Roland Truly a Hero in The Dark Tower The Gunslinger and...

Roland Truly a Hero in The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger and The Drawing of the Three Throughout 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†¦show more content†¦Roland does not follow this. This may make his efforts noble, but the fact of the matter is that he is a ruthless killer, who somewhere along the lines, got caught up in the usual misconception that all protagonists are heroes. We are given signs of Roland not being a hero constantly throughout both novels, however the signs are more apparent to the reader in the first novel. The first act of th is is when we see him at the hut with the old man. He immediately gets ready to kill the old man because he thinks he will do him harm: He looked up, startled. The shaft was about fifteen feet deep: easy enough for Brown to drop a rock on him, break his head, and steal everything on him...When he came trough the huts door and walked down the steps, Brown was poking ears of corninto the ember of a tiny fire.(The Gunslinger 21-22) Roland is always paranoid. I do not know of modern day heroes that are paranoid. This is one of the first indications that we are given. Later in the novel Roland comes through a town called Tull. While in this town he meets a women that he falls in love with. He then proceeds to kill the whole town, and the love of his life because they now stand between him and the tower. A woman who is with child, has her child taken because it is the Man in Blacks. Because of this Roland feels he must kill it. Get out. Youve killed the child. Get