The Running Man

How does the story link to Appearances?

 

Throughout the novel, Michael Gerard Bauer has shown through the use of certain characters, the three main key objectives:

• Fear is predominantly based on appearances;

• People are not always how they appear/seem 

• People's past experiences shape/influence how they react to new situations or other people. 

 

Particular characters such as Mrs Mossop, Tom Leyton and The Running Man have all been judged and sometimes feared due to their appearance and in the case of Mrs Mossop, have made assumptions about others based on their appearance. (See more on these characters here)

 

Through the eyes of Joseph, we see how these characters change over the course of the novel as he begins to see past their appearances and how others would see them to who they are behind all the fear and assumptions. Through Joseph, we can see what has happened to them to cause others to perceive them that way. The characters from the novel have shown that there are more to some people than what meets the eye and that you cannot know what people have been through if you do not know them yourself.