Heroes, Gods and Monsters: Re-Framing Myth in A.S Byatts Ragnarok: the End of the Gods: the Pressure to Conform

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The favorite character of the thin child in Asgrad and the Gods is Loki, 'a being who was neither this nor that'[p.42]. He is a trickster who alone among the gods possessed the ability to change his shape and even his sex. She admires him for his humor, his wit, his ability to change shapes and his cleverness[p.45]. The reader can notice similar interest between Loki and the thin child when the thin child studies nature on her way to school [p.36] or thoughtfully observes the behavior of her helpless mother [p.82] just like Loki does when he tries to understand the chaos in nature [p.114] or when he knows how to manipulate his fellow gods [p.95] which requires a big understanding of interhuman relations. In this essay I want to illustrate how the thin child renounces her interests to avoid risks. The thin child first meets a pressure to conform when she is participating on the scripture lesson in church. She can't make any sense of the stories and pictures she gets confronted with and, as a result, feels guilty: 'She tried to think she might be wicket for thinking these things' [p.12]. Reading Asgrad and the Gods, as well as taking the way to school which leads her through colorful meadows [p.33-36], still allows her to live out her creativity and curiosity though, and it distracts her from the bad circumstances the second World War brings: 'It was only one thing[...], of which the thin child, having put down her bundle and gas-mask, was only one among many.' [p.36] However beautiful it may have been to live in the countryside, the thin child and her mother, who fled to the countryside, go back home after the war. The father of the thin child, who was never expected to return from World War II, returns. What being back home means for the thin child, however, shows the reader that this is not a happy ending: 'They went back home, the thin child and the

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