Heroes is a 1998 novel written by Robert Cormier. It focuses on Francis Cassavant, a WWII veteran on a mission to kill the man who betrayed him in his youth.
Heroes contains examples of:
- Accidental Athlete: Larry LaSalle noticed Francis moping about the Wreck Center about how he wasn't good at anything, and having watched him during calisthenics suggests that his reflexes might suit him for table tennis, which he turns out to be great at after some friendly mentoring.
- Affably Evil: LaSalle remembers his days at the Wreck Center and the kids he taught fondly. He gently tells Francis not to feel guilty about Nicole's rape because there was nothing a kid like him could do about it—LaSalle being the one who perpetrated the rape, this doesn't exactly make Francis feel better..
- Ambiguous Ending: Is Francis going to become a writer like Nicole suggested? Is he going to make up for missing high school and go to college on the GI Bill like he claimed he would to Nicole? Is he going to visit his old war friend in whichever hospital he ended up in, or look up the doctor who promised him that he could have him looking good as new? Or is he going to kill himself after all?
- An Arm and a Leg: LaSalle lost both his legs in the war.
- Anti-Hero:
- Larry LaSalle was sincere about his desire to teach kids to have a better life, and really cared for his students. He honestly joined the army to protect the country (and out of rage at Pearl Harbor) and performed admirably, earning a Silver Star for raiding a Nazi gun nest. But he's also a pedophile who's groomed and raped at least one of the children he teaches that we know of, claiming to be unable to help himself.
- Francis only joined the Army so that he'd die in action because he couldn't bear to kill himself, and threw himself on the grenade in the hopes of dying. By doing so, he saved the lives of his patrol and survived, but he doesn't feel like a hero.
- Broken Ace: Larry LaSalle, an excellent athlete, actor, dancer, and teacher, with movie-star looks, powerful charisma...and a taste for very young teen girls.
- Broken Pedestal: Larry LaSalle for both Francis and Nicole.
- Chekhov's Skill: A sort of reversed case. Francis demonstrates extremely quick reflexes in one battle, shooting two soldiers before they can act. When we flash back to the pre-war days, we see LaSalle praising those very reflexes when it comes to table tennis.
- Cool Teacher: LaSalle was one to all the kids in the Wreck Center, and then he joined the Army and earned a Silver Star. When he went on leave for the first time, he did something very not cool, but only two kids are aware of it.
- Death Seeker: Unable to kill himself for religious reasons Francis instead lied about his age and joined the Army in order to get himself killed in battle, ultimately throwing himself on a grenade but miraculously surviving nonetheless.
- Deer in the Headlights: Francis is paralyzed with shock and denial as he hears his hero LaSalle raping Nicole, and would never forgive himself for his inaction later.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Even though Francis had been hoping that somehow, he and Nicole could get together again, too much has happened, and with Nicole trying to leave her bad memories behind and his presence reminding her of the past he realizes they may never see each other again. Thus they have a bittersweet parting.
- Driven to Suicide: When confronted by Francis, Larry makes a half-hearted attempt to defend his rape of Nicole, then tells Francis he's been contemplating suicide for awhile and asks Francis to let him do it himself..
- Earlier on, Francis himself considered throwing himself off the church rooftop, but decided against doing so, as he's a practicing Catholic and suicide is a sin.
- It turns out that Francis joined the Army in the hopes of getting killed because he couldn't bring himself to commit suicide out of the guilt that haunted him since LaSalle's rape of Nicole Renard, and saw throwing himself on a grenade to be a good way to go.
- The Faceless: Francis states in the opening that "I have no face." He goes on to explain that he still has eyes (no eyebrows), and some ragged flash around his ears, two holes in the middle of his face which seem to constantly drip mucus (and fill his throat with phlegm if he lies flat on his back), and no teeth, though his jaw and (raw, red) cheeks are intact.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Because of his reasons for joining the Army and for jumping on the grenade, Francis doesn't see his actions as worthy of being honored. Others (when they find out about who this mysterious stranger is) disagree.
- Heroic Suicide:
- Francis plans to kill Larry LaSalle, a pedophilic rapist, and then himself without revealing his own identity in order to avenge the rape of Nicole Renard and punish himself for not doing anything to save her.
- Ultimately, Larry, tormented both by his memories of the war and the evil things he's done, goes through with the suicide he'd been planning in order to spare Francis the pain of killing him, begging Francis to leave all his suffering behind and live.
- Hero-Worshipper: The Wreck Center gang and Francis in particular felt this way about LaSalle, to the point where they'd follow his orders almost without question.
- I'm a Man; I Can't Help It: When confronted by Francis, LaSalle says (in so many words) that he knows that his attraction to young girls is wrong but that he can't help himself, asking pathetically if that one sin undoes all the good he's done in his life. Francis tells him to ask Nicole that.
- Love at First Sight: Francis falls for Nicole Renard the second their eyes meet.
- Misplaced Retribution: After LaSalle raped her, Nicole lashed out at Francis, saying a bunch of things she quickly regretted. When she came to apologize, though, he'd already run away and enlisted.
- Murder-Suicide: Francis's plan is to kill Larry and then himself. He goes through with neither.
- My Greatest Failure: Francis blames himself for not doing something to stop Larry LaSalle from raping Nicole Renard, even though LaSalle himself points out that there was nothing a kid like him could've done anyway.
- Mysterious Past: Larry LaSalle shows up one day in the Frenchtown district of Monument and turns the dubious rec center into a vibrant theater, dance, and exercise studio. However, he discourages questions about his past, and while some people manage to dig up evidence that he was once a famous stage star in New York, no one knows why he'd come from there to a nowhere town like Monument. Some people mention dark rumors that he'd gotten into trouble and had to leave. Sometimes rumors are true.
- Never My Fault: Zigzagged. At first Larry LaSalle makes a weak justification for his rape of Nicole, and asks if his sin of liking young girls outweighs all the good he's done...but finally admits that he's been thinking of killing himself and that being confronted by Francis has convinced him to finally go through with it.
- Really 17 Years Old: Francis lied about his age and joined the Army while he was still a middle-schooler—he's still high-school-aged for the non-flashback portions of the novel (senior year, in fact).
- Secret Identity: Francis comes back to Frenchtown, and deliberately uses a fake name and refuses to identify himself so he won't recognized as the kid who went off to war. That way when he kills Larry LaSalle and himself, no one will know who he was and he won't being shame upon his parents.
- Secret-Keeper:
- Arthur Rivier, one of Francis's friends, recognizes him but keeps quiet about it at his request.
- Neither Francis nor Nicole tell anyone in Frenchtown about LaSalle's rape of the latter, allowing the town to believe he's still a spotless hero.
- Serial Rapist: It is heavily implied by the ending that Larry LaSalle is one.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran:
- Many of Francis's old friends who went to war ended up with this to some degree.
- Larry LaSalle ends the war as one of these.
- These Hands Have Killed: Francis flashes back to a time when he shot two German soldiers no older than he was, and later recounts the event to someone else with regret.
- Villain's Dying Grace: Before killing himself, LaSalle pleads with Francis to leave the pain of the war and that night behind with LaSalle and live on.
- Widowed at the Wedding: Grenier's Hall used to host all sorts of parties and events until an incident where a jilted man crashed a wedding, gun blazing, and shot the bride and groom. She died, he was crippled, and the jilted man hanged himself. They boarded the building up, and it got a reputation as a "bad-luck" place.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: LaSalle tells Francis that knowing him as he does, Francis would've jumped on that grenade whether he was suicidal or not in order to save people. Francis doesn't care to hear it.
