Dune by Frank Herbert

In the novel, Dune, by Frank Herbert, the main character Paul, Maud Dib, is both a hero and an anti-hero. Paul leads a rebellion against the empire, and frees the slave like workers of Arrakis. However, at the same time, he becomes addicted to the spice melange, a drug used by navigators in order to travel through space. The spice gives the navigators of the space Guild the ability to fold space, and travel to any place in the universe without moving. Therefore, the spice is the most valuable substance in the universe. It extends life, expands consciousness, and is the basis for all currency. The only planet in the universe where the spice exists is Arrakis or Dune. Dune is a desert like planet. Paul Atreides, Maud Dib is the leader the people of Arrakis, the Fremen, have been waiting to appear for centuries. He is a messiah like figure of myth and legend. The people of Arrakis or Dune are addicted to the spice. The spice causes mutations. Their eyes are deep blue from their addiction, and their level of consciousness is greater than normal beings. They have the ability to see into the future, and are in some ways omniscient. Paul in an attempt to free his people, and avenge his father's death, becomes addicted to the spice in order to gain the power he needs to control the planet, in so doing he becomes bot hero and anti-hero.

The Emperor, in an attempt, to maintain his power, plays two great houses Harkonnen, and Atreides, against each other. The result is war on Arrakis and the death of Paul's father the duke. The guild wants Paul killed, they fear the power he will possess when he becomes addicted to the spice. Paul is forced to live among the Fremen in the deep desert and becomes their leader. Dune has no water, and even urine, seat and breath is recycled into water, through a stillsuit. The Fremen recognize Paul as Maud Dib when he puts on the stillsuit as if was one of them, as if is natural. Later he tells his mother

"Drink all your water," Paul said. "Axiom: the best place to conserve your water is in your body. It keeps your energy up. You're stronger. Trust your stillsuit."

Paul is more than Maud Dib. He is also the Kwisatz Haderach of the Bene Gesserit. The Bene Gesserit are a group of witches or truthsayers who rule with the various leaders of the world. They have their own agenda. The Kwisatz Haderach is "the male who can truly can become one of us" (P. 26). Paul as the Kwisatz Haderach has amazing powers. He can go to places in the mind the other witches fear. The Bene Gesserit fear they may not be able to control Paul who has powers beyond their abilities. These powers aid Paul in helping the Fremen gain their freedom.

Paul's heroic quality begins to show in the beginning of the book. The Guild wish to kill Paul, and send an assassin to kill Paul. They are afraid he will drink the water of life. Paul senses the assassin with his Bene Gesserit training. He stays perfectly still knowing the assassin will be attracted to any movement. He knows if he shouts out, someone will come and save him, but he also knows the person who walks through the door will be killed. Mape, a Fremen woman, walks through the door and Paul catches the assassin, before it can harm her. He continues to show his heroic qualities when he and his mother escape the Harkonnens. Paul successfully crash lands the ship and saves their lives.

Paul jerked off the safety harness, hurled himself upward across his mother, wrenching the door open. Sand poured around them into the cabin, bringing a dry smell of burned flint. He grabbed the pack from the rear, saw that his mother was free of her harness. She stepped up onto the side of the right-hand seat and out onto the thopter's metal skin. Paul followed, dragging the pack by its straps. (P. 243)

He naturally knows what to do, as if he was born a Fremen, and Jessica obeys him. Paul becomes the leader of the Fremen, Maud Dib, and their hero. He learns to ride the worms, and the ways of the Fremen culture. They see him as a religious hero who will lead them out of slavery and the spice mines. He becomes a great warrior and proves his worth in battle. He also drinks the water of life, and becomes a wise spiritual leader.

In the end, Paul's power turns him into both a hero and an anti-hero. The Princess Irulan says in the "Arrakis Awakening: He was warrior and mystic, ogre and saint, the fox and the innocent, chivalrous, ruthless, less than a god, more than a man. There is no measuring Maud Dib's motives by ordinary standards. In the moment of his triumph, he saw the dead prepared for him, yet he accepted the treachery. Can you say he did this out of a sense of justice? Whose justice, then? (P. 466).

He is a hero to the Fremen, Maud Dib, the Messiah who leads them out of the desert and into prominence. He becomes obsessed with the power he possesses and his own self-worth. The change becomes obvious to his mother, Jessica, when Paul tells her: "How would you like to live billions upon billions of lives?" Paul asked. "There's a fabric of legends for you? Think of all those experiences, the wisdom they'd bring. But wisdom tempers love, doesn't it? And it puts a new shape on hate. How can you tell what's ruthless unless you've plumbed the depths of both cruelty and kindness? You should fear me, Mother. I am the Kwisatz Haderach." (P. 470)

Paul suffers the fate of all religious and political leaders. The problem is man cannot be both. Before Paul defeats the Harkonnen's and becomes Emperor, Jessica tells him of an old Bene Gesserit proverb: When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movement become headlong--faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thought of obstacles and forget that a precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it's too late. (P. 382)

Paul in combining politics and religion falls over the precipice and becomes an anti-hero while at the same time he is a hero. He should have let others govern, and stayed a religious and spiritual leader. However, when his thirst for power causes him to force the overthrow of the Emperor, he becomes what he despises.