I chose to analyze "Pawn of Prophecy" by David Eddings, it is Book
One of a five-volume series called The Belgariad. Genre: Fantasy.
Protagonist: Garion, a young boy who is struggling to define his identy
and origins. This book mainly sets the stage for the rest of the
series, providing the childhood events which bring Garion to accept his
destiny -- to face his inherited enemy, Asharak, an evil sorcerer.
The prologue sets up the larger conflict line, showing the ancient battle
fought by the immortal sorcerer Belgarath versus the evil god Torak over
the powerful Orb of Aldur, ending with Torak lying "asleep" beneath his
mountain temple, and the Orb guarded by the Rivan Kings. The book
begins thousands of years later, with the hint that soon Belgarath and
his immortal daughter Polgara will have to renew their ancient conflict
with the worshippers of Torak.
At first blush, this would lead one to see Belgarath vs. Torak as the
conflict line, with the goal being good prevailing over evil or possibly
the rewards of unity (Belgarath unites the various peoples to fight Torak)
vs. the awful consequences of greed (Torak ends up blinded and disfigured
and put into a coma of sorts.) Yet even though those lines were sketched
out in the prologue, the first chapter starts somewhere completely different,
with Garion as a small child on Faldor's farm, being guarded over by "Aunt
Pol." (obviously the sorceress Polgara) and Durnik, the prosaic blacksmith.
Pol will not tell Garion anything about his parents.
On page one, after showing Garion playing securely on the farm, the
real antagonist of this book is foreshadowed -- Garion sees a figure
in a dark cloak watching him play, and this causes Garion to feel a cold
chill of aprehension, but he finds he is unable to tell anyone about seeing
him. This gives us a double goal for young Garion: to find
out who the recurring dark figure is, and to find out who Garion himself
really is. These goals are the impetus driving the plot as
Garion must choose whether to remain a child, ignorant of larger forces
in the world, or whether to rise to the greater and often frightening challenges
of his kingly heritage.
By mid-book, Garion has reached rock-bottom because his eavesdropping
and putting together of clues have convinced him that he is not who he
always thought he was. It is especially painful for him to think
that his aunt Pol is not really his aunt. Every chapter is full of
scenes, mostly dialog, which unfold the drama of Garion's inner conflict.
He becomes more and more determined to show himself a man so that people,
especially aunt Pol, will stop treating him as a child.
This decision of his to behave as a man and find out the answers to
his questions causes Garion to get into scrapes and situations he is unready
for from the first chapter to the last, as his idea of solving his dilemmas
is usually to rush headlong into danger without telling anyone where he
is. In the second half of the book, which takes place at the Cherek
Palace where all the Alorian Kings are meeting, Garion decides to spy on
the spy. In other words, he follows the suspicious character he has
seen, thus alerting the royalty of a terrible plot in the nick of time.
Along the way he also learns of his own identity and the identity of his
enemy, plus he comes face-to-face with his terrifying enemy and survives,
ready to face the next challenge. This relsolves, at least partially,
both Garion's inner and exterior conflicts.
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