preview

Pathfinder Character Analysis

Decent Essays
Open Document

In Pathfinder, Rigg, the main character, finds his father, the only relative that he had ever met, dying while they were trapping animals. As Rigg’s father dies, he tells Rigg to find his sister in the city of Aressa Sessamo. As Rigg and his childhood friend Umbo journey off to Aressa Sessamo, they face multiple conflicts and problems. Orson Scott Card’s use of Rigg’s and Umbo’s hamartias sets up the problem and raises the stakes. In particular, the author uses Rigg’s inflexible loyalty to his companions and Umbo’ s ignorance of the world to raise the stakes of them being captured or killed. Rigg’s inability to compromise others is helpful when looking at the future of the whole group. However, this loyalty at other times puts himself …show more content…

Umbo had never before traveled outside his home village in his life prior to the events of the book. He had no skills that would help in travelling in the wild and had to learn all these skills while travelling. As a result, he slowed the group down because of his lack of wisdom and knowledge. Umbo, at the beginning of the story, was banished from his home by his father for failing to prevent his brother from falling off a waterfall and dying. Having nowhere to go, he wished to travel with Rigg. However, Rigg could tell his incompetence could get in the way, and spoke with Umbo about his skills, to which Umbo didn’t have many. An example of Rigg’s questioning of Umbo is shown in “‘Can you cook anything?’ asked Rigg. ‘I can always catch some animal we can eat, but… meat begs for seasoning.’ ‘You’ll have to do it,’ said Umbo. ‘I’ve never cooked meat’” (69). This part of the text shows how Umbo had very little practice in surviving in the wild. It also shows how he doesn’t have very many skills that could potentially aid them. Furthermore, Umbo also physically slowed down Rigg in terms of speed. An instance where his deficiency of experience in travelling long distances is “His legs had never tried to cover distance this way before, taking long strides every hour, day after day” (70). The reader can tell from the text that Umbo, in the long run, would significantly slow down Rigg and be a burden to him. The only …show more content…

As they travelled from their little village to Aressa Sessamo, and into another wallfold, they saw and learned things that no other person from their world had seen or done before. Throughout the story, Rigg’s and Umbo’s hamartias of devotion and inexperience threatened to stop them from reaching their goal. In the end, though, they were able to attain their goals even with their hamartias. Their own reliance on each other allowed them to succeed. They all started out at the beginning of the book as people who were ignorant of their own world, but they ended as much more experienced

Get Access
Related
Get Access