The Postman is a futuristic novel written by David Brin. The main character of this novel, Gordon Krantz, is a character who poses as a mailman in order to survive in a desolate, barren United States of America. The main question posed by this novel is one that asks: Is Gordon a hero who gives all the hopeless citizens hope once again, or is he just a man who lies his way through everything just to get food and keep on living?.
After reading the novel, I believe that Gordon was definitely a hero. Yes, he might have gone about stuff in a different way, but he needed to lie sometimes just to survive in the threatening environment around him. However, Gordon did not want to be the hero. Gordon wanted a hero to follow, but he did not want to be the hero that led the people of America out of their desolation and strife. Even when Gordon first found the postman's body, he expressed his sorrow for how the man probably lived his life. This is shown on page 32 when the book states: "The brave story of the postman only served to depress Gordon. This tale of struggle against chaos.had a "what if" flavor that was too poignant for him to consider for long." This excerpt goes to show that Gordon was not the type of person to be rebellious and a leader of revolutionary people. Gordon was more the type, in my opinion, to sit back and let other people do whatever they wanted.
When Gordon first arrived at Pine View was when his story really began. Pine View was the first time that anyone else had ever seen Gordon in the postman's uniform. After he finished his performance in front of the villagers, they all started to tell him stories about how their old mailmen used to be. When Gordon tells them that he just found the postman's things, they all decide, unknowingly to Gordon, that he became a postman. On page 41 the book says: "It wasn't until much later, on reflection, that he perceived the significance of what had taken place there.