Pop culture is rich in characters that make the audience feel sympathetic, interested, scared, or even angry. There are no cinema goers who do not know that names of Severus Snape, Jack Sparrow, Walter White, or Batman. The students often get the task to work on an anti hero essay for their classes and that makes them do profound research and analyze what is happening in the film. After the crime television series Breaking Bad, there is still a tendency of debating over the ending of this extremely popular drama. What is an anti hero? Is he or she a character with perfect traits? Not really! They are so far from perfection that it makes them close to the viewers. Looking at the anti hero definition, each of us can relate to one of them as everybody meets challenges in life and makes decisions, which sometimes are not wise at all.

An anti hero essay as an assignment to write is a good choice for a student. It is interesting to analyze the flaws and conflicts in writing, especially if the character is complex and likeable. We have prepared an article for those who want to know more about anti hero characters and learn about the kinds of essays and techniques, which can make their essays brilliant. Also, we offer you a chance to have a look at an essay example and get inspired for writing your own outstanding papers about positive and negative characters of the stories.

Antihero: How to Define This Character

There is a protagonist in a story, while an antihero can be defined as a central hero with no traits of a good character. Writing about a complex character with all their flaws, history of evil actions and wrong decisions, and a dark side of their personality demands from the students their skills of critical analysis. Being guided either by good or bad intentions, an antihero has a rather questionable moral code, and he or she rarely meets the expectations of the society.

In most cases, it is much more intriguing to follow what a negative character does than to analyze the intentions and motivation of positive characters. It is easier to connect with somebody who is similar to you, and as life always brings unexpected changes that is not a perfect character for sure.

Typical Anti Hero Characteristics

It would be wrong to claim that antiheroes do not do good things. Nevertheless, their achievements are different from those of heroes. Typically, the background of such characters is presented to the views slowly so that they could get some hints of good sides as well.

What are the typical anti hero qualities?

  • Complicated character
  • Certain cynicism
  • Fighting the norms of society
  • Strong morals
  • Realistic perspectives
  • Unconventional methods of achieving goals
  • Capacity of defying laws for further achievements
  • Good intentions.
  • Reliability
  • Imperfections
  • Having internal conflicts
  • No or little remorse for what they do

Is it right to refer to an antihero as a rebel that follows no rules? Not really! There are a lot of anti hero types and you should take into account these aspects:

  • They ought not to be role models though it may be tempting to follow their manner of behavior
  • They may look unattractive and have negative traits of character
  • They may act out of the motives of self-defense and self-interest.’ However, it is possible to analyze the contrast hero vs anti hero and anti hero vs. villains
  • The range of their motives may be huge, in particular honor, revenge, and others
  • They tend to prefer wrong to right as this choice is less challenging
  • They get profit both from the bad and good guys
  • They may voluntarily lend a helping hand to children or the weak
  • They can be violent or prejudiced in the context of racist or sexist issues
  • They demonstrate no or little remorse for negative things they do
  • Their personalities are full of contradictions

Kinds of Anti Hero Characters

There are a lot of other types with different traits and manners of behavior. Have a look at the examples of different models below:

Classical Anti-Hero

From a conventional viewpoint, a classical positive character is always smart, kind-hearted, confident, and oriented to winning all battles. So, it stands to reason to define an original anti hero as a character who is stupid, violent, indifferent to others, shaky in opinions, and focus on survival instead of winning. In case of any threats, they try to overcome their fears and fight to restore self-confidence.

“Disney” Anti-Hero

This is a common perception of modern people. Such characters are good, but they lack optimism and confidence. They realistic and somewhat sarcastic nature makes them different and they are guided by reason and eagerness to make profit instead of honor. By the end of the story, such characters may turn into actual positive characters.

Pragmatic Anti-Hero

The best anti hero is always pragmatic and neutral in the issues of morality. He or she does not mind sacrificing other people for certain benefits, but they do not kill their victims. He or she is subject to conversion at the end of the story.

Unscrupulous Hero

The world of these characters is grey, but still they are different from actual villains. What makes an anti hero without any scruples? He or she lives is a setting that brings no optimism and makes people doubtful about the good and distrustful of the mankind. He or she is oriented to making revenge and that may cause considerable damage. Although their level of violence is lower than that of actual villains, they may be cruel in their actions and attitude to others.

“Hero” without Any Good Motivation

There are a lot of anti hero examples that show how selfish they are and how little they differ from villains. They may kill somebody merely because they are bored. In most cases, few people relate themselves to them.

Examples of Anti Hero Papers

Briefly tracing the history and evolution of the hero’s image in TV’s interpretation, Stephen Garrett explores the actual topic focused in the title of his article Why We Love TV’s Anti-Heroes. He gives a detailed and brightly illustrated characteristic of the main features of the studied issue. The author also answers an important question that concerns society about what has happened to the world to provoke this wholesale reworking of hero DNA.

As the television film producer asserts that the word hero, as well as heroic, is constantly “abused” in broadcasting the news, sports in particular and ordinary conversations in general. This has led to re-interpretation of the hero concept in the conscience of the contemporary audience. Garrett gives bright illustrations confirming the above statement. First, the issue is “promoted” through modern history and politics. Today, being involved in wars or conflicts, it is almost impossible to say who is the enemy or the ally exactly. So long as in the period of World War II, the Nazis were alienated forces to fight with and Allies were the fighters for justice and peace, bad and good ones respectively. Moreover, though the police is an internal, tireless, absolutely just and one of the forces most trusted by viewers has degraded in their eyes. Further, the author provides some TV examples of so-called anti-heroes who “men want to be and women … just want”. For instance, The Sopranos archetype who in spite of character’s flaws has become the hero of the time. Besides, cops’ admired anti-heroes such as Vic Mackey of the aforementioned drama, McNulty from The Wire, Jack Bauer of 24 were discussed among the others. Analyzing different anti-heroes’ impacts on the audience because of their overload on TV, Garrett emphasizes, “No one on TV can be truly good anymore”.

Consequently, there is no way back to the classical heroes that have been straightly divided into good and bad ones. Such an outdated approach seems boring to the modern audience. Thus, it has been renounced. Therefore, while watching TV, the viewers have to understand, “there are no more heroes, only – at best – anti-heroes; that is the way of the world”.

Final Ideas

An anti hero essay is challenging to write, but at the same time it is absolutely doable. Crafting papers of this kind, students study general and particular requirements to academic writing, analyze the needed writing style, take into account the standards of formatting, and focus on the correct overall structure of the paper. After they have got all the needed knowledge and developed the skills, they can get down to writing a final paper. Still, in case of any challenges, expert writers at EssaysLeader.com can assist those who still find it complicated to write great papers. No hesitation! Contact the writer and get a great essay!

May 31, 2022
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