Introduction
The novel The Princess of Mars is a fantastic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the first in his Martian series. The genre of the novel in the English-language literature was defined as a planetary fantasy. It was based on the scientific hypothesis of the existence of an inhabited but dying world, created by the famous astronomer Percival Lowell. The cycle was popular, having influenced Ray Bradbury. Carl Sagan pointed out that reading Burroughs’ novels in his childhood prompted him to tackle astronomy and the problems of extraterrestrial life. Traditionally, the book is considered sci-fi, but in the English-speaking world, it is referred to as the subgenre Planetary romance, adjacent to fantasy (action, unlike cosmic opera, unfolds on one planet in the pre-cosmic era). The action of novels of this type takes place on someone else’s exotic planet, including sword fights, monsters, and magic. The civilization of Mars fancifully combines the signs of a developed society and pre-technological (Martians know how to create an atmosphere and have an air fleet artificially, but the army is equipped with cold Weapons; they are divided into tribes governed by absolute rulers).
The protagonist of the novel is John Carter with heroic characteristics is a captain of the army of the Confederate States as portrayed in the novel in the time of action of 1866. The various ways in which Carter fulfills his role in the novel make him the hero, such as his characteristics in the novel demonstrate him as a hero during the defeat of the Confederates in the Civil War. His decision made him a hero when he decided to go to Arizona to extract gold. There are many examples in the novel which are discussed below that make him a hero. For example, after a skirmish with the Indians who killed his friend, he is attacked by a strange paralysis, but the hero does not die, and, having found a second body, is on Mars. Initially, he enters the nomadic tribe of the Tarkas one of the races that inhabit this planet. The tribe does not look much like people, is prone to cruelty, and leads a nomadic way of life. Thanks to a smaller attraction on Mars, Carter has outstanding physical data and acquires a heroic position in the tribe and the friendship of one of the leaders, Tars Tarkas. Soon, the Tarkas destroy the airship and capture the beautiful Princess Helium. It belongs to the race of red Martians, similar to people who created a high civilization.
This paper discusses the main character in the novel The Princess of Mars and analyzes factors in the novel that make John Carter a hero. The paper defines Carter as a hero and then discusses the various ways he fulfills that role.
Analysis
Carter’s heroic trait during the wanderings of Mars: During the wanderings of Mars, Carter’s heroic qualities imbue Dee Thoris with high feelings, but she was seized by the Prince of Zedong, the eternal enemy of Helium. Thanks to the help of the Tarkas, JohnCarter destroys the Zodang and attaches it to Helium. He marries DejaThoris and becomes the Prince of Helium, but soon a catastrophe begins: there is not enough air on Mars, since the atmospheric station where the air is artificially produced stops. Carter leaves his wife to start the factory but resurrects in the body on Earth, which has lain in Arizona for more than ten years. He remains alive on the Earth in eternal melancholy, contemplating the red disk of Mars. John Carter, Captain of the US Army, originally from Virginia. The date of birth is unknown; he is ancient, although always looks like a thirty-year-old. I do not remember my childhood. The height is six feet two inches (188 cm). The author-narrator (identified with Burroughs himself) writes that before he died in 1886, John Carter ordered to bury him, without opening or embalming the body, in a crypt that can only be opened from the inside. DeyThoris is the princess of Helium, the daughter, and granddaughter of his rulers Morse Kayak and Tardos Morse (Helium is a second city, ruled by two leaders). An extraordinary beauty is that in the first three novels of the series, the storyline about the capture of Dei Thoris into captivity by various leaders of Martian states serves as the main storyline. Tars Tarkas is a representative of the Tara race, their supreme leader. A cruel Martian nomad, distinguished from his fellow tribesmen by his ability to love.
John Carter’s other heroic traits include (model Antonio Sabato Jr., among other things who played in The Scrubs in a successful cameo), captain of the US Special Forces, looking for terrorists in Afghan villages. Unsuccessfully interfering in the course of the deal between the opium merchants and the owner of one local teahouse, Carter finds himself with multiple gunshot wounds in the field hospital under an oxygen mask. In a feverish delirium, two American military men hang over him, white and black, informing him that he will not survive until the morning, and also that he became a participant in the experiment. He will be sent to Mars (not to Mars, which he knows, but to an alternative one, in Alpha Centauri). They show a mysterious flash drive for 16 gigs, where all its genetic information will be entered. John shows them the middle finger in return. Once again recovering, he observes the conversation between the blond blonde in a hayrack (“pinched” in the 80s by porno actress Tracy Lords) and an unpleasant thug with an ugly, wrapped rag, shot in blurry sunny-impressionistic tones. They are talking about whether to save Carter’s life or finish it off on the spot. As a result, the blonde completes the discussion with a satisfactory quote from the novel’s finale “The Irony of Fate or with a Light Steam.”
Carter’s personality Traits: After all these impressive vision introductions, Carter discovers himself completely naked, in the middle of a stony desert. Above his head are two moons and unknown purple nebulae. When you try to take the first step, you fly up, like a grasshopper. Moving by those familiar with the source, caused by the difference in gravity, by leaps and bounds, the hero finds eggs and a clothesline with rags behind the nearest rocks. He manages to build himself something like a loincloth … And then he is surrounded by a mob of cabinets of Aborigines with horny growths on their heads, clad in plate armor and red shirts. Carter is put on a collar with a chain and introduces the local boss, fat and ugly even against the background of his fellow tribesmen, repeatedly asked to jump still. During a sortie against a whole horde of giant spiders, an American Marine shows he is neither sly. Then, he is removed from the chain and allowed to eat a wriggling worm, thanks to which the inhabitants of Mars overcome the language barrier. Introduce the hero, and, simultaneously, the viewer, in the course of the matter.
Carter’s heroic traits make him part of the hostile and wild tribe of the Tarkas, here, on Mars, there are people – these are called Helium, a princess rules them, and they oppress them in every way, explaining this by the fact that they care about the good of the planet and only by their efforts oxygen and life are still preserved in it (a little bit of Socio-Political satire for the rage of the day). As proof of this, there is a Giant Flying Ship painted in diesel-punk flavor because of the mountains. Tarkas is excitedly shooting at him with thin guns, and the hero jumps and jumps, observing with his own eyes the intrigue unfolding on the deck of the burning ship. The young blonde in a hayrack is a princess, a type with a wrapped rag of erysipelas – a traitor. Carter captivates the princess; he is produced for valor in the Jeddakhs. The princess, who is fascinating with her armor and high boots, puts the carcass in a cage, and Carter is given a battle harness – to cover up dubious tattoos with hieroglyphics (either the hero’s memory of the service in the USMC or the actor’s own made on vacation in Phuket).
The princess needs to urgently deliver before the eyes of the local fat ugly boss so that he decides her fate. On the road, Carter, with varying success, seeks a common language with the princess (magical worms here, in search of understanding between a man and a woman, are predictably powerless), fires off the unpleasant flying creatures with green insides, and makes friends with the Tarkas, field commander. He also learns that the princess’s people are in charge of an air-purifying station, thanks to which the planet has not yet completely turned down, and a giant ship is heading there. The culmination is a conversation with an ugly, fat-dressed man, sitting in an environment of many guards and clothed in the bikini of human concubines, in such a chic castle as Conan the Barbarian himself would not hesitate to destroy. As a result of the conversation, Carter is put in a casemate, his friend is sent to the penal battalion, and the princess is appointed into concubines. In the casemate, the traitor, crocheted with rags, penetrates the hero. Unwinds them – and who we see! It turns out that the US military also threw it on Mars – for a bribe. Like Carter, having discovered in himself an extraordinary leap, the treacherous drug dealer also fell in love with the princess, and now he is ready to make all sorts of madness for her! For example, to destroy the air purifying mechanism and to strangle all life sprouts on Mars! Burroughs began to write a novel in 1911, not having succeeded in business. The manuscript was completed on August 11, 1911. He concealed his literary works, fearing that this would destroy his reputation.
Conclusion
The story’s hero is John Carter, captain of the Confederate States army. After the defeat in the Civil War decides to go to Arizona to extract gold. After a skirmish with the Indians who killed his friend, he is attacked by a strange paralysis, but he does not die and finds the second body, which is apparently a heroic trait of the character. Carter fell into the nomad tribe of the Tarkas one of the races that inhabit this planet. Tarkas do not look much like people, are prone to cruelty, and lead a nomadic way of life. Thanks to a smaller attraction on Mars, Carter has outstanding physical data and acquires a high position in the tribe and the friendship of one of the leaders – Tars Tarkas. Soon, the Tarkas destroy the airship and capture the beautiful Princess Helium. It belongs to the race of red Martians, similar to people who created a high civilization. Carter helps her escape.
Works Cited
Porges, Irwin (1975). Edgar Rice Burroughs. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press. ISBN 0-8425-0079-0.
Slotkin, Richard (1998). Gunfighter Nation.University of Oklahoma Press.ISBN 0-8061-3031-8.
Bleiler, Everett F. (1948).The Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Chicago: Shasta Publishers. p. 68.
Basalla, George (2006). Civilized Life in the Universe: Scientists on Intelligent Extraterrestrials. Oxford University Press US. ISBN 978-0-19-517181-5.
Burroughs, E. R. (2014). A Princess of Mars.Edmedia Publishing.
