Jenifer’s Comments (group member since Jan 24, 2014)

Jenifer’s comments from the Does the hero have to be a good guy? group.

I think it's an interesting point that you raise about the past rearing its ugly head and pulling people who have become "good guys" back into more morally ambiguous actions although even the concept of a "good guy" seems to be a matter of perspective. Given what McVeigh was doing when this whole matter exploded (I don't want to give spoilers to your book), was he really a good guy? Does the fact that he is operating on the behalf of the government make his actions good? Wouldn't the terrorists argue that there was no difference between him and them except their employer?

The same could be said for Sarah who seemed to have somewhat escaped her past only to be pulled back in and actually becoming a "bad guy." Would she ever have become a bad guy but for the actions of McVeigh? The desire to obtain revenge seems to be a very destructive force in every character's life and I think Emerald does a really great job showing that.

That's an interesting question. I guess that depends on what you mean by a good guy. I can accept heroes that are flawed human beings or who do evil/questionable things if I sense that there is an underlying morality to their actions. For instance, Jack Higgins has the character Sean Dillon who's a former IRA terrorist who ends up working for British Intelligence. He's a pretty ruthless character whom the reader is asked to root for. It`s interesting that some characters in the story seem reluctant to accept him within their ranks because of his past and I think that mirrors the ambivalence of the reader. If Dillon was known to have killed women and children, who seem symbolically more innocent than men, I`m not sure I could accept him as a hero as that might be too much blood on his hands for him to wash clean through working for an ostensibly good cause i.e. the propping up of a government.