4 • TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2012 ED! THE WEST AUSTRALIAN THE WEST AUSTRALIAN ED! TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2012 • 5

Everyone loves a good villain butwithout them there would be noheroes. In Children’s Book Week,Heather Zubek goes in search ofthe most memorable characters inchildren’s literature.

Meg McKinlay

NormanJorgensen

Margaret Allen

Gulliver’s Travels: Jack Black as Gulliver in the movie.

A GOOD HERO NEEDS A GOOD VILLAIN

SO THE STORY GOESThere are fictional characters we just love to love andthose we love to hate. The more dastardly the villain, thebraver the hero. Heroes have to find the strength and skillto outwit the onslaught of their arch enemies. Without ourheroes and villains, there wouldn’t be a story. Peter Panwould just be another lost boy, Lord Voldemort would justbe a grumpy old wizard and Batman’s cape would still bein his wardrobe.

GOOD V EVIL• The term “hero” comes from an Ancient Greek wordmeaning “protector” or “defender” so it comes as nosurprise that our first literary heroes existed within Greekmythology. These heroes and heroines faced danger withcourage and self-sacrifice all in the name of the greatergood. The most recognised Greek hero, Hercules,performed amazing feats of strength and power against themost horrific monsters, including his stepmother Hera.Many of these ancient stories of heroes served as moralexamples, making these characters role models.• Interestingly, the term “villain” comes from the OldFrench term “vilein” meaning “farmhand” which in itsday meant someone who was not chivalrous in nature. Inearly times villains were often the Black, Red or GreenKnights who battled the heroes of King Arthur’s realm.• Later on, stories of “good verses evil” found their wayinto the minds of children. The Pilgrim’s Progress, writtenduring the 17th century, follows the hero Christian as hetravels to the Celestial City fighting villains and demons.• During the 1700s heroes began to face adventure as wellas villains. The reluctant heroes in Robinson Crusoe andGulliver’s Travels find themselves fighting villains such ascannibals and giant wasps as they struggle for survival.• During the 1800s stories became more political, with anythreat to the British Empire viewed as villainous. In the1900s comic-book writers created the superhero andsupervillain, with Superman at times fighting the nazis.

FOULEST FIENDSThere are so many wonderfully ghastly villainsfrom literary history — where do we stop?

1. Lord Voldemort. If there was a gold medal forbest villain it would surely go to “he who mustnot be named”. Like any good villain Voldemortsought eternal life and world domination.

2. Witches. With so many wonderfully wickedwitches they are grouped together:• The White Witch from The Lion, the Witch

and the Wardrobe is beautiful and evil, agreat combination for a villain. Jadis, theself-proclaimed Queen of Narnia, reignedover the eternal winter she created, killinganyone who stood in her way.

• The Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizardof Oz was the villainous leader of the WinkieCountry. She sought revenge on Dorothy andher dog after they accidentally killed her sister.

• The Grand High Witch from Roald Dahl’s TheWitches would have to be the mosthorrifyingly ugly witch, wreaking havoc on theworld by getting rid of all children in the mostadventurous ways.

3. Cruella de Vil. For any animal lover Cruella deVil from The Hundred and One Dalmatians wasthe ultimate villain. This London heiress not onlyterrorised her poor husband but also drownedkittens and kidnapped puppies.

4. Bill Sikes. Anyone who beats children anddogs has got to be bad. Bill Sikes from OliverTwist was also a robber and murderer.

5. Sauron. The unsleeping eye of Sauron fromThe Lord of the Rings scoured Middle Earthsearching for the Ring taken from him in battle.This villain stopped at nothing to retrieve theRing and power over Middle Earth.

Oliver Twist: Bill Sikes threatensOliver.

The EvilWhite Witch

Cruellade Vil

AROUND THE WORLD• Some of the mostgrotesque and fearsomevillains have come fromJapanese folklore. Theyokai are supernaturalmonsters that can also befound today in manymanga stories. One of themore popular of the yokaiis the Kappa or watergoblin, an aquaticmonster resembling aduck, frog and turtle.

• A young slave girlcalled Morgiana is thetrue hero found in theArabic story of Ali Babaand the Forty Thieves.Morgiana foils the effortsof all 40 of the thieveswho try to kill Ali Baba.

TOP HEROESIt is almost impossible to reduce the numberof wonderful literary heroes to just five butwe will have to try:

1. Harry Potter. We have to include the boywizard given his popularity with young readers.As a baby his parents were murdered, and thenhe had to suffer living with the dreadfulDursleys. As a teenager our hero fought villainsranging from the slimy Basilisk to the greatestvillain of all, “he who must not be named”.

2. Huckleberry Finn. Like Harry Potter, Huckdidn’t have the greatest of upbringings. Hisfather was an alcoholic and at times he wasimprisoned in a cabin in the woods. Huckenjoyed many adventures especially with Jim, aslave, who wins his freedom with Huck’s help.

3. Matilda Wormwood. Six-year-old Matilda,from the book of the same name, had an amazingintellect that irritated her awful headmaster andher parents, who just wanted her to watchtelevision. Our heroine found a way to seekrevenge through her telekinetic powers.

4. Artemis Fowl. At first a mastermindcriminal but Artemis Fowl saw the error in hisvillainous ways and became a hero who workedwith the fairies to defeat the bad guys and savethe world.

5. Pippi Longstocking. Who wouldn’t want tolive with a pet monkey and horse? Thisrebellious Swedish girl was naughty but nicebecause she had a great sense of fair play andfought for the weak and oppressed.

Harry Potter: Hermione, Ron and Harry.

PEOPLE’S CHOICEED! asked around to uncoverthe favourite heroes andvillains of some literarypeople of Perth.Margaret Allen, StateLibrarian of WA:My best recollection ofa hero in children’sliterature would have tobe Storm Boy, not only for the story of howthe boy rescues and nurses three pelicanchicks and releases them, but for the conflictbetween his bond with the pelican named MrPercival and its fate, with the need for him toattend school. Also as a child we holidayed inthe Coorong area, where the story was based.

James Foley, author and illustrator of Inthe Lion and illustrator for The LastViking:Todd and Viola from The Walking Chaosmake excellent heroes. They are just kids buthave to make grown-up, life-and-deathdecisions. The villain Mayor Prentiss (in thisstory) is so manipulative; he is truly evil (butwith shades of good in there too).

Norman Jorgensen, author of The LastViking, Jack’s Island and many others:One of my great heroes is Atticus Finch, thehonourable and decent father from HarperLee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Although notstrictly a children’s book, with its themes ofracism and intolerance, Mockingbird is toldfrom the point of view of Scout, his youngdaughter, and is often about the adventures ofthe children in their Deep South town (in theUS). I am a huge fan of pirate stories, so thereare two contenders for my worst villain inliterature. Although he looks the part of adashing hero, Captain Hook from J. M.Barrie’s Peter Pan is not a nice man at all.His forcing of Peter and the Lost Boys to walkthe plank into the waiting jaws of the tickingcrocodile is the stuff of nightmares. The othervillain I love, who most likely wins the worstvillain crown, is Long John Silver, theone-legged, parrot-wearing, anti-hero fromTreasure Island.

Meg McKinlay, author of No Bears,Surface Tension and many other greatchildren’s books:My favourite hero is Harriet M. Welsch, fromLouise Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy. Becauseshe’s curious and clever, complex and flawed,she’s sensitive and vulnerable but alwaysstubbornly, unflinchingly herself. Myfavourite villain would have to be The OtherMother, from Neil Gaiman’s Coraline. There’ssomething truly terrifying about her thatgoes beyond the stereotypical “bad” or“scary” of many villains.

Superman: Christopher Reeve played the leadingrole in the first Superman film in 1978.

Like any good villainVoldemort sought eternallife and world dominationstopping at nothing to get it.

A CERTAINPOWERWhat makesliterary heroessuch as HarryPotter orSuperman socompelling? Usuallystorybook heroes havea certain power or skillthat others lack. SherlockHolmes had great powers ofdeduction and Supermanenjoyed X-ray vision and superstrength. All heroes don’t need super powersbut they do need characteristics setting them apart even ifit’s just believing in themselves when no one else does.

Good heroes also have flaws that make them moreinteresting. Superman has his Kryptonite and Ironmanhas arrogance.

Most villains have certain characteristics in common.One of them is power. Many villains have, or have thedesire for, absolute power. This power could be in the formof wealth such as in Cruella de Vil or magic as in LordVoldemort. Lord Voldemort is seen as the ultimate villaingiven his attempts at justifying his immoral ways sayingthat what he is doing is for the greater good.

The most evil of villains also have high intelligence. Thesinister Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes plots to outwitour detective hero using highly inventive twists and traps.Just as heroes have their flaws so do villains. The mostmemorable villains are wounded in some way. They maysuffer physical scars such as Captain Hook from Peter Panor emotional ones like The Grinch. This suggests that atrue villain is not born but created. A truly formidablevillain is one that is seemingly unstoppable. They have adetermination and drive to achieve their goal; whatever itis, making the hero of the story even more heroic.

The term “hero”comes from anAncient Greekword meaning“protector” or

“defender” so itcomes as no

surprise that ourfirst literary

heroes existedwithin Greek

mythology.

ED! •Topic: Heroes and Villains in literature 5

James Foley