Outlaw Heroes in LiteratureIn "The Thematic Paradigm", Robert Ray explains how there are two distinctly different heroes, the outlaw hero and the official hero. The official hero embraces communal values ​​and traditional beliefs, while the outlaw has a clear sense of right and wrong but operates above the law (Ray). Ray explains how the role of an outlaw hero has many traits. “The appeal of the outlaw hero's infantilism and propensity for tantrums, tantrums, and emotional decisions comes from the American cult of childhood,” Ray says. (309) Ray also says, “To the outlaw hero's inconsistency about private standards of right and wrong, the official hero admonished: You cannot take the law into your own hands.” (312) The values ​​of these two traditional heroes contrast sharply. Society favors the outlaw hero because we identify more with that character. We see ourselves more in the outlaw hero than in the official hero. The outlaw hero has the "childish" qualities that most of us wish we had as adults. To civilians it may seem like the outlaw hero is living more of a fantasy life that we all wish we had. Robert B. Ray classifies Casablanca as "the most typical" American film. Ray uses Casablanca as a tutor text for what he calls the formal paradigm of classical Hollywood, as well as the thematic paradigm that addresses the conflict between isolationism and community participation. The film is typical in its appropriation of an official hero Laszlo, who defends the civilizing values ​​of home and community, and an outlaw hero Rick, who represents the individual...... middle of paper ..... .n isolationist. If the Casablanca audience had to choose between Rick and Laszlo, they would choose Rick because everything in the film prepared them to choose him, which represents the rejection of America's involvement in world politics. Instead, the film relieves the audience of the need for choice by moving the film's political conflict into melodrama, where familiar emotions prevail over ideas. Although Victor Laszlo is always in Rick's shadow, he defends his father's values ​​and the prevailing American belief in 1942 that freedom is worth fighting and dying for, which is the official definition of a hero. By censoring the theme of America's reluctance to give up its autonomy, the film spares the audience the agony of taking sides against their father's values, condensing the Oedipal resolution into another shared experience between Rick and the viewer..