Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2017

The three novels all follow very different plot lines, with vast differences in climaxes and resolutions.

The Curse of Capistrano follows Don Diego de la Vega and his alter-ego Senor Zorro on his quest to

“avenge the helpless, to punish the cruel politicians” and “aid the oppressed.” The climax of the

novel is very fast-paced as much of it is a pursuit, and the novel resolves quite happily, once again a

testimony of the needs of the population at the time. The Chocolate War , very much unlike

McCulley’s novel is dark, and much information is withheld from the reader until it is absolutely

necessary. This also serves to slow down the narrative of the novel, making it seem as if it is dragging

on forever, even through the climax. Once again a contrast to the jocund resolution of The Curse of

Capistrano , the novel is not truly resolved, and instead the protagonist of the novel is the one to lose

as a result of standing up to what he believes in – a form of vigilantism in itself. The final act of this

novel sees both the Vigils and the teachers win, with no consequences for either whilst the rest of

the student body faces the repercussions for the misdeeds of the two. Yet again, the plot for V for

Vendetta differs greatly from the two novels prior, broken into three acts in which V theatrically and

systematically exterminates his former captors from the Larkhill Resettlement Camp. Where both

prior vigilante novels end in success or failure, instead of ending in solely victory or defeat, V for

Vendetta ends with the protagonist losing his life, yet his goal still being completed by his protégé,

Evey Hammond. As it can be seen, even the plot of the vigilante story in literature has changed over

time – transforming from a tale of triumph, to defeat, to a mixture of the two, but ending with the

immortalisation of the hero.

The vigilante in literature has undergone significant change over the course of the last century as a

result of socio-cultural context. This is most evident through the investigation of the representation

of the vigilante, the actual characters created, and the course of their quests. Senor Zorro was the

first of the three vigilantes, created by Johnston McCulley in 1919. This was a time period after the

First World War, when much of the world needed a hero who could be looked up to for heroism,

and a time where through the devastated state of the world, many yearned for this optimistic

outlook. This is very evident in Zorro, through his representation as a just hero for the masses to

idolise, along with The Curse of Capistrano ’s overall positive storyline. On the other hand, The

Chocolate War is set in the period of the Cold War and is effectively a projection of it on a smaller

scale. As a result, the Vigils remain elusive and coercive as characters, and much of the plot of the

novel is secretive, dark and slow. Finally, V for Vendetta was written in a time of government distrust

and rampant Thatcherism in the UK. This is evident over the course of the novel, as the majority of

V’s targets are involved with the government in some fashion. V as a character is also a combination

of qualities from the Vigils and Zorro, as his dark and mysterious character shares similarities with

the Vigils, and yet his theatrical and just treatment of those deserving is borrowed largely from the