This made me consider that maybe a part of what we think of as being a hero means being a likable character, like Harry Potter. Harry is a character that is likeable, a character whom the reader can feel close to. Harry has several good friends, including Ron and Hermione, who we also feel close to. I feel so close to these characters in this story that I feel like I’m on the journey with them. I’m not just a reader peering into this world from above, but I’m an active part in it.
I did not feel this way at all toward Ged or any of the other characters in this book. I did not find Ged to be a character that I liked and wanted to spend more time with. I thought A Wizard of Earthsea was entertaining but I’m not absolutely dying to read the next books to find out what happens to Ged. I was simply reading about his journey, not actually there with him experiencing it, like I was with Harry.
I think the likeability of the character has a lot to do with whether or not we see them as heroic. A lot of people brought up questions about Ged’s heroism because his hero’s journey is set in motion only because he commits a selfish act. It seems as though everything Ged does, he does for himself. However, Harry is not very different from Ged in this sense. Harry did not create Lord Voldemort and set him loose on the Earth; but two of his main reasons for standing up against him are to get revenge for his parents death and because if Harry doesn’t kill Lord Voldemort, Lord Voldemort will kill Harry. However, I would say without question that Harry is a true hero.
In Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix, I struggled a little with Harry. He was really moody and angry through most of the novel and I almost stopped reading it because it was getting on my nerves. This is the same way I felt about Ged. I was half hoping the shadow would defeat Ged and put us both out of our misery. If Harry had been moody like he was in the fifth book from the beginning, I would not have liked the series and I would have had a hard time accepting him as a hero, even if he did defeat Lord Voldemort.
It's obvious that Le Guin did not try to make Ged a very likeable character. You can tell even by the cover of the book in comparison with Harry Potter that the heroes are different. Harry is smiling, warm and open to the reader. Ged has his back to the reader and we can't see his face; he is not inviting or friendly at all. I think Le Guin may be questioning why we have to have a hero that we love and adore and we look past his faults. Why can't it be someone who is not as likeable, but not any less of a hero than someone like Harry?
Pictures of the Book Covers
3 comments:
I like what you've said about the book being hard to read based on Ged's unlikability. The style and tone of Earthsea is definitely different from that of Harry Potter. But I see in the choices Le Guin made about her style and tone, the selfishness of Ged, the lack of elaboration of his friendship with Vetch- all work together to make her point about heroes more clear. Ged overcame his own human faults. He learned from them and moved past them.
I think you're right when you say that Ged's motivations are selfish. I would imagine that the next books in the Earthsea series would bring more classically heroic adventures. But I don't think I'll read them to find out :)
I think what was said here was fair. Ged was not a likable character. Ged was selfish. Ged was prideful. Ged never did anything amazing, so therefore he was unlikable. However I think he was a hero, but I did not like him. I thought I was the only weird person that wanted him to get defeated. I kind of had that attitude all my life, but I'm glad someone else felt the same way I did. It would have been very interesting to see Le Guin make the shadow win. But I guess that cannot happen because there are other books.
I do think it was an interesting choice on Le Guin's part to make the main character of a book someone who the reader cannot form a relationship with or cannot identify with. It really does make you want to look further into the book to see what the deeper meaning is, because surely the author doesn't expect an uninviting "hero" to keep readers motivated to finish the book. In Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, he says, "trouble always finds me," and I believe this is the way in many of the typical hero stories. I agree that Le Guin might have been attempting to reveal the more human side of these heroes showing that being a hero doesn't mean fighting off whatever finds you, but fighting to correct your own mistakes, which I believe to be almost more heroic. I can't think of many things more difficult than facing your own mistakes.
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