Epic Hero 2

[Tommy Tran]

Here is the second paragraph of the paper a wrote.

	An epic traditionally opens with a statement of theme, an invocation of 
the Muse, an opening in medias res, and a listing of the main characters
(Holman 
  ).   The introduction to Scrooge's life story does all but the second and the 
last.  The theme of Scrooge's life is the fact that he ". . . loves [his money] 
so much because he worked so hard to earn it" (Rosa 1:1)!  Though the muse is 
not invoked, it is replaced by a narrator.  The story opens with Scrooge
playing 
with the money in his bin, not at the beginning of Scrooges life (Rosa 1:1).  
This in medias res technique has been often used by Barks, and sometimes by 
Rosa, to begin other Scrooge stories as well, such as Bark's "The Hound of the 
Whiskervilles" where the first panel of the comic starts in the middle of 
things, on a dark Scottish Moor, and the second panel begins, "What brings
Uncle 
Scrooge to this eerie place?  It is necessary to flash back to a recent day in 
Duckburg"  (23).  From this use of an epic convention Barks shows his natural 
gift for writing in an epic style, though Barks himself admits that he is no 
expert on such things (Cocks 78).  Though the listing of characters does not 
appear in the first installment of Scrooge's life story, in a later issue, all 
of the major villains that McDuck has met so far in his life had been
cataloged, 
meeting the last requirement for an epic in a roundabout way.


                                                       -Some Guy with
                                                        too much time
                                                        on his hands
                                                        TOMMY TRAN
                                                        ttt_42 at mail.utexas.edu