g there. If I hadn't comehere and did what I did, you'd've been floating along now with nobrains and no blood, and so would Lewis. (Dickey, 201-2)Ed is different from the rest in that he recognizes the golden eye. The "golden-eyes" is the short-lived glimpse of the Platonic Ideal; it is the beauty of life. Ed is also different in that he is the only one who proves himself; proves his "masculinity." He does this by adapting to his foreign environment and by surviving and rescuing his companions. Also, it may be noted, that Lewis' love for the rough river is transcended to Ed. The river and everything I remembered about it becamea possession to me, a personal, private possession, as nothing else in my life ever had. Now it ran nowhere but inmy head, but there it ran as though immortally. I could feel it- I can feel it - on different places on my body. It pleases me in some curious way that the river does not exist, and that I have it.In me it still is, and will be until I die, green, rocky, deep, fast, slowand beautiful beyond realityThe river underlieseverything that Ido. It is always finding a way to serve me(Dickey, 275-6)Thus, Ed is the protagonist and hero of Deliverance. It is through this perilous voyage that Drew, Bobby, Lewis, and Ed undertake, that they prove their "masculinity," or lack there of, to themselves and to the society in which they live....
