The reluctant Hero, the Conflicted Villian
Harold Emery Lauder.
There are a lot of places to go and examples I could sight for the theme of the conflicted hero. I could talk about Aragorn and Boromir from The Lord of the Rings. I could talk about the main character and narrator from Interview with the Vampire. But to me, no one captures the character of the conflicted character quite like Harold Lauder.
I think pretty much everyone is familiar with The Stand, so I'll be brief. Harold is a nerd and an outcast in his small town home. He's smart, socially awkward, fat, and in love with a girl way, way out of his league. People don't like him. His parents don't like him, instead doting over their pretty, popular daughter. Harold feels like it's him against the world because it is.
And then the world ends.
In a twist of fate that could only happen in a novel, the only two people left alive in Harold's little town are himself and the girl he loves. And she still rejects him, although she's more than happy to accept his help navigating the apocalypse until someone better comes along in the form of handsome, rugged, ex-jock Stu Redman. Still, Harold endures- until he finds out that Fran, the girl of his dreams, has been making fun of him the whole time in her journal.... when she isn't gushing over Redman.
Harold is bitter, and it's hard to blame him. Even in the new world, he's a reject. When his group of survivors makes it to Boulder, the new center of civilization in the post-apocalyptic world, he isn't even asked to join the committee that will govern it despite his keen intelligence and ability to improvise and think around corners.
And still he carries on.
The new people he meets in Boulder don't know about the fat, awkward boy Harold was. A hard life has taken the fat and the acne from him and left a lean, capable man that others can respect. But the seed of hate planted so long ago cannot be dug up now.
Reluctant and conflicted- that's Harold Lauder. He could build a new life for himself in Boulder. He could forget the old grudges, the old blood-debts. He could forget about Fran and find a girl of his own. But in his mind, letting go of that old hate would be invalidating himself; his whole identity is wrapped up in it. Still, he almost turns aside and accepts the man he is now. And so the Dark Man sends him a woman to keep him occupied, live out his lonely boy fantasies with, and corrupt completely. Some will say he had a chance at redemption and blew it. I say Harold Emery Lauder never had a chance at all.
His conflict, his struggle, and his fall make him the most human character in The Stand.
Rather than trying to create a hero with a dark past, or a justified villian, we should all strive to make a character like Harold.
One who is a human being.
There are a lot of places to go and examples I could sight for the theme of the conflicted hero. I could talk about Aragorn and Boromir from The Lord of the Rings. I could talk about the main character and narrator from Interview with the Vampire. But to me, no one captures the character of the conflicted character quite like Harold Lauder.
I think pretty much everyone is familiar with The Stand, so I'll be brief. Harold is a nerd and an outcast in his small town home. He's smart, socially awkward, fat, and in love with a girl way, way out of his league. People don't like him. His parents don't like him, instead doting over their pretty, popular daughter. Harold feels like it's him against the world because it is.
And then the world ends.
In a twist of fate that could only happen in a novel, the only two people left alive in Harold's little town are himself and the girl he loves. And she still rejects him, although she's more than happy to accept his help navigating the apocalypse until someone better comes along in the form of handsome, rugged, ex-jock Stu Redman. Still, Harold endures- until he finds out that Fran, the girl of his dreams, has been making fun of him the whole time in her journal.... when she isn't gushing over Redman.
Harold is bitter, and it's hard to blame him. Even in the new world, he's a reject. When his group of survivors makes it to Boulder, the new center of civilization in the post-apocalyptic world, he isn't even asked to join the committee that will govern it despite his keen intelligence and ability to improvise and think around corners.
And still he carries on.
The new people he meets in Boulder don't know about the fat, awkward boy Harold was. A hard life has taken the fat and the acne from him and left a lean, capable man that others can respect. But the seed of hate planted so long ago cannot be dug up now.
Reluctant and conflicted- that's Harold Lauder. He could build a new life for himself in Boulder. He could forget the old grudges, the old blood-debts. He could forget about Fran and find a girl of his own. But in his mind, letting go of that old hate would be invalidating himself; his whole identity is wrapped up in it. Still, he almost turns aside and accepts the man he is now. And so the Dark Man sends him a woman to keep him occupied, live out his lonely boy fantasies with, and corrupt completely. Some will say he had a chance at redemption and blew it. I say Harold Emery Lauder never had a chance at all.
His conflict, his struggle, and his fall make him the most human character in The Stand.
Rather than trying to create a hero with a dark past, or a justified villian, we should all strive to make a character like Harold.
One who is a human being.
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