Protagonist

Character Role Analysis

The Continental Op

Since Red Harvest is written in the first person, it should be pretty obvious that the protagonist of the story is the Op. But the Op isn't a cookie cutter good guy. He does have a code of conduct that he follows very closely, but he's also a guy who lives by the motto that "the end justifies the means." Translation: The Op thinks that the morality of an action is based solely on the outcome of that action and not on the action itself.

So if we apply this motto to the Op's actions, we know that his goal is to purify Personville, whatever it takes. The way he goes about doing that is to get all the bad guys to kill themselves off. Is this a moral action? Meh. The Op succeeds in cleansing Personville, but he accomplishes it through violence. Even though he doesn't ever kill anyone himself, he is the one who triggers the cycle of bloodshed. Does this affect his status as the good guy? If so, how? In what ways can the Op be seen as an anti-hero?