Extended Essays 2021

occurs when the Grey King betrays him enabling Capa Barsarvi the ability to “send him out to sea” (332). Lynch depicts Lamora’s fate through the perspective of an omnipresent narrator that focuses on his friend Jean Tannen where he implies like Dantès, that Lamora has metaphorically died, that being his charismatic past self. Jean believed Lamora’s throat to be “already cut” suggesting that he was dead, however, we later discover that Lamora has survived. With this, in amalgamation with his change in personality and his submersion in the sea, it can be assumed that Lamora experiences a second baptism. In response to surviving the Grey King's betrayal, Lamora believes it was “a conspiracy of the Gods” (338) denoting that the Gods have a “plan” (249) for him, and thus support his Machiavellian schemes. Merging this with Lamora’s second baptism, it is anticipated that the readers’ id may be encouraged. Here, Judeo-Christian tropes are yet again, used to establish the protagonist as God-like, thus justifying his vengeful and violent actions. Connecting the protagonists’ amoral transformations with the symbol of the sea, and more so baptism, it becomes clear that both authors utilize religious rituals to encourage the characters’ actions. Thus, when these characters perform violent acts the reader may not feel remorseful, thus causing the readers’ id to be encouraged by religion and enabling the reader to feel pleasure in acts of violence.

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