Corkery 1 VaianaApril 25/00 Is Roland a HeroThroughout history on science fiction and fantasy novels, the hero has always been portrayed as someone who is more than just your regular human. Someone who has no flaw in their qualities other than compassion, which often causes their downfall. Always, in the end, the hero triumphs over great evil, to the dismay of the villain, and the applause of those he saved. What happens when the hero is superhuman? Is he still a hero? What if he kills the innocent for his own purposes, hunts down those who appear to be good. What then, even if he appears to be doing it for a common good? Is he then considered hero or villain. Roland in Stephen Kings' books, The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger and The Drawing of the Three, portrays non hero like characteristics, which ultimately makes him not a hero. Roland allows all kinds of terrible things to occur. He allows, and in more than one case he commits the act himself, those that he loves to die. Roland slaughters a whole town in his effort to reach the tower. Everything is in his effort to reach the tower, and at this point we know nothing about it. Roland guns down his best friend. This occurs in both Kings' works, and Brownings' poem, Child Roland to the Dark Tower Came.Roland reaches into our world and draws out to people, as well as killing several other. The killing he does is often senseless, even though he does show mercy at some point, it is only because he believes that the cops he doesn't kill, are our world version of "Gunslinger's." Corkery 2Does this however grant him the right to do what he does? Is he exempt from what everyone else does? In our own society even law enforcers are not allowed to be above the law. They may often try to put themselves above the law, but eventually they get smacked back down, and must then stand before the law they thought they were above. Roland does not follow this. This may make ...
