Metamorphosis of the Anti-Hero, in Simulated America: A Study of The

Man Who Wouldn’t Stand Up by Jacob M Appel

LALITA.K.M
PhD(English)scholar
Co-author:Yogananda D Rao
Jain-deemed-to-be-University, Bangalore
9980566701
Lalitaharsh.lh@gmail.com

Abstract

The emergence of the Postmodern American anti-hero stance and the rebel victim can be
traced through a series of psychological underpinnings. The role of media is examined
through the lens of hyperreality. Alienation, fragmentation and reification are resonated
through shibboleths, who believe in exercising freedom and facing their consequences. This
article critically analyses the role of the media in formulating the anti-hero image, whose
reputation was at-stake, by challenging the established norms. The media's role in promoting
the popularity of the hero in Modern age now reversed due to the jingoistic Patriot-Act. The
stance of the rebel anti-hero emerged emphasizing the hegemonic American state jingoism
that emancipated through the Patriot Act, 2001. The analysis will consider a close reading of
the text The Man Who Wouldn't Stand Up by Jacob. M. Appel by applying Jean Baudrillard's
theory of Simulation and Hyperreality in the context of 9/11 attacks. Susan. J. Drucker &
Robert. S. Cathcart's study of the emergence of American anti-hero through media
propagation and similar studies of postmodern fiction in the same light, have examined the
high impact of media on 'identity formation'. This political hypocrisy and knee-jerk
patriotism questions the position of those who fall out of line with the law. The hope for a
better future was traced through better humanistic education than chasing the shallow
American dream. The experiences living on the brink of liberal thought and state suppression,
associated with media, begets the rebel victim.
Keywords: Postmodern anti-hero, socio-political condition, American jingoism, democracy,
hyperreality, alienation, reification, fragmentation, rebel-victim

Introduction
 Literature is a study of the nature and culture of man, the depiction of the most ideal
man,i.e the 'hero'. The Anti-hero in the postmodern era is a victim of his surrounding socio-
political and economic system. He is a part of the flux that feeds the economy as well as a by-
product of its vices. The protagonist suffers, no doubt taking the stance of a rebel first. The
idealistic values in him, not only fuel his rebel stance but also propagate it.

Throughout history, the role has undergone mutations in the archetype. According to
Northrop Fyre's Anatomy of Criticism, the protagonist who is inferior to his environment and
is of low mimetic form is inferior in intelligence and power, which the reader looks down
upon, belongs to the 'ironic' mode. (Fyre, 34).

Jacob M Appel, the author of The Man Who Wouldn't Stand Up critiques the extreme
American Jingoism. The Dundee International Book Prize Winner claims that the unthinking
jingoistic American audience consumed in television reduces the botanist to a terrorist post
9/11 scenario. He signals the helplessness and powerlessness of man in the great American
society subject to the ironical and repressive Patriot Act,2001.

The article emphasises the evolution of media in American history and its impact on
the creation of the anti-hero identity. Beginning with America's anecdotes of its Founding
Fathers and Founding Mothers, slave narratives, Everyman heroes, and the current electronic
extreme anti-hero, the study considers the hero as a communication phenomenon
extrapolating from the essay of Robert Cathcart and Susan J Drucker. The article will outline
the various literary heroes like Cooperian heroes, Hemingway heroes, Faulknerian heroes, the
War heroes of the 1960s in order to trace the literary trajectory, of the American anti-hero in
the media age, finalising him to an electronic hero. Many studies have been conducted on the
significance of the media on identity creation. However, the primary novel taken into
consideration for analysis will represent, mutation of the anti-hero into a terrorist in the wake
of post 9/11 episode.

The article will lay emphasis on the transformations in media technologies in America.
Drawing from the text American Heroes in a Media Age by Susan Drucker and Robert.S.
Cathcart, the article which traces the impact of changes in the forms of communication on the
idea of hero propagation, this study is extended based on the primary text. The text The Man
Who Wouldn't Stand Up by Jacob. M. Appel depicts the protagonist in the post 9/11 scenario
as 'terrorist', with exaggerated substantiations. The power play of news channels for
viewership and post-truth politics is scrutinised in analysing the anti-heroic projection.

Evolution in the forms of communication and early heroes

In the early era, the forms of media were oral storytelling, songs, traditional folklores that
were passed on from one generation to another. The deeds of the heroes were worthy of
collective memory retention, making them larger than life personalities in people's minds.
The storage of information resources was limited; hence heroes were limited. Their traits
were exclusively attached to their feats, characterised by clichéd formulas and ritual
narratives, e.g., clever and brave Odysseus and Achilles. Myths and legendary surround
heroes like Gilgamesh and Hercules.

The early forms of mass communication used in the propagation of the heroes have changed
due to technological advancements. Communication channels impact the projection of
significant characteristics and what the general public feels for a hero in that particular era.
Every culture determines what constitutes the attributes of a hero and why he should be
celebrated. With the advent of media, the hero's image slowly started reducing from God-
form to human-form with flaws along with the shift in print media. This is owing to the
instantaneous popularity gained by these heroes among millions. The mass media became
omnious; fame was now entitled to the one who would garner the limelight for the longest
time.

Earlier, the heroic deeds, skill, knowledge, his ability to detach himself from personal
motives and desires were celebrated. His concern for society, love and the welfare of people
raised him to the pedestal. However, such a stance changed with the advent of the media.
Only those who could manage to remain in the media attention and minds of the people for
long survived as 'celebrities'. Thus, a celebrity is a media-generated hero, and such a hero
usually does not generate any inspiration. Many great leaders and freedom-fighters who
sacrificed tremendously didn’t even win a glimpse in the media , hence were forgotten by
historal archives.

The ancient Greeks and Romans circulated coins that had embossed in them, the profile
of his face, with flowing locks. These silver and bronze coins served as a reminder to the
general public about his heroic exploits. (Cathcart, 36).
The word 'hero' first appeared like a colossal God-like figure in the oral tradition. All Roman
houses displayed wax masks/ imagines of ancestors who held chief offices in Rome. Every
temple and garden contained these statues. (Cathcart,37). Even a cursory reading of Western
civilisation history reveals that "image" and media technology run hand in hand in carving
out the hero's character.

During the age of mechanical reproduction, assembly-line methods were used to mass-
produce plates, figurines, earthenware pitchers, the flatware-a multitude of household
objects-featured the faces of new generation great men. (Braudy,1986,452 as quoted in
Cathcart). Cathcart further added that 'visibility' and 'fame' were connected long before the
invention of photography and cinema. France pioneered civic sculpture; the marble and
plaster busts, engravings which celebrated the heroes.

With advancements in the printing press, the 'image' of the anti-hero became even lighter
and portable. Technological developments in photography, telegraph, television, mobile-
phones and the internet, the celebrity was now captured, and every nuance of his visage
inundated the public with realistic images. The journalist became a new medium for the
propagation of the hero's vision and the heroic tales. Its intrinsic properties define the
medium of communication., the technical and scientific components extend the actual
distance and psychological distance. Such a gap teaches the audience to be vigilant, the self-
appointed representative of law and order when authority is no longer capable of governing
disorder.

Hyperreality in the American scenario.

Jean Baudrillard, the postmodern philosopher, theorist, explains hyperreality as a

condition in the postmodern society where the human consciousness cannot decipher between
the real and the non-real. His theory of 'Simulacra and simulation' is based on the consumer-
capitalist society of ‘sign-value'. By sign value, I mean the shift of emphasis on 'production'
to 'signification’/semiurgy (i.e. creation of meanings, through the production of signifiers).
This shift emphasises the chase of "status symbols", the sports car, branded shoes and
watches, exclusive eye gears, fancy clothes and sporty lifestyle has become parameters for
judging status, luxury and power in the speculative consumerist society. Simulation refers to
the transition process or phase that delineates the real and the hyperreal.

Baudrillard was influenced by his mentor Henri Lefebvre, the pataphysics professor, Roland
Barthes and George Lukacs and many other French and German philosophers grounded in
semiotics and politics. This study was based on Veblen's notion of 'conspicuous consumption,
which was a part of the 'exchange value' of gifts. In his essay, The Precession of Simulacra
Baudrillard defines the four stages of Simulation. In the first stage the 'sign' reflects the
profound reality, the second stage is the false copy, masking the original 'sign'. It denatures it.
The third stage masks the absence of a profound reality, and in the fourth stage, the 'copy' has
no relation to any reality whatsoever. It is its own simulacra. (Baudrillard, 6).

The study undertaken for critical analysis applies the simulacra theory in its order. The
Greek heroes or Mythic heroes are "God-like men", born with divine attributes, superpowers
and hidden strengths that are unravelled in the process of the quest, slaying of demons to
rescue the weak. Its fulfilment establishes the condition for the first order of simulacra. Zeus,
Apollo and Achilles are some examples from the Greek mythology. These heroes are praised
in the oral tradition; they are passed on from one generation to another in folklore, songs,
mythologies. Their deeds are ritualised, so they remain in the collective consciousness of the
common public as per Jung’s archetypes.

The Epic heroes are "Men like God", although they are born of semi-divine birth, they
possess extraordinary powers to rescue the weak from danger and fulfil their own feats. It is
in the journey of the quest that his strengths and passions get revealed and recognised. This
attributes to the second order of simulacra, where the 'copy is a false representation of the
real/original. These heroes are 'culture' heroes represented in paintings, sculptures, coins,
busts and statues—E.g. Odyssey, Theseus, Perseus and so on.

The drama heroes are men of royal birth. They do not possess any divine qualities or
special boons. They possess negative human qualities of greed, ambition, envy and suffer due
to excessive flaw of character (Hamartia). These characteristics can be traced in the third
stage of simulacra, where the copy of the original is substituted in its absence. These drama
heroes exhibit qualities in excess, replacing the true nature of the original hero with human
flaws. E.g. Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth.

The reader looks down upon such a protagonist as claimed by Northrop Fyre in The Anatomy
Of Criticism. He fulfils the condition of the third-order of simulacra. The print hero/
electronic hero does not possess any relation to the real hero. He stoops to the stance of an
'Anti-hero'. Some noteworthy characters may be as follows; Heathcliff, Great Gatsby,
Huckleberry Finn, Holden Caulfield, Guy Montag, John Yossarian, Batman, Cat woman,
Dexter Morgan, Luke Skywalker, etc.

The study undertaken emphasises the fourth stage of simulation referring to the villain, i.e.
the rebel victim, who suffers due to flaws in his own character, opposes the established
norms, contradicts his own beliefs, his weakness is set out in the open, allowing the dominant
and logically correct opponents to take advantage and condemn him low. The researcher
posits here that the protagonist is viewed as a terrorist due to media simulation.

American society has a history of founding fathers, and they do not follow the system of
monarchy or aristocracy that provide celebrity material for continental journalists. To create
heroes and celebrities from ordinary citizens. This reflected their democratic values of
individualism and success. The founding fathers of America refer to those political leaders
who initiated the Revolutionary War and framed the constitution. According to Betty
Houchin and Janice Hume, these designated political heroes helped in reinforcing values and
morals that helped in nation-building, the American press in the 19th and 20th century
emphasised exemplary patriots, gentlemen and scholars who claimed duty and social
obligation, letting go of their personal ambition and desires.

The spread of tabloids and monthly magazines like The Monthly Anthology recorded and
highlighted biographies of noblemen, patriots, scholars and posthumous tributes to
exemplified persons of genius learning, honour, virtue and piety who created the nation. The
heroes were men of rank and status, from respectable families with dignified stations in the
society. (Winfield and Hume,1998).

Magazines published biographies focusing mainly on soldiers and ministers in a series

called PortFolio. The National Portrait of Distinguished Americans published biographical
sketches like The Iris and Library Messenger. American Magazine of Useful Knowledge
illustrated ‘Lady Washington’ as ‘Illustrious Characters’. Some of the founding fathers were
George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, Thomas
Jefferson and James Madison and so on. Daniel Boorstin claimed that "storytelling far
outweighed the virtues of the hero …...heroes became not only performers of great,
courageous acts and shining examples of ideal societal values, but they become symbols of
social tendencies" (Winfield,88). He is thus used ideologically and as a part of the 'American
Dream'. The researcher analyses the metamorphosis of the hero from the angle of media
propagation based on the model of Winfield’s research. The researcher concludes that the
image of the postmodern antihero, is a product of the popular media. Wherever there is
dissent against the dominant ideological stance, the state media highlights the party in bad
light. The print media highlighted the achievemments of various American leaders and heroes
exagerrating their idealistic thoughts, their programmes and press meetings, in a way that the
educated middle class with adequate media literacy read them intently and glorified their
actions. The newspapers and magazines were popular forms of communication to reach out to
the masses. This helped in propagation of the ‘hero’ image.

The 'Novel' as a Form of American Popular Culture

Since the study is finetuned to literary and fictional characters, cinema and television
heroes are not considered. My study emphasises the importance of 'novel' as a popular form
of communication. American novels developed in the 1800s have varied shades on the anti-
hero representation. Some of the authors have amplified their differences within the nation,
and some proclaim a distinctive American style; some authors have tried to expose
hypocrisies in the government and society. American history has a reputation for prtraying its
heroes in bad light. A bad-ass who bends the law for the welfare of his own people. The hero
escapes from the police and order, whose suppressing forces urge him further to fight,
generally painting him as anti-establishment personality.

Others have celebrated the multifaceted population of the country. Throughout the history
of the United States, books have played a vital role in influencing popular culture.
Eighteenth-century American anti-heroes were submerged in Enlightenment values, who
maintained that a strong nation needed an educated and moral population. Women's literacy
rate proliferated during this time, giving rise to authors like Frances Burney and Mary
Wollstonecraft. They stressed on issues of fixed female roles in society. They promoted the
idea that women should be educated for the good of the emerging nation by educating their
children.

How Uncle Tom's Cabin Helped Start the Civil-War.

The abolitionist preacher Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the book Uncle Tom's Cabin or
Life Among the Lowly in 1852. As suggested in the title itself the novel signifies the anti-hero
struggling within a confined and downtrodden environment. It was an impassioned critique of
slavery, considered a pioneer in the "Slave Narratives", this novel saw many theatrical
adaptations later, turning out to be the touchstone political novel.

Although the anti-hero supports the escape of Eliza, Cassy and Emmeline, from the
Legree plantation, he never let himself have capitulated; he was ready to be beaten up for his
values. Beecher Stowe held up Tom's death nobler than any other cause. The novel highlights
selflessness and love for the enemy. The author propagated a new ideology of heroism and
Slave narratives through novels. This variant is distinct from other European anti-heroes as
they distinctively portray the American free-spiritedness, love for freedom and anti-
establishment attitudes. Based on the model of Susan J Drucker and Robert Cathcart’s essay
Hero as a Communication Phenomenon, the researcher extrapolates, that Beecher Stove’s
methodology was instrumental in the proliferation of the Civil –Rights Movement and the
propagation of exemplary anti-heroes through the medium of writing novels.

The protagonist in his late forties exhibits extreme passivity due to the deep acceptance of
religion and faith in God that help him alleviate pain and move towards salvation.
Humbleness, humility, a meek attitude and universal brotherhood were highlighted as
significant Christian traits elevating these anti-heroes to a higher spiritual realm. The
humanistic traits and moral behaviour were considered worthy of admiration. The researcher
claims that these values were targeted at the weaker sections of the society to imbibe state
loyalty and adherence to duty. It aided in the promotion of public uniformity and compliance
to dominant ideology as per Frankfurt School theory of ‘reification’.

Cooperian Heroes.

James Fennimore Cooper, the author of The Last of the Mohicans, celebrated the
American frontier, championing a theme that would intrigue the American writers. Cooper
described the unpredictability of the colonial terrain. The Newfound land of America had a
set of new difficulties. The relevance of religion in the wilderness, how institutionalised
religion is best kept away to avoid wilderness and convert its inhabitants. He is obsessive
about his own 'genuine' whiteness. The hero 'Hawkeye', and Uncas form a family bond not by
blood, but by a bond of faith that transcends race. However, the novel does not involve a mix
of the blood of different races, but the concept of hybridity is central to the novel's thematic
exploration. Nature and culture combine in Hawkeye to explore developments in genetics.
Natto Bumpoo set a legendary yardstick to explore themes of nineteenth-century America's
ambivalence about race and nature. Fenimore Cooper justifies the role of Natoo Bumpoo,
employing the novel as an important tool to propagate political ideas. The same idea holds
good with the heroes depicted by William Faulkner, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, and
Ernest Hemingway. These novelists, too, position 'man' as a hybrid of nature and culture,
emphasising the classless society of America. The researcher extrapolates from Susan
Drucker’s model in the American Hero in a Media Age, the propagation of the anti-hero
through the medium of novels. The fall of Man celebrated and cherished through his daily
struggles. The researcher examines this aspect from the communication angle, how relevantly
and significantly, the author portrays the culmination of the anti-hero struggle.

The Anti- hero of the War in 1960

The anti-hero of the "belle epoque" during the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century
was the period of high economic prosperity, scientific and industrial expansion, and
flourishing art. The counterculture movement in America wanted to break free from the old
rules and restrictions. Establishing new aesthetics and new forms, influenced by the
psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud's ideas, a lot of stress was laid on individualism,
introspection and self-consciousness of their characters. The world war shattered the illusion
of old morals, values and religion lost in its meaning. The horrific death of millions of
soldiers in the war proved that nothing was glorious about the past. Science and reasoning
had failed in their objective of establishing an egalitarian and rationalistic society.

Alex, the rebel in and victim in A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess and Kurt
Vonnegut's novel Slaughter Five deal with the author's autobiographical elements of the
author's psychological underpinnings in War. Joseph Heller's novel Catch 22 also presents an
ironic image of the anti-hero. The researcher extrapolates American Anti-heroism in
upholding the individualistic and base emotions and denouncing the government. The anti-
hero is reduced to another commoner who accepts his vices and bears the consequences than
being raised on a high pedestal. They portray a rebellious anti-establishment characteristic.

The Extreme Anti-hero

The postmodern condition characterised by fragmentation, alienation and rejection of any

absolute ground of centrality in meaning. This chaotic condition of superficiality, subversion,
anathema created instability in human life. Modern man became a product of the dominant
socio-economic and political conditions that subject him to either submission or victimisation
under that ideology. The widely prevalent mass media ensures popularity and loyalty of the
spectators go hand in hand. Electronic media could create a portable and accessible anti-hero
overnight and make a villain out of him to maintain the political-ideological vehicle.

The selected primary text, The Man Who Wouldn't Stand Up by Jacob M Appel, is a post
9/11 novel. The terrorist attack on the Pentagon and the Twin towers of the World Trade
Centre was projected in the news channels as a 'spectacle' of awe, more than a tragic event.
The loss of innocent lives and their mourning by loved ones was televised like a spectacular
event. It was portrayed like an international event, as the casualties of the tragedy included
citizens from more than 90 countries. The USA declared war back and was determined to
fight back terror. In order to curb the terrorists and beef up security, the Patriot Act,2001 was
passed immediately that gave the members of the FBI unlimited and unrestricted powers to
exercise over the public. The journalists covered news extensively and exclusively. The
political environment was tense because the 'superpower' and 'world police' America's
security was penetrated and targeted in broad daylight. The media played a major role in the
mourning and portrayal of the international terror event.

Jean Baudrillard, in his book The Gulf War, Did Not Take Place, argued that the war was
just a media spectacle. Baudrillardian simulacrum, a hyperreal scenario in which events lose
their identity and signifiers fade into one another. Fascination and horror at the reality that
seemed to unfold before our very eyes mingled with a pervasive sense of unreality as we
recognised the elements of Hollywood script that preceded the real (Baudrillard,1995,2). The
essay named The Spirit of Terrorism by Baudrillard emphasises the fact that the US created a
hegemonic control over the rest of the countries, claiming themselves to be the ‘World-
Police’. The country whose military forces were invincible felt challenged and threatened that
their terrain was infiltrated and attacked. The attacks had a ripple effect on the foreign policy
of the US and other countries who extended their support in the anti-terrorism pact.
America’s image was shattered and their laws became even stringent in exercising control
over people.

The study is extended to apply in the novel's critical analysis. The media's creation sways the
protagonist from a hero(of his wife and friends) to an anti-hero (who lives on the brinks of
the society) and even reduces him to a villain (in the media )if the boundaries of freedom
were tested. The researcher has extrapolated the theory of Frankfurt School reification in the
analysis of this aspect, where human individuality is stifled at its nascent stages in the
sensitive atmosphere of post 9/11. Here the individual was compelled to abide by the Patriot
Act, to comply like the other jingoistic Americans to God Bless America. The ordinary
botanist was reduced to an extraordinary antihero, then to rebel victim finally stooping to the
most-wanted terrorist.

Brinkman captivated by the American television post 9/11

The researcher illustrates the individuality aspect of the protagonist as an American citizen,
the world’s oldest democracy and how the media plays a spoilsport to uphold this spirit. The
protagonist Arnold Brinkman botany professor rears an organic garden, with a sentimental
attachment. He believed in the representation welfare of the marginalised and socially
stigmatised like baby abortionists. Just after a few days of the 9/11 attacks, Arnold refused to
stand up for the national anthem God Bless America played in honour of two Bronx soldiers
who had died in the line of duty, he gets captured on the jumbotron for this act of defiance.
The news broadcasters immediately showcased his face on the stadium screens; he was made
to look like a snob. Like the typical postmodern anti-hero, he took the stance of a rebel that
nearly cost him his life and happiness until he surrendered to the media apologising for the
shameful act. In his journey towards self-realisation, as he was testing the boundaries of
freedom, Cassandra, the journalist of The Daily Vanguard, vandalises his garden as he
refuses to give her an appropriate interview.
The power play of an amateur journalist who takes complete advantage of Arnold illustrates
how the "media becomes the message" in the words of Marshall Mc Luhan. She hides this
fact from him, and Arnold ends up sporting a heated argument with some violence along with
Reverend Spotty Spitford in his own house. To avenge this attack, Spotty Spitford takes the
media to his side and purposely downplays Arnold's actions breaking down all the tainted
windows of his house. The news channels have branded him a terrorist, and the FBI
subpoenaed him.

Arnold's neighbour Ira Taylor, who threw garbage in his garden and picked up trivial
fights with him, also took the media on her side and gave statements against Arnold , calling
him a "real stickler" and "fanatic" sued him. His co-workers in the nursery refused to work
with him. Although they knew him for years, the media's power had ransacked his life, and
he had no other escape. The researcher proves that facts are constructed and reconstructed in
a tearing hurry by the media to align their perspective, they intentionally highlight those
interviews, visuals that evidences that support their argument, irrespective of the truth

Jacob M Appel finely portrays alienation from mainstream society through Arnold’s self-
exile in the wilderness. He started living on the brinks in Prospect Park with another outlaw
named Badass Bandit, so his reputation deteriorated even further. The author has proved the
only resort for an individual trapped under state surveillance was a simulated identity. The
researcher claims that Arnold Brinkman had to discard his original identity and assume
himself as an outlaw to be accepted as a rebel. Even his wife sided with the rest of the
Americans by forcing Arnold to apologise in front of the news media stationed outside his
house.
The FBI haunted down details of his past; the castor seeds that grew in the back of his
garden were suspected to be ingredients in Bio resin, a component of making explosives.
Some boys started selling paraphernalia like T-shirts, caps and stickers with captions like
"The tongue terrorist", his face embossed on it up to Osama Bin Laden's ass. The FBI hunted
down his transvestite friends, and they had to own up their illegal business of providing fake
identity cards and driving licenses to college students. His friend Willie Zambrano was Willie
Vargas, who claimed no political connections at all was hunted down by the FBI; he was a
close aid to Fidel Castro, who was involved in the blowing up of the Peruvian jetliner. These
incidents are identified as illustrations of media role in dissent of the state ideology.

Arnold's family and neighbours wanted him to apologise for the nasty act, but he wouldn't
budge. However, the lesson he learnt was that his social concern did not have to take such an
abrupt stance. Arnold hated America's hegemony in the invasion of Panama; the Cold war
and the Civil Rights Movement was America's political strategy to establish hegemony over
those countries. The anti-hero finally succumbs to this very hegemony, answering the
research question related to media propagation to image. However, now the media had
completely overtaken this power, and his very survival bringing Arnold to the brink. These
illustrations from the novel essentially validate the grounds of victimisation and cornering of
the anti-hero’s rebellious stance by state power. The pressure and apathy faced by the anti-
hero disarm him from his own individuality. The research findings show an understanding
that American nationality had to be internalised and imbibed to such a great extent that the
lines of individuality and the national identity are blurred.

Conclusion

The study helped us understand the powerful influence of the media in the protagonist's
downfall to a terrorist. The anti-hero, a prudent citizen, overpaid his taxes and recycled
unscrupulously due to his botany-based background. The man who took the rebellious stance
without much thought, caught on camera, grilled behind the outskirts, forced to live like an
outlaw, only to realise the shortcomings of democracy in the post 9/11 world. Like the
archetypal postmodern anti-hero, he had no choice but to return to his normal social and
family life and accept what life offers. He wishes to adopt children of mixed races and would
not train them to follow 'The American Dream' but live a free life. The researcher justifies
how the media impacts the role and identity of an individual and manipulates the lives of the
masses as these media houses are sponsored by government parties and large corporates.

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