8th post for Brisingr

"The butcher sat slumped against the left-hand wall, both arms chained to an iron ring above his head.
His ragged clothes barely covered his pale, emaciated body; the corners of his bones stood out in sharp relief underneath his translucent skin. His blue veins were also prominent. Sores had formed on his wrists where the manacles chafed. The ulcers oozed a mixture of clear fluid and blood. What remained of his hair had turned gray or white and hung in lank, greasy ropes over his pockmarked face.
Roused by the clang of Roran's hammer, Sloan lifted his chin toward the light and, in a quavering voice, asked, 'Who is it? Who's there?' His hair parted and slid back, exposing his eye sockets, which had sunk deep into his skull. Where his eyelids should have been, there were now only a few scraps of tattered skin draped over the raw cavities underneath. The area around them was bruised and scabbed.
With a shock, Eragon realized that the Ra'zac had pecked out Sloan's eyes.
What he then should do, Eragon could not decide. The butcher had told the Ra'zac that Eragon had found Saphira's egg. Furthermore, Sloan had murdered the watchman, Byrd, and had betrayed Carvahall to the Empire. If he were brought before his fellow villagers, they would undoubtedly find Sloan guilty and condemn him to death by hanging.
It seemed only right, to Eragon, that the butcher should die for his crimes. That was not the source of his uncertainty. Rather, it arose from the fact that Roran loved Katrina, and Katrina, whatever Sloan had done, must still harbor a certain degree of affection for her father. Watching an arbitrator publicly denounce Sloan's offenses and then hang him would be no easy thing for her or, by extension, Roran. Such hardship might even created enough ill will between them to end their engagement. Either way, Eragon was convinced that taking Sloan back with them would sow discord between him, Roran, Katrina, and the other villagers, and might engender enough anger to distract them from their struggle against the Empire.
The easiest solution, thought Eragon, would be to kill him and say that I found him dead in the cell... His lips trembled, one of the death-words heavy upon his tongue.
'What do you want?' asked Sloan. He turned his head from side to side in an attempt to hear better. 'I already told you everything I know!'
Eragon cursed himself for hesitating. Sloan's guilt was not in dispute; he was a murderer and a traitor. Any lawgiver would sentence him to execution.
Notwithstanding the merit of those arguments, it was Sloan who was curled in front of him, a man Eragon had known his entire life. The butcher might be a despicable person, but the wealth of memories and experiences Eragon shared with him bred a sense of intimacy that troubled Eragon's conscience. To strike down Sloan would be like raising his hand against Horst or Loring or any of the elders of Carvahall.
Again Eragon prepared to utter a fatal word.
An image appeared in his mind's eye: Torkenbrand, the slaver he and Murtagh had encountered during their flight to the Varden, kneeling on the dusty ground and Murtagh striding up to him and beheading him. Eragon remembered how he had objected to Murtagh's deed and how it had troubled him for days afterward.
Have I changed so much, he asked himself, that I can do the same thing now? As Roran said, I have killed, but only in the heat of battle... never like this.
He glanced over his shoulder as Roran broke the last to Katrina's cell door. Dropping his hammer, Roran prepared to charge the door and knock it inward but then appeared to think better of it and tried to lift it free of its frame. The door rose a fraction of an inch, then halted and wobbled in his grip. 'Give me a hand here!' he shouted. 'I won't let it fall on her.'
Eragon looked back at the wretched butcher. He had no more time for mindless wanderings. He had to choose. One way or another, he had to choose...
'Eragon!'
I don't know what's right, realized Eragon. His own uncertainty told him that it would be wrong to kill Sloan or return him to the Varden. He had no idea what he should do instead, except to find a third path, one that was less obvious and less violent (Paolini 54-56)."

I think this passage is an indirect characterization of Eragon. Anytime he finds himself in a difficult situation that involves him having to use his brain power, he always finds a way out. In this passage he creates the "third path" when deciding what to do with Sloan. He ends up scrying the elf queen and asking her permission to set a compulsion on Sloan to send him to Ellesmera- which frees him from killing Sloan and/or taking Sloan back with them to the Varden. Interesting choice. This passage I think will also be important later- in this book and in the fourth book of this series. How it will be important or why, I don't know, but I do know that through this scene it shows that Eragon is still human despite his elvish appearance and the fact that he's a Dragon rider (which gives him a huge amount of responsibilities). It also shows that he has compassion for others which I think will somehow affect his battle against Galbatorix later on (Galbatorix has no compassion for others and so doesn't feel anything when he kills others- on the other hand, Eragon still has a conscience and so avoids this negativity that envelopes Galbatorix when it comes to how others think of him). Thing is, will Eragon being like this affect his battle with Galbatorix for better or for worse? In other words, will Eragon being compassionate towards others somehow hinder him from possibly killing Galbatorix if the chance should present itself? Would Galbatorix somehow use Eragon's compassion against him- thus making Eragon unwilling or incapable of killing anything or anyone else, aka Galbatorix or anyone else that Galbatorix values? It's obvious that Paolini stresses this passage, possibly to point out one of the main characteristics of Eragon- that he doesn't like to kill people or anything else for that matter. In fact, Eragon would rather eat bread, fruits and vegetables than eat meat. This is how devoted Eragon is to this idea! Question is, will Eragon having to lie to Roran and Katrina about Sloan (he told them that Sloan had died, when he was actually still alive) go against him in the long run? In other words- if Roran and Katrina find out about what Eragon did would it somehow affect their relationship with him- possibly turning them against him? Later on, Saphira accepts what he did, along with the humans at the Varden- but not the elves, particularly Arya and Queen Islanzadi. Will Eragon doing this somehow affect his relationship with Arya and Queen Islanzandi later on? Maybe somehow make them see him in a negative light? Both of them disapproved of what Eragon did when they found out mainly because both of them would have killed Sloan in a heart beat, especially after all the crimes he committed against the well-being of Carvahall- despite the connections he has with Eragon. This is the main conflict between Eragon and the elves- they have no trouble handing out punishment where it's due, while he has trouble killing others when it's not in the heat of battle. Will Eragon doing this affect his relationship with Arya? Possibly make her like him less? Or more? It's interesting what happens later between them- Arya comes to help get Eragon back to the Varden safely. On the way back they spend a night or so together. One night while out on the plains- they start talking about what Arya went through while under the captivity of the Durza and how she feels about killing. Eragon ends up making her a flower- she accepts it and puts it in the ground to grow. So I guess in the end, Eragon doing this to Sloan makes Arya more accepting of Eragon. Question is- what will happen between them next?

-katthegreat08