: Re: How to keep a dark protagonist who wants to keep his humanity dark? My MC is in a dark line of work. He is an assassin. He is also someone with lines he does not cross. He has been duped

@Kaufman555

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TL;DR, Give him the same personal traits as the here nameless human subject discussed in some of Anna Arendt's writings: a mediocre self-contented clown in need of constant approval from a group of peers he believes to belong to.

Also note that a human being that can justify to him/her-self the murdering of others by any ethical or moral paradigm would probably require a significant amount of cognitive dissonance, as probably was the case for some of the quirkiness of the subject of the book mentioned above.

Returning to A.A.'s book, and the implications for your character: you wish to create a character who commits monstrous acts and yet lives a normal life. The banality and sincerity (in contrast to making it up as an act of deception, e.g. as would be expected of a psychopath) of your character's normal life makes it difficult to perceive him as a monster, then we are left to suspect that he is some sort of clown. On the other hand, to call him a clown would make it harder for us to seriously accuse him of being a murderer.

While in real life we do not play lightly on this topic, in your book, you may decide where to trace the line. Simply bear in mind that the more sincerely and honestly normal your character believes himself to be, the less seriously he will be perceived as an assassin.

Now, to some details, freely borrowing from the book mentioned above:

give your character a fixed set of moral guidelines, which he will refer to every now and then. Your character is unable to think for himself in terms of moral judgement, and has therefore to constantly rely on these mantra to justify himself. Ensure that these guidelines are:
1) repeated mnemonically,
2) copied from reasonable moral laws,
3) stated in a manner that a normal person may agree with them.
For instance "All jobs are alike, and all are in the service of society. Mine is like a cleaning man, like a trash operator, or like a factory worker." or "I do a service to society, removing the bad apples, and preserving the good ones, like a gardener, or a teacher."
your character perceives himself as a "team-player". He has a constant need to feel part of the gang, to please the others with his efficiency, and to feel that his work has not let the rest of the team down. Make him suffer if he is left alone and without directions. By placing the organization above all else, he seriously impairs his ability to perceive the actual implications of what he is doing.
while skilled, your MC should not be particularly intelligent. An intelligent assassin who wishes to live in the same society which he harms is by necessity mentally disturbed. On the other hand, make him reluctant to be tested, or to be faced with his shortcomings. Also, this will help make him unnoticeable, and anonymous, both of which are great traits to fulfill his dream of living amidst other human beings.
Make him boast with his inferior about some of his results, which were not his to start with (e.g. stopping some dictator, or halting a war), and make him meek with his superiors. A clear understanding of the hierarchical ladder will help him fit into society too, obeying to (most of) the law, and even bringing it forward onto others, when given the authority.

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