Imagine going to a new school where there is a student who has more power and control of the class than the teacher. This person stops all drama, helps students, and resolves all the problems. They would be considered a hero to the class. In the book Our Twisted Hero, by Yi Munyol, the antagonist, Om Sokdae, is this person and the twisted hero. Om is the twisted hero because he helps the students get out of trouble but uses them for his advantage.
Om is a great manipulator and gets in this one boys’ head to lend Om his father’s special item that his father doesn’t even know he took to school. “Yun Pyongjo, whose father was a dry cleaner, had brought something special to school, and he was bragging about it to the boys in the class” (29). “It was an expensive gold-plated lighter, the kind we used to call round lighter”. When Yun brought this lighter to school, Om manipulated Yun into letting him “borrow” it. Even though Om had no intention of giving it back, Yun didn’t do anything about it.
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When the teacher was brought into this, Om simply told the teacher how he was just watching it so a fire didn’t start. This proves him as a twisted hero because it shows the twisted part of how he was going to steal the lighter. It proves the hero part because he was supposedly looking out for the other classmates safety. Om Sokdae is having the class wash the school's’ windows but isn’t very happy with this one student for other reasons and has him cleaning until tears. “‘It won’t do, there are stains there still. Clean them again’” (65). “‘He’s he, you’re you. Anyway, i can’t pass these windows”’ (66). This quotation shows Om is the hero because Om is doing his job as class monitor and making sure all the windows are clean. It makes him twisted because he picks on one kid the most, Han, and makes him clean them over and over again. He pushes Han so much it brings Han to tears. Om knows from this that he breaks Han and has him under his control. Om invites Han to hangout behind a factory, near a stream after school and to talk to him privately.
“‘Yah, Han Pyongt’ae,” he said’(81). “‘The exams are all over today. How about going somewhere for a bit of fun”’? This quote applies because it shows that Om is trying to get Han completely on his side. Om believes by getting that extra trust from Han he needs to invite him to hangout with him and the other classmates. He believes by doing this, Han will vote for him again in the following year for class monitor. Also, by getting Han to trust Om as a friend will increase the chances of Han sticking up for Om and picking his side.
Om Sokdae proves himself to be a twisted hero. There are many ways Om shows to be twisted. He manipulates a boy for himself even though he says it was for the boy’s safety. He hang out with someone to get them to trust him and be on his side. Lastly, he makes a student clean and clean until the breaking point. Heroes aren’t always the good
guys.
Doug Swieteck, from “Okay for Now”, by Gary D. Schmidt, lived a life in anger. At the beginning of the book, he was very hateful of everything. He had spent a long time in anger and disgust, trying to find a way in life. Near the beginning of the book, Joe Pepitone gave Doug his baseball cap and jacket in person, to Doug. But, Doug’s mean older brother took the cap and his dad took his jacket. That added to Doug’s anger even more. But, luckily he turned it around in the middle and end of the book. He ended being a lot happier and was able to control his emotions better.
Change is important, and if we do not experience change, then we become stagnant and will not grow in our everyday lives. In his novel, Hero, S.L. Rottman exposes the character change of the protagonist, Sean Parker. He undergoes change that one would believe is not possible in such a character, but with the help of a mentor, the reader is opened up to the changes that occur in society today. In S.L. Rottman’s Hero, Sean Parker’s experiences over the course of his community service change him from a negative and stubborn teenager into a wiser more sustainable learner due to the community service he endures and role model he encounters.
Chris McCandless, a man who went into the wilderness and died in a bus, in the cold wilderness of Alaska, after living 114 days in the Alaska cold. Though, before ending up in Alaska Chris was constantly on the move. Yet he somehow was able to meet people and befriend them. Such people were Wayne Westerberg, Jan Burres, her boyfriend Bob and finally Ronald Franz. In the end, of meeting all these people, Chris ended up leaving such a strong impression on each of them. Though why did Chris McCandless leave such a strong impression on them? Well, in the book “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer, one can read how Chris influenced people, encouraged them, how people thought he was a hard worker that lived out his own beliefs and there are many more reasons
Recently, students of Olympian High School have stumbled upon the question, "What is a hero?" In the school's 2013 Young Minds Essay Contest, students are expected to consider universal concerns and ideas. Many times when people think of a hero, they think of Superman, Batman, and many other Marvel characters who display unattainable superpowers. However, heroes are prevalent throughout the world. A hero can be anyone who has the desire to help others, brave in dangerous situations, and does not look at exterior gain from helping others.
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Okonkwo’s fear of unmanliness is kindled by his father, who was a lazy, unaccomplished man. Okonkwo strives to have a high status from a young age and eventually achieves it. He has a large family, many yams and is well known throughout the village for his valor. He raises his family by his mentality of manliness and is ...
In Yi Munyol’s novel Our Twisted Hero, one of the main characters, Om Sokdae, is considered a twisted hero. Om Sokdae is the leader of a fifth grade class in a rural town in South Korea. Sokdae and his class class have the best test scores in the school and excel in every