Post 7: Book 4 Reflection

                 An epic hero is a protagonist that participates in a cyclical journey or quest, faces adversaries that try to defeat him in his journey, gathers allies along his journey, and returns home significantly transformed by his journey. The epic hero also illustrates traits, performs deeds, and exemplifies certain morals that are valued by the society from which the epic originates. They usually embody cultural and religious beliefs of the people. Epic heroes have no superpowers but they are smart, brave, and have fears but overcome them to protect their friends, families, and countries. The hero is loyal, smart, and brave. In Dan Brown’s Angles and Demons, Robert Langdon is an epic hero who works with the director of a nuclear research company and a dead man’s daughter to solve a murder.

                Despite the fact that Langdon has many flaws, he overcomes them and his fears to assist Dr. Kohler, director of CERN, and Vittoria Vetra, adopted daughter of Leonardo Vetra. Leonardo was murdered and branded with the Illuminati ambigram, the reason Langdon was called to CERN, a nuclear research company. The Vetra pair had recently discovered anti-matter and a way to safely store it, which was very valuable information and knowledge. Dr. Kohler predicts that Vetra was murdered for his eyeball, which was the key to the lad which contained the anti-matter. Langdon uses his vast knowledge of the Illuminati to solve the murder, and eventually save Vatican City.

                In the beginning of the book, Langdon seriously doubts himself because he is in denial about the Illuminati being in existence. He struggles with an internal conflict, but overcomes it and turns to his own morals he was raised with and decides to help Vittoria solve her father’s murder. She was left alone to fly to Rome because Dr. Kohler needed medical attention, so Langdon felt that he could not leave her to fend for herself.

                In Vatican City, cardinals are taken and murdered by the same man who murdered Leonardo Vetra before a new pope could be chosen. Langdon is forty years old, certainly not fit enough to fight a trained assassin, but does it anyway. His ability to take risk to willingly sets him apart from the other characters in the book, since he has no experience in fighting.

                One heavily debated question throughout the entire novel is religion. Lenoardo and Vittoria were working to find a link between religion and science, one of the reasons he was murdered. Langdon is asked many times is he believes in God, and in the beginning of the book he has no answer, but by the end of the book he answers negatively. He represents many things, specifically the fight between religions and the debate of religion.

                Other traits of an epic hero include loyal, brave, and smart. Langdon possesses all of these traits, especially since he manages to solve a murder and save Vatican city, all while staying on the same side. In many other stories, the main character betrays their original opinions or friends, but Langdon remains on the side of CERN and doesn’t do it for any bribes. He is honorable in this way, as well, since he was woken up at 2 am, flown to another country, and given a very hard option to either save Vatican City or go back to the United States and do nothing about it. Many other characters, especially Americans (J), would have wanted a reward or wouldn’t have done anything about it at all.