Changed character and Character development
In Silverfin we meet the same kind of plot, an
exciting detective
story, as in Ian Fleming´s novels – the timeless story about good against evil
but instead of the Soviet union as enemy we have an American with sick values.
To suit young readers, Higson has changed the Bond character from “snobbery,
sexism, sadistic violence” and irony into the new character we meet in the
young boy James, who is smart, brave and persistent but also friendly and
caring.
In the end
though, when James is back at Eton we experience that James has changed. He has
become harder, tougher and more self- confident. When he threatens and tells
the two older bullies to stay away from him they saw ”in his
eyes something cold and frightening”
There is a
saying “What doesn´t kill you makes you stronger” but in James case he seems to
have become harder. Violence begets violence” Maybe the world has been saved –
but not the boy!
B A BACK
Bond follows the change in character just as Hourighan suggests in the pattern of the hero story within that pattern there also a development of character:
SvaraRaderaA white male leaves home,dangerous things happens, the hero fights the enemy, the hero overcome the enemy, he achives his task (although in this case Alfie and Meatpacker are already lost), he returns home and is greatfully welcomed.
Young Bond has adventure in his genes, "But there was something else making him feel this way, atightness in his chest...a restlessness. He sat up and took a sip of water. He was excited. Excited and slightly scared." I think this is the point of change in James' life, it is then he gets hooked on adventure, there is no way going back.
You might have noticed that I left out the last step of Hourighan pattern, when the hero is getting his reward, well he is alive, Hellabore is gone, he is probably never going to get bullied again, but I am not sure he is being rewarded.
James' reward might be that he gets more self-confident. He knows that the world isn't all good but he also knows that he managed to do it a little better. According to what happened at Lord Hellebore's he knows what he is capabel of, he has the mind, strength and will to acomplish things. That must be a greate feeling.
SvaraRaderaI think it is important to remember that this is fiction and that the genre is about adventure, heroes and spies to be. Higson most of all in the way he writes about Young Bond has to "plant seeds" to the person we all know as Adult Bond, mainly from all the different films from 5 decades and to the values from the times they were produced. The films are reproductions of what Fleming wrote and/or inspired by it.
SvaraRaderaWith that in mind I really think Higson has updated and modernized values and morals in the world and time that surrounds James, in an excellent way. His readers are both the same ones as Fleming's and different younger young adults both boys and girls, with different values than 50 years ago.
It is definately a story of the eternal fight between good and evil and James is maturing from his experiences, gradually and by different levels of what he goes through - Eton, making friends and enemies, his relatives, death, the adventure and fighting against Lord H, meeting strong strong and independent girl(Wilder)/woman(aunt C), trusting his former enemy, challening his body's abilities, standing up against bullies and so on.
He is saved, thoughend and hardened in order to become the Adult version created 50 years ago - leaving his boyhood behind him.