From Sarah, With Joy

*Poet * Author * Wanderluster*

Thursday, July 15, 2010

The 6 Types of Heroes

I've been talking literary theory with a friend of mine. I don't know about you guys, but for me seeing how other people categorize and analyze literature is helpful to me in my own writing. Part of what we've been discussing is the six types of heroes.

1-Traditional Hero. Saves himself and us. This is what we're thinking of with characters like Superman and Hercules.

2-Rogue Hero. Saves his own day, but not ours. Personally, I think these can be very interesting and intriguing.

3-Anti-Hero. Saves the day without trying. Again, I prefer these to traditional heroes. I think anti-heroes can be very sweet and sympathetic.

4-Comic Hero. Saves our day, but not his own, with comical consequences. I can see this one as a little harder to pull off.

5-Tragic Hero. Similar to Comic hero. Saves our day, but not his own, with tragic results.

6-No hero. A lot of modern literature has no hero. Think Catcher in the Rye. Its a lot more about people exploring themselves and their world, without someone necessarily trying or not trying to save anything.

Hope this helps!

Sarah Allen

3 comments:

  1. Great list, mine is definitely No.1 but I really fancy experimenting with one of the others for a future book after reading this, great analysis!

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  2. Concise and thought-provoking! My current protagonist is less clear-cut than this... he's a hero, saves a number of people but not really the day, and decides to try something bigger at the end. Still, I can see lots of personalities pop out of your descriptions for the future!

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  3. My current story falls under the traditional hero I believe with a small bit of the rogue hero. However, the rogue hero is by far my favorite character to read about. Great post!

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