In Pursuit of the Hero

This is my proposal: To write a deconstructionist critique of 24’s Jack Bauer. I'm hoping to explore Bauer’s character in light of the role of the hero in American pop culture, paying particular attention to the characteristics that define Bauer as a hero and differentiate him from the story’s villains. He's a fascinating character to me, since he is compelling enough to cheer for, and at the same time takes action that is sometimes so illegal or violent that those around him (and possibly some of his audience) have questioned the nature of his heroism. I also hope to uncover some of the assumptions about the nature of heroism/villainy underlying his character.

The primary source for this paper will be, naturally, the television show, 24. (If you're not familiar with it, the basic premise of the show is that each season of 24 follows one day in the action-packed life of federal agent Jack Bauer, relating events in supposed real-time.) I plan to use Day 3 (the third season, which ran until spring of 2004) as the basis for the paper.

Now, given the ongoing motif of this blog, I suppose I ought to be giving a critique of some Dorothy Sayers mystery (and that would be fun!). But the truth is, I've had an ongoing interest in the subject of heroes and in particular, the enigmatic character of Jack Bauer. He is a compelling hero embodying a variety of contradictions. And since it first aired, 24 has received a lot of press precisely because of some of these contradictions. In Jack, we see a television hero inflicting violence on others in ways that would never have been allowed on primetime television until recent years.

I am especially interested in the factors that allow "us" (as a collective television audience) to make meaning out of Jack Bauer and see him as a heroic character. I recently discovered a book called The American Monomyth, which suggests that there is an established pattern for American heroes.... So, without writing my entire paper right here and now, I'll just say that this seems to me a good place to begin a deconstruction of one especially interesting American hero (a.k.a. Jack Bauer)--a hero whose actions sometimes toe a fine line between heroism and villainy. Seems to me that's a binary just waiting to be deconstructed!

In doing this, my hope is to learn how to uncover (personally) some of the cultural presuppositions that go into our definition of heroism, in order to learn to view/hear/read with a more critical (thinking) eye. For me, this is where theory and practice can meet.

I'd love to hear what you think about this. Does anyone see any connections I might want to make to other theories? Any fans out there have suggestions for particular episodes/events in the series that might be good to look at? And if you happen to check out the link above, let me know what you think about that article. I thought it raised some interesting questions....

Good luck on your essays!

Until next time,
H.