Post 9: Heroes and Villains

Heroes and Villains

Room by Emma Donoghue

Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

In Room by Emma Donoghue, in my opinion there are two protagonists; Jack and his mother. However the main one would be Jack, a five year old boy who has never been outside Room.  Jack has qualities from various archetypes for heroes. At the beginning of the book, Jack’s main challenge was Old Nick. Old Nick kidnapped his mother and kept them hidden in an old shack, so Jack had never seen the outside world. After Jack and his mother figure out a plan to escape, Jack’s new problem he has to face is fitting in with society. For the first five years of his life the only person he had ever talked to was his mother and he was not accustomed to typical societal norms.

                In Room the antagonist is an old man who Jack calls Old Nick. There is not enough background information given on Old Nick to know if he follows the six stages of a villain. However he does follow some of the stages in his own way. Stage 2 (obsession), he shows when he finds a way to lure Jack’s mom, who he calls Ma, into his truck.  He is very isolated form the rest of the world and has a 14-foot fence around his backyard so no one can see in. This follows Stage 4, isolation. Old Nick defiantly follows Stage 6 (cruelty/wickedness) because how inhumane he treats Jack and Ma by keeping them hostage.

                In Where’d You Go, Bernadette the clear protagonists is Bee, who once her mother goes missing would set off to find her. Bee is the epitome of a daughter: with perfect grades and an unbeatable drive to do her absolute best. Bernadette, her mother, is an antisocial, ex-architect who had her only masterpiece ruined in just a couple of hours. Bee’s father works for Microsoft and absolutely loves his job. Bee and Jack are very different: Bee fits perfectly into society and in her school while Jack is struggling to understand what to do and what not to do in society.

                There is no clear antagonist at the moment in Where’d You Go, Bernadette. Bernadette Fox often butt-heads with Audrey Griffin, her neighbor who has a son that goes to Bee’s school. There is not really enough information about Audrey yet to know if she is the only antagonist, but there are a couple of encounters between Bernadette and Audrey. For example Audrey claims Bernadette ran over her foot with her car while Bee claims that Audrey was not even close to the car.