He grows as a person while he makes another corner of the world a safer place.
Just as the 'good guys' are still with us in film (oldies) and books, the 'anti-hero' is not a recent phenomenon. Each makes choices along the journey, which choices change the protagonist, resulting in evolving (sometimes radically changed) attitudes and actions, for the betterment and joy of others.
In literature, adventures featuring an anti-hero protagonist have been with us since at least the time of Ancient Greece, evolving along with customs and mores over centuries. So let's come closer to today with popular literature most of us have read for just pleasure.
Think about Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn ~ whose adventures thrust them unwittingly into positions where they acted to benefit others and, in so doing, they also were changed. Or, the pulp fiction adventurers like Sam Spade, who act at times in opposition to the law and accepted norms for justice's sake. And consider Kurt Vonnegut, who I think a master of the adventure featuring an anti-hero as protagonist. The 'heroes' are still with us, though they may start their adventure by acting not as we'd envision the ideal hero ~ instead as an anti-heroic or flawed protagonist.
So, what defines the anti-heroic protagonist of a story or poem? According to American Heritage Dictionary the antihero is is "a main character in a dramatic or narrative work who is characterized by a lack of traditional heroic qualities, such as idealism or courage." Now, that doesn't make him or her a coward, but in order to keep from becoming the antagonist, some or all of the following characteristics need be evident in the anti-hero:
 Acting heroically, accepting challenges sometimes unwittingly, and acting upon them by means outside conventional norms and customs; often at odds with the law; sometimes with methods underhanded.
 Lack of either identity or determination, but falls into the role of protagonist by happenstance, the pressure of circumstance.
 Acting in opposition to traditional values or mores.
 Flawed in some way, most likely psychologically or socially, and either overcomes or makes use of the flaws in actions taken during the course of the adventure.
 Having some redeeming quality that readers can either identify with or sympathize with in order to want the protagonist to attain his/her quest, despite apparent flaws or apparently misguided methods.
And, in the end, he or she is changed by virtue of actions taken in the course of the adventure, resulting in the betterment of others - his/her values or beliefs altered, not always for personal gain.
Finally, and this I believe this must be present with or without the above characteristics - you and your reader must have some sympathy or empathy for your anti-hero, else he/she becomes the antagonist in the story. For example, Hannibal Lecter may help uncover the identity of a serial killer, but who can sympathize with his own absolute lack of regard for human life and his own method of disposing of that life.
So that's my take on the anti-hero, and as to why so popular today - perhaps it's because many of us can identify with the flawed protagonist who seeks to 'do good' without having to squeeze into the exalted heroic mold.
Write On 
Kate |
First, how about engaging these adventures submitted for your reading (and reviewing  ) pleasure by members of our Community, by sometimes dubious routes to 'heroic' deeds and opportunities for you to challenge your heroes.
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Thank you for sharing this exploration ~ before we part each on our own adventure, I wish for you joy in weaving active journeys in story and in verse
Write On 
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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Action/Adventure: October 08, 2014 Issue [#6587]
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