| This thesis is a portion of the first book in a planned series of novels collectively called The Slayer Wars. Since I was a child, I have been fascinated by the fantasy genre, and, now that I am older, by the subtle ways fantasy attempts to address human nature, good and evil, racism, as well as the ability of humans to be both great and terrible.;But what is evil? Whose definition do we use to describe the difference? Are we all capable of being terrible as well as great? The fact that humans can, on one hand, say we strive for peace and understanding and then subsequently wage war and kill thousands is problematic. It creates a great contradiction, where a slew of justifications arise, most notably that to keep peace and freedom we must go to war. But who gets to define freedom, and who gets to have freedom? If killing is considered evil, when, if at all, does it become right?;In addition, if we cannot even conclusively answer these questions, how can we begin to answer the question of who we are as individuals? In a world that is always changing, and in our own daily lives where the possibility that something could happen that changes us for the remainder of our lives, can we ever be certain?;It is toward this end that Ariel, The Broken works. Each character struggles with the issue of identity, as well as functioning to increasingly blur the lines of perception and the notion of good and evil. Differing perspectives are explored, causing friends and enemies to find unexpected similarities, often to their own horror, as they become less and less certain of who they are and what truly motivates them. |
