Pablo Escobar: A Hero or A Villain

In the article, “Pablo Escobar: A Hero or a Villain”, the author describes Escobar as a hero. Of course he doesn’t just plain out say it though. He uses the language of legends to do that. In the article the author decides to tell the reader all the bad things about Escobar first and then tell us the good things. By doing so, it helped reinforce that most people talk about how ruthless Escobar was without knowing his side of the story. This also shows when the author says, “However, there is another side of Pablo Escobar that we often fail to hear about,” (Game of Roles). The author is trying to make us understand that Pablo didn’t only do bad things. He goes on to say, “Even to this day, Escobar is referred to as “The Godfather” or “Robin Hood” by his people because of the invaluable contributions he has made for the society,” (Game of Roles)which is a comparison. He described Escobar as Robin Hood, he did this to make Escobar seemed like a good person. He author then says that Escobar was from a poor background yet he rose to the top and donated to the community even though he came from a poor background (Game of Roles). This use of language is worth mentioning since it has the use of the underdog theme. It’s trying to say that even though Escobar had a bad childhood, he still managed to go up there and do good things. It’s also trying to show us that Escobar cared about the community. At the end of the article the author asks, “What do you guys think? Should Escobar be named as a hero or a villain?” (A Game of Roles) This is noteworthy since he talks about all the good that Escobar has done and then asks us what we think. It’s like he is trying to reinforce the idea that do you really think Escobar is bad after hearing all this?