The high school book club met last night, and we discussed "Usagi Yojimbo" by Stan Sakai. This book is the high school selection for February in the "Get Inspired!: Meet a Hero @ Your Library" program.Well, the discussion got a little heated. Most of us in the group are not graphic novel readers, so that might have been part of the problem. One member liked the book a lot, especially enjoying the Japanese setting. Two members gave the book a weak "ok," with both of them mentioning the lizards as their favorite part of the book (and the lizards are more comic relief than vital to the story). One member felt very strongly that the book was an inappropriate choice for the "Get Inspired!" series. She thought the main character Miyamoto Usagi was not heroic in any way since he mainly acted as a hired gun, killing for payment.
If you've read Usagi Yojimbo, what do you think? Do you find anything heroic in this character?
2 comments:
Ok, if you're not a graphic novel reader, this might not be your thing. But moving on to the question about whether Usagi is heroic or not ... well, what is a hero? I hope that there is some discussion about that. I personally agree that I don't consider the job of a hired gun to be a heroic profession per se, but I think that what is being shown in this book is the idea that the samurai had a code of honor. And that code is what Usagi and the other samurai personify in their lives and actions.
Yes, we did talk about what makes a hero: compassion, altruism, bravery, and skill were mentioned. I think some book club members were put off by Usagi's crankiness. He was looking for a "huge reward" in the horse thief chapter, and he hoped the "simple farmers" would pay him to rid them of the beast in the "Village of Fear." Ultimately, Usagi's actions were honorable, but his motives at times seemed less than heroic.
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