I'm working on a sequel to my first novel, in which the main character, takes a dark turn in his life and does harsher and harsher things in the name of 'duty'. By the end, he realises that he is in the wrong, but I don't want to alienate him from the reader throughout the book. I want to make his actions seem almost justified while being part of a gradual journey, not nice guy one day, bad guy next. I would really appreciate if anybody could recommend examples of this in other books or offer general tips.
The first thing that popped into my mind was the film 'Come and See' (1985). Probably a side-effect of the Ukraine war going on - but I suppose that contemporary conflict may loom in the background of anything we want to say about duty vs. atrocity (iirc) it explores the transformation of a frightened teenage boy into a desensitized resistance fighter, and its ending note of self-consciousness might be similar (structurally) to what the OP has in mind The character motive is different though - it's about retaliation, and violence being self-generating - rather than duty. And so I wonder if duty is ever close enough to a character's heart for readers to identify with it. Let's say the character kills somebody. "I was following orders"; "It was my duty"; "The devil made me do it." It's a motive that's outside them, easy, and uninteresting. One of the great appeals of fiction is encountering characters who have freedoms that we lack in our own lives: turning from the harsh realities of our day jobs to a story of someone doing harsh things in their day job possibly isn't enough for us. I'd suggest to look at the "duty", whatever forms it takes, as a plot device. And to ask what this character would do if that duty and the excuses it offers were removed from the story. I suppose another lesson from 'Come and See' might be the way it breaks up realist-historical depiction with artistic flourish. The murdering enemy soldiers are made larger-than-life, grotesque, and even cartoonish - the way the boy would imagine them. Very much like 'tourists' on an excursion. That's visual art: our equivalent is to use purple prose/prose-poetry to show the main character's way-of-looking at the world. Very few of us can endure seeing ourselves do harsh things to others - is he rose-tinting it? If so, that needs to come across - the reader must only realise the harshness after some reflection: we must get the reader to buy-in to the character's self-perception. E.g. "I had to straighten that guy out out, if I hadn't have done someone else would have killed him" - but build that up and make the reader feel that every thump of the claw-hammer is urgent educational assistance being provided to a fellow human being in need. Also (last thing I think), the things that are done don't have to become harsher for this journey. (Unless it's historical fiction or biography - which the OP hasn't said) These are fictional deeds - they are only harsh to the extent we make them feel harsh to the reader, through our art. The progression of conscience in one who sins can be conveyed in the opposite order as well: at the start of the story they burn a village, but at the end they can't raise their hand to smack a naughty child. That's a common structure: conscience always awakens too late - and the realisation we are wrong never undoes the wrong. Achilles in the Iliad has an arc like that (if the story is read carefully). The Greeks are slaughtered, the Trojans are slaughtered, his friend is slaughtered, his enemy is slaughtered, and his enemy was dressed in his armour so that symbolically he even slaughters himself. Toward the end, not content with appalling the Gods he tries to slaughter one of them too. And it's only in the last scene that he realises how similar the enemy king is to his old father. Achilles' motive is honour rather than duty - much more interesting.
I am not an expert in this but it is a type of development I find very fascinating, and will likely have some version of it myself in a future story. My one suggestion that might make it easier, is to have a devil on his shoulder... not literally of course. Ideally this character shouldn't be evil but should be 100% into the "ends justify the means" ideology, and is always pushing the protagonist to stop over analyzing the morality and "just get things done." And as the protagonist does more and more bad things (for good reasons), eventually when told to some thing 'worse' which the protagonist says is too far, the devil tells him since he did all the other bad stuff, he's past the point of no return and might this is just the next step. The really awesome thing is, perhaps the protagonist eventually does something even worse and the devil see it in disappointment and disgust "I can't believe you did THAT! That's too far!" And the protagonist realizes he crossed a line worst than what the guy pushing him would ever do. Or not... it's a fun arc to explore, the key is it has to be gradual.
Thank you! I think this is key. I agree entirely that duty is not relatable. I will definitely need to change the motivation in order to make it more believable and identifiable for the readers.
Hi Kersme. I think you nailed it in your post. If the character is relatively consistent in their thoughts and beliefs, and is doing increasingly bad things for they feel this is the right thing to do, then I believe you'll negotiate this very well. Especially if this is an established character that your reader knows intimately, and objectively, they will see the slippery slope, even if he does not. It's when they act completely out of character, or bad to drive the plot rather than staying true to their character, that pulls the reader out. I'm going through something similar with a character in book 3. She's smart and often saved the team. However, being the only girl on the team and coming from a much more affluent background, she's always been a little on the outside. This is the same as at school, where her smarts only attracted the ire and jealousy of her classmates. In book 3, she is handpicked for her talents by the head of the organisation, is a cold and ruthless woman who gets the job done, and taken on as a mentee. My character will still be doing the right thing by her own standards, but will start to respond to the support and rewards that she's never experienced, so will start to be somewhat seduced by the power and influence, and start to take on the traits of the supervisor...
