What did you think of Jesse, as presented in the novel? He's clearly one of those larger-than-life people who are so charismatic that people are drawn to them no matter what dreadful crimes they commit. I found myself rooting for him in the story, even though obviously I knew he would be killed. I felt let down a bit when he was no longer around. I feel like a dumb American "taking heroes from the criminal classes," as Oscar Wilde said, but I like the guy. I'm guessing the Brad Pitt movie doesn't do much to counter that.So what did you think? Was Jesse the hero of the novel?
4 comments:
I love that the author used that Oscar Wilde observation. So apt.
I liked Jesse in the novel, yes, and I was "rooting" for him. He was such a strange guy. I mean, here he stole all this loot, but he didn't seem materialistic at all. It's almost like he didn't care a fig for money, beyond what it to took to provide for his loved ones. He was just addicted to the challenge of pulling off a successful robbery, which is sort of endearing.
Was he the hero? I'm not sure. For all that the author seemed to poop on Bob Ford, it felt like Ford was kind of a tragic hero in his own way, in that he had this fatal flaw — pride? — that kept him from being a better man and that led directly to his downfall.
I also felt at times that Jesse was glorified. I mean, the guy was a confederate, believed in slavery, etc. Maybe he wasn't exactly the noble prince of thieves that we like to imagine.
Right, I think he wasn't the noble prince of thieves. He brutally attacked and murdered people (even his friends!) without much cause. Not to mention his confederate loyalty and love of Quantrill. That's why it's so interesting to me that people would still sympathize with him or even idolize him.
It is interesting, like you say, that he didn't seem to care about getting rich. He was an adreneline junky, I think, and enjoyed thumbing his nose at the authorities. I felt a little sorry for him toward the end, when he felt so paranoid about all his friends double-crossing him. I half-wondered if he gave Bob the opportunity to kill him deliberately because death would be a relief from constantly looking over his shoulder and not trusting anyone.
I see what you mean about Bob Ford being the tragic hero. I asked the question just because of that seeming contempt for Bob in the way the story was told. For most of it, I thought of Jesse as the protagonist and Bob as the antagonist. Interesting thing, then, when the focus totally shifted to Bob in the last quarter of the book.
"I half-wondered if he gave Bob the opportunity to kill him deliberately because death would be a relief from constantly looking over his shoulder and not trusting anyone."
Excellent observation, Erin. It does seem that he left himself deliberately vulnerable at times, either as a way to test Bob or maybe, yeah, just out of sheer weariness. And there's something sort of "satisfying" in the thought that maybe in the end he "chose" the manner of his death, in his own house by a "coward," rather than being gunned down during a robbery. It's almost like he was accommodating Bob's ironic destiny.
Yeah, maybe. He always had an eery feeling about Bob, and he seeemed to believe in fate and supernatural forces directing his life.
I almost had the same feeling about Bob's death: that it was probably almost a relief after all his struggles and paranoia and public disgrace.
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