The Evolution of the Hero: An Evaluation of Tolkien's and King's Portrayal of a Hero

Abstract

In Boromir of Gondor from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings and Roland Deschain of Gilead from Stephen King’s The Gunslinger, the audience is introduced to two dynamic heroes. Though Boromir’s intention to steal the ring from Frodo was undesirable, Roland’s willingness to kill a child shows that he will stop at nothing to achieve revenge. Boromir sees the ring as a tool to be used to save Gondor, but is overruled when the council decides to destroy the ring; however, Boromir volunteers to follow the Fellowship of the Ring to Mordor to destroy the ring. Roland is the last of his order of knights who wishes to gain closure by destroying the Man in Black. Roland is on a journey of revenge rather than a journey to save anything. Though both characters are considered heroes, they have different objectives. Boromir shows his true objective of taking the ring to save Gondor just before his death and redemption. Roland sacrifices his follower to achieve his purpose of catching the Man in Black. Both characters actions show their true purpose, and demonstrate the way that heroes are portrayed at the end of the modern epoch, and during the postmodern epoch. A close reading of Tolkien’s epic and a re-telling of Tolkien’s epic shows the different understandings of what heroes are; furthermore, each heroes’ actions allow the audience to examine what a hero is, and stretches the idea what a hero’s motives should be and who they are.