Epic or Tragic Hero Anonymous 11th Grade

When most people think of heroes, they often associate them with having a happy ending. For example, fairy tales always end with their heroes living happily ever after, but that is not always the case. Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero is shown in many books such as The Natural. In The Natural, Roy Hobbs display some aspects of an epic hero, such as his talent, however, the novel ultimately shows Roy as a tragic hero through his reversal of fortune, the influence of women, and his excessive pride.

There were multiple times that Roy experienced a reversal of fortune. For example, after gaining popularity, “Roy got exactly no hits” (Malamud 125) and was going into a slump. This means that Roy is not hitting any balls and causes the team to lose games. As Roy continues to strike out, it shows that he is experiencing a peripeteia which is usually caused by an error of judgment, dating Memo Paris. Another example shows up at the end of the book when Max Mercy finds out and publishes Roy’s secret deal with the judge, in which if the alleged report was true then Roy would be “excluded from the game and all his records forever destroyed” (Malamud 231). The only thing that Roy wanted to be was being the best at baseball and if the...