9th Blog Post for Brisingr

"He fixed his gaze on the flickering depths of the fire. There, in that writhing inferno, he sought to forget his cares and responsibilities. But the constant motion of the flames soon lulled him into a passive state where unrelated fragments of thoughts, sounds, images, and emotions drifted through him like snowflakes falling from a calm winter's sky. And amid that flurry, there appeared the face of the soldier who had begged for his life. Again Eragon saw him crying, and again he heard his desperate pleas, and again he felt how his neck snapped like a wet branch of wood.
Tormented by the memories, Eragon clenched his teeth and breathed hard through flared nostrils. Cold sweat sprang up over his entire body. He shifted in place and strove to dispel the soldier's unfriendly ghost, but to no avail. Go away! he shouted. It wasn't my fault. Galbatorix is the one you should blame, not me. I didn't want to kill you!
Somewhere in the darkness surrounding them, a wolf howled. From various locations across the plains, a score of other wolves answered, raising their voices in a discordant melody. The eerie singing made Eragon's scalp tingle and goosebumps break out on his arms. Then, for a brief moment, the howls coalesced into a single tone that was similar to the battle-cry of a charging Kull.
Eragon shifted, uneasy.
'What's wrong?' asked Arya. 'Is it the wolves? They shall not bother us, you know. They are teaching their pups how to hunt, and they won't allow their younglings near creatures who smell as strangely as we do.'
'It's not the wolves out there,' said Eragon, hugging himself. 'It's the wolves in here.' He tapped the middle of his forehead.
Arya nodded, a sharp, birdlike motion that betrayed the fact she was not human, even though she had assumed the shape of one. 'It is always thus. The monsters of the mind are far worse than those that actually exist. Fear, doubt, and hate have hamstrung more people than beasts ever have.'
'And love,' he pointed out.
'And love,' she admitted. 'Also greed and jealousy and every other obsessive urge the sentient races are susceptible to.'
Eragon thought of Tenga alone, in the ruined elf outpost of Edur Ithindra, hunched over his precious hoards of tomes, searching, always searching, for his elusive 'answer' (Paolini 191-192)."

I think this passage is characterization of Eragon and Arya along with theme. The passage is characterization of Eragon because at the beginning of this passage we are inside Eragon's brain- hearing what he's thinking and feeling as he experiences certain memories over again. It also becomes a characterization of Arya when the author describes her as having "birdlike" movements and as she talks to Eragon, the reader infers that she is very wise. As Arya is talking though, and describing typical human emotions (and emotions that apparently plague other races) what she is saying becomes theme. It is hate and greed that drove Galbatorix to seize power and love is the main emotion driving Eragon- it is what drives him to protect those around him and to keep them from getting killed. I've noticed that throughout this book the author mentions death repeatedly and the affects it has on those around it, whether it be on the killer or on the people who lived around the person that was killed or the impacts death has on the environment- the author finds a way to mention death again and again. In this way, death becomes a major theme with other things playing into it- such as love, family etc. This theme plays back on Eragon as a form of characterization and as an allusion to Eldest where Eragon finds out that his future is plagued with death. In this way, death becomes a part of Eragon's character even though throughout this book and the other two books, Eragon strives to protect life. Contradictory isn't it? At the end of this book it is the death of Eragon's closest mentors- Oromis and the death of the physical body of the dragon, Glaedr, that rouses Eragon into facing the future with the hope that he can defeat Galbatorix. Personally I think it's strange that it is death that does this- the one thing that Eragon tries to avoid at all costs it seems, drives him closer to destroying his enemy. I wonder why though Paolini made such a contradictory character? It seems like whenever something happens, Eragon finds a way to contradict what he stands for. Why would Paolini choose to create such a character? Did Eragon become a contradictory character as Paolini wrote the story or did Paolini purposefully write the story so that in the end Eragon is such a complex character that he has no choice but to contradict himself? Personally, I think that Paolini purposefully set out to write the story in a such a way that Eragon has to contradict himself in order to grow, change and become a more developed character. Also I think that because Eragon is such a contradiction to himself as a character, and as he moves through the story, he represents or shows many different aspects of human nature- one of the main ones being love. Here in this passage, Eragon is talking to the one woman/elf that he loves. Thing is- she doesn't love him. So throughout this book, Eragon is constantly fighting his own emotions for her- trying not to show them but not altogether succeeding. This is one part in the story that Eragon and Arya actually get a long, and where Arya doesn't act so hostile towards Eragon (she had been acting hostile towards Eragon as a result of his advancements towards her)- so it's interesting to see them react to eachother this way. Makes me wonder if anything will happen between them later on.
-katthegreat08