The Power of a Parent
In Jeanette Winterson’s The Battle of the Sun, the Magus, the novels villain, emphasizes the good in the protagonist, Jack, by comparing his past stories and current desires to Jacks. While the Magus dreams of someday ruling a golden world and having exponential amounts of money and power, Jack simply desires to return home to his mother and to defeat the Magus.
The Magus attempts to win Jack's faith so that he can take Jack's power when he tells him, "'You are the Radiant Boy . . . the boy that is written in the ancient books of life, and when your power is added to my power, there is nothing that we shall not accomplish" (Winterson 59). The Magus has been searching for Jack by kidnapping many other boys to test their power; however, when he realizes that the boys aren't the ones he is looking for, he turns them to stone or keeps them as slaves. The length of time that the Magus has dreamed of turning the city of London, and eventually the world, into gold majorly impacts his increasing levels of desire. The more he fantasizes about power and wealth, the more he feels driven to find Jack and steal his power. His goal of turning the world to gold originated in his youth. He was being mentored by a powerful alchemist, the Sunken King, but when he strayed to using his power for evil, the mentor would not teach him. The Sunken King could not imagine why he would stray from "the Way of Light" (Winterson 53) and choose a selfish path instead. By analyzing his past, the reader begins to realize why he chose the dark path, and how his desire blossomed.
The Magus' past and Jacks present are antonyms of each other, quite like their goals. While Jack merely wants to return home to his mother and his new dog, the Magus wants an all-powerful status. In chapter 11 the reader learns that the Magus' "' . . .mother died in childbirth . . . [he] never knew her. [His] father sold [him] for a gold coin'" (Winterson 102). His father's choice initiated his dark decisions and the gold coin creates a drive in him to acquire his wealth from gold just like his father. Contrasting his father though, he doesn't want merely wealth, he wants everyone to have gold so that the scarce object to society is food and other necessities of life. Once people realize that they won't survive with only gold, they must bow down to him to receive food. His source of power will be changing certain objects back to normal for the people, he wishes to be viewed as a savior. He desires to feel wanted.
The contrast between Jack and the Magus serves to give the reader a deeper view behind the motive of the Magus. It shows how one act in a child's life can change their destiny. How much of an influence parents have on their children. When one studies a person’s background, one begins to understand the person’s motives and possibly begins empathize with them. Jeanette Winterson wasn't trying to get her readers to side with the Magus over Jack; she was simply trying to show how a child could be turned evil by the choice of an adult and compared him to a child, with a loving and caring mother, who had yet to make the choice between good and evil.
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ReplyDeleteAfter reading your response to the prompt –specifically the last paragraph—my question becomes: does Magnus’ villainy stem from the lack of a loving parent and a poor childhood, or does his evil result from corruption due to an overwhelming desire for power?
ReplyDeleteIn your response, the contrast between Jack’s desire for goodness and Magnus’ tendency toward evil is made abundantly clear; however, based on the support given, the link between the characters’ resulting actions and their childhoods is not quite as strong. In actuality, the contrast between the two characters’ relationships to power is better developed and more significantly relates to Magnus’ development of villainy. As said in your response, “the more he fantasizes about power and wealth, the more he feels driven to find Jack and steal his power” (Kennedy). So, case in point: Magnus’ desire for power drives his path to villainy. It is the contrast between Magnus’ obsession with power and Jack’s indifference towards it, seen when he is given the opportunity to have his “power added to [Magnus’] power” (Kennedy) and refuses, which allows the character foil to fully develop and drives the argument that the corruption that corresponds with power is the primary driving force behind villainy—not a lack of care by a parent.