A well-adjusted hero is someone with a relatively normal and happy life who goes on to do heroic deeds. They possibly set out on their quest simply because they feel it is the right thing to do, and know that while their own life is perfect that other people out there are suffering. Unlike many other heroes found in fictional works, the well-adjusted hero’s parents were not slaughtered in some horrible way, the love of his life did not die the day they were to be married, his children were not seduced by the dark side and become conniving, evil brats, and most importantly of all, the hero is not the last of his kind and is the world’s only hope for salvation. He’s just an Average Joe who does remarkable things.
In the end, isn’t that what makes what he does so remarkable? We can relate to him. He’s a normal human-being, with mortal frailties just like us. He can feel fear, and he can feel hesitation. He doesn’t have any super powers to help him, and he may not even have any magical weapons to help smite his foes either. He’s just like us, and yet he goes on to become a hero. We can picture ourselves possibly doing what he does in real life circumstances, and it endears the character even more to us.
However, a person could argue that well-adjusted heroes are incapable of existing. People become heroes because of tragic circumstances in their life. Their wife was slain by a group of bandits, and the hero embarks on a quest of retribution. Those with happy, well-adjusted lives do not become anything grand. They’re happy with the state of things, and do nothing to change the world around them. It takes something of significant important to spur a person to go above and beyond what is normally expected of him.
I tend to disagree. I think there is always an exception to any rule. It still begs the question: Do well-adjusted heroes exist? Can they even exist?
1 response so far ↓
elizaw // August 14, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Two words: Neil Gaiman.
Take Neverwhere, for example (I hope you’re familiar with Neil Gaiman’s books, but if not, this shouldn’t be too confusing). The protagonist never really had anything tragic happen to him before the start of the book. His life was pretty mediocre in some ways, he had an overbearing girlfriend and was fairly spineless, but he was doing well enough for himself. And then after the story had been set up, everything went South, and people stopped seeming to see him the farther he slipped into the fairy-tale-esc realm of the Underground that was shoved at him.
But for the most part, I think you’re right… the point is, something needs to happen. Well-adjusted can’t stay well-adjusted. On the other hand, over-traumatic is considered cliche.
I think the trick is not to make it particularly horrible, particularly terrible, but to see that the motivation for the hero to participate in the conflict is a damn good one.