In Miss Peregrine’s
Home for Peculiar Children: the Hollow City the hero is Jacob. He fits the
pattern of a Hero. Jacob goes through a psychological transformation that would
classify him as a Modern or Hemingway Hero. In the second book, Jacob can also
be classified as an Epic Hero.
In the
second installment of The Peculiar Children series, Jacob is still trying to
figure out who he is and what he is supposed to do with his life. He feels he
has an obligation to help Miss Peregrine because of how she helped his
grandfather, but he also feels he does not belong in 1940 with all of the other
Peculiar Children. During the course of their journey, Jacob comes to realize
that he is meant to be a big part of the war with the hollows because of his
great power. He also understands that he has a connection with the Peculiar
Children and he could never just leave them behind and go back to his normal
life. These realizations show Jacob’s psychological transformation from an
unsure teenager, to a confident leader in the oncoming war. This is how Jacob
embodies the Hemingway Hero.
Jacob
is also goes on a long journey during the book. Along the way, he creates new
allies such as the blind brothers, the gypsies, and Miss Wren. He faces many
adversaries, mostly hollows and hollowgasts, along with learning critical
information about the hollow’s plans. Jacob is a loyal and brave friend of the
Peculiar Children and they all feel very strongly for him. His transformation
throughout the book is that he becomes more confident in his powers and more
ready for action. Jacob differs from other Epic Heroes because he does have a “super
power” (aka he’s peculiar). But there are other things that make Jacob
different than heroes such as Odysseus. Unlike, Odysseus who learned hubris
from his journey, Jacob learned to believe in himself. Odysseus went from being
cocky to humble and Jacob went from being unsure to confident. Most epic heroes
learn hubris but Jacob already knew how to be humble. He went his whole life
being a nobody so that’s not the lesson he needed to take away from his
journey. Although the war is not over yet, Jacob has already changed a lot. We
will have to wait and see in the next book if Jacob returns home a completely
different person.
If I
chose any character from another book that Jacob shares similar traits to, it
would be Percy Jackson. Although, I think that Percy is a more likeable
character than Jacob, they share some similar characteristics. They both go
from being nobody’s to playing key roles in giant wars. Both follow an Epic
Hero’s journey but have super powers. And both Percy and Jacob learn to believe
in themselves and their abilities making them great leaders to others around
them. The reason I think Percy is more likeable than Jacob is because Jacob
whines a lot and he started dating his grandfather’s ex-girlfriend which I find
very strange. Percy is more of a Romantic
Hero and I like that about him. Also, I’ve read a lot more about Percy than
Jacob so that might affect how I see them.
The
second book of the Miss Peregrine series
was very good and I can’t wait for the next one to come out sometime next year.
It’s a long time but I think it’ll be worth the wait.
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