Comparisons
As most of the characters in Blart are parodies of archetypes found in the Swords and Sorcery genre, the character of Zoltab is basically the stereotypical Dark Lord character, an incredibly powerful villain who was defeated years ago but whose vengeful spirit is ever waiting to return and whose name people fear to speak. His character was probably inspired by that of Sauron from The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, an evil Dark Lord who was banished from the world long ago but whose minions seek to bring about his return. As Dominic Barker's novel largely pokes fun at the fantasy genre, particularly the works of Tolkien this is probably the case. Zoltab is also very similar to Melkor from The Silmarillion, being one of the divine beings that were appointed by a god-like figure to protect the world but who fell from grace and sort to use his power for his own ends. However as Melkor fell because of pride, Barker turns the tale on its head by having Zoltab turn evil due to feelings of inferiority. Zoltab is also very reminiscent of Satan from John Milton's Paradise Lost. John Milton's depiction of Satan also heavily influenced Tolkien in his creation of Melkor and Sauron.
On an interesting side-note Zoltab sports a slight scar that causes his upper lip to be permanently wrinkled. As a result, Barker describes his face as being fixed in "a sneer of cold command." This may be a reference to the Percy Shelley poem, Ozymandias in which the sculpture of a proud king's is said to possess "a wrinkled lip" and a "sneer of cold command." Like Ozymandias, Zoltab is an arrogant ruler whose hubris leads to his downfall.
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Famous quotes containing the word comparisons:
“The surest route to breeding jealousy is to compare. Since jealousy comes from feeling “less than” another, comparisons only fan the fires.”
—Dorothy Corkville Briggs (20th century)
“Decade after decade, artists came to paint the light of Provincetown, and comparisons were made to the lagoons of Venice and the marshes of Holland, but then the summer ended and most of the painters left, and the long dingy undergarment of the gray New England winter, gray as the spirit of my mood, came down to visit.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“I don’t like comparisons with football. Baseball is an entirely different game. You can watch a tight, well-played football game, but it isn’t exciting if half the stadium is empty. The violence on the field must bounce off a lot of people. But you can go to a ball park on a quiet Tuesday afternoon with only a few thousand people in the place and thoroughly enjoy a one-sided game. Baseball has an aesthetic, intellectual appeal found in no other team sport.”
—Bowie Kuhn (b. 1926)