“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go” - T.S. Elliot. When the world falls and seemingly all is lost, heros take a firm initiative to be a shining beacon in a world of darkness through expressing traits such as being open to growth, loving, and committed to doing the right thing. People like Robert Neville, Tim Foster, and Sensei Tomonaga Ijiro are heroes for expressing these exact traits in a different worlds of utter chaos. Neville shows his loving personality by risking his own life to save his dog, Sam, and welcoming Anna and Ethan despite years of isolation. Tim Foster shows his Open to Growth by getting over his parents death to fight for the future of mankind and by rapidly promoting through the Robert Neville goes into a building full of Darkseekers to save his beloved companion, Sam, from the Darkseekers (I Am Legend, Lawrence). Neville knows very well that he is putting his life at risk when he runs into the dark, creaky, and partially demolished building to save his K-9 companion, but he is ready to make the ultimate sacrifice. Having known Sam since his earliest days as a puppy, Neville shows his elevated, heroic love for his best friend in this time of distress. After meeting the first people he has seen in years, Robert shows his accepting ability by opening up his shelter, food, and heart to Anna and Ethan (I Am Legend, Lawrence). Despite losing everything, including his family, friends, and part of his sanity, Robert still opens up to Anna and Ethan with welcoming arms and lets them at his resources. By showing these two travelers the same love he would show his family, Neville proves that he can use this crucial trait to survive in the post apocalyptic future. As Neville continues to survive in this partially destroyed world, he shows his ability to love through rescuing his dog from a building full of dark seekers and accepting two wary travelers with open arms, by doing these things, Neville shows that he can be a bright light in a world without
Many would assume that this would be a very peaceful and joyous reunion for Price and his family, however, several new struggles ensue for him instead. This is due to him becoming so accustomed to spending his life in the war that he can no longer comprehend what purpose and identity he holds removed from it. Given the severe monotony he was subjected to during the war, Price has now become just as prompt in making decisions at home as on the battlefield by no longer taking the time to “think” before acting. In fact, Price’s own dog named Vicar serves as a symbol to represent Price’s “civilian” mindset, which repeatedly conflicts with his “war” mindset until it is no longer bearable. Therefore, Price is forced to kill Vicar as he can no longer manage his conflicting mindsets. The parallels drawn between the stories of Price and Vicar and Cross and Martha serve to suggest that even though one details the struggles of a soldier in the war, while the other elaborates on a soldier’s struggle removed from it, they both share the same consequence of having to put away their humanity in order to settle the dispute between conserving their identities as civilians, and remaining obligated to their duties in
In T.H. White's Once and Future King, fate plays a very important role in Arthur's life when he meets Merlyn and Merlyn becomes his mentor. When they first met, Arthur was confused as to why Merlyn was going all the way home with him until Merlyn said, "Why not? How else can I be your tutor?" (37) Arthur realizes he had been on a quest to find his tutor. This quote is important to the theme because it was Arthur's first quest on his journey towards king. This reason this quote is so important is because Merlyn is preparing Arthur to become a great leader. After all of Arthur's training with Merlyn, Merlyn tells Arthur that he might not know it yet but he will be, "Hic jacet Arthutus Rex quandum Rexque futurus... The Once and Future King." (287) This quote foreshadows that Arthur, will in fact, become the great leader. If it were not for training with Merlyn, he would not be the great leader he developed into throughout the book.
A brave hero often risks his/her lives to save someone else. In Zeitoun, Dave Eggers tells us a story of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, the hard working Syrian American owner of a contracting company in New Orleans. Zeitoun and his wife Kathy ran the company together. They have three children named Nademah, Safiyah, Aisha. Kathy has a child from her first marriage. Zeitoun is very closed with his family and he takes his family like nobody else. When hurricane Katrina landed in 2005, endless number of people were affected. Mayor Nagin ordered a first time ever mandatory evacuation. Kathy moved with the children to her sister’s house in Baton Rouge. Zeitoun refused to leave with his family because he didn’t want lose his properties, but at the same time, his customers trusted him and gave him their house keys to check on their houses, which caused his separation with his family. This illustrates that Zeitoun is a responsible, powerful, trustworthy, and unselfish person. During the hurricane, Zeitoun was using a canoe rescuing people. Due to the lack of rescue work, many people didn’t get enough supports at that time. Zeitoun had the courage to sacrifice his family, safety, and selfish needs for saving the people.
Derek Vinyard is a character in the film American History X. He is a great example of an anti-hero. Before prison, Derek Vinyard character is really unlikeable and he is sickening. He was a true definition of a villain. He is a former neo-Nazi who organizes crimes to destroy families and humiliate people. He even treats his own family with disrespect, such as in a scene where he grabbed his sister by her hair and shoves food down her throat. Later he spent three years in jail for man slaughtering two black men. He shot one and the other, he brutally curb-stomped to death outside his house for trying to steal his truck. In prison, he becomes friendly with a black inmate and was rapped by members of the Aryan Brotherhood. Upon release from prison,
The Odyssey and O Brother Where Art Thou are considered a representation of each other in some ways and prove more similar than it is commonly thought. Although the overall persona of each portrayal is quite different, it still illustrates the same message. A good lesson to be learned from this comparison is to contemplate your actions to prevent bleak situations from occurring. The characters in these tales had to understand the consequences by experiencing it themselves. Acknowledging the time period that these voyages took place in, they didn't have anybody to teach them proper ways to go about situations.
“When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness” (Campbell 1). These words by the scholar Joseph Campbell illustrates his philosophy of the hero’s journey, which contains the three criteria of a hero. From these three criteria, he describes a hero’s journey beginning with a departure, fulfillment, and a return which encompasses the hero’s sacrifice for the good of others. As a result, from Amy Tan’s novel The Joy Luck Club, the characters could be applied to Campbell’s theory of heroism due to their life experiences. For example, the character Rose does not undergo a heroic journey. From Campbell’s theory of heroism, Rose contains the departure and the fulfillment of a hero; however, she lacks a concrete return Campbell describes as the moral objective to sacrifice for another person or idea.
“Humanity is going to require a substantially new way of thinking if it is to survive.” -Albert Einstein. This quote, along with the documentary, is so eye opening to how our society functions and what it’s based on. In I Am, Tom Shadyac had the same dream and goals of many others in the USA: to stand out, be different, and be better than others. Well, until he got in a terrible bike crash where he broke a hand and got a serious concussion. It doesn’t seem like anything life changing, but the catch is that he was told that he had also had gotten post-concussion syndrome. PC syndrome is where you have all the symptoms of a concussion but for an extended amount of time; it can last for weeks, months, or even as long as you live. For several months after the crash Shadyac had very strong symptoms and ended up isolating himself because he was always in pain. He
In the Irish detective novel In the Woods by Tana French, we confront the dilemma of discerning the good from the bad almost immediately after cracking open the covers—the narrator and main character, Robert Ryan, openly admits that he “…crave[s] truth. And [he] lie[s].” (French 4) But there is more to this discernment than the mere acceptance that our narrator embellishes the occasional truth; we must be ever vigilant for clues that hint at the verisimilitude of what the narrator is saying, and we must also consider its relation to Robert’s difference from the anticlimactic (essentially, falsehood) and the irrevocable (that which is unshakeable truth). That is, the fact that in distinguishing the good from the bad, we are forced to mentally
Doaker- A forty seven year old, tall, patient man that has a lot of respect for others. Even though he caves into people he is still a respectable figure.
real reason he got blind. He knows that seeing the eclipse without protection wasn't the
The novel Lord of the Flies was written by William Golding. Golding wanted the story to be about a group of young boys whose plane crashed on an island, trying to escape war. The whole concept of this was so that he can show what a group of people can become given a set of inflicting conflicts that can change them for better or for worst. He gives great detail on how they go from sane to insane in a matter of time and turn into someone completely different all together. One of the boys on the island is named Simon. Simon’s personality and traits are similar to Jesus Christ because they both posse a form of insight, spirituality, and compassion.
Jake, Lucy’s neighbor was a well-educated kid. He was 15 years old and lives in an old timber house with his parents. Jake’s father was a farmer and had lived in the area since he was a lad. The area seemed to be haunted since creepy tales about all sorts of beasts was told. People even claimed that they were awakened some nights by a howling. Mostly people believed that it was a feral dog but Jakes father incised that it was a wolf, a ghost wolf. He was sure since he had seen a wolf in the forest when he was in Jake’s age, but none believed him. He kept telling his son about the wolf and Jake wanted to find out the truth. Lucy knew about Jake’s curiosity, at the same time as she decided to escape from her unbearable father. So she lied to get Jake by her side on the endless escape from the futureless community. She said that she knew where the wolf’s lair was. Jake got even more curious and joined her wolf hunting-adventure.
The Great Gatsby is a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald representing the life upon which Jay Gatsby lives; Fitzgerald portrays Gatsby as a young man who rises from poverty to riches in order to gain attention from his long lost lover. Having only one dream and trying to recreate the past ultimately leads to the dreamers downfall. Gatsby tries to create the illusion of a “rich Gatsby” to attempt and reinvigorate the love that Daisy and him had in the past, losing in sight everything he built for himself. For every dream there truly is a cost and in the novel Gatsby does everything possible to attain this dream disregarding the cost in the long run.
Dorothy Johnson in “A Man Called Horse” writes about a young man who was born and raised in Boston. He lives in a gracious home under his grandmothers and grandfather’s loving care. For some reason, he is discontent. He leaves home to try to find out the reason for his discontent. Upon leaving he undergoes a change in status and opinion of himself and others. He begins a wealthy young man arrogant and spoiled, becomes a captive of Crow Indians- docile and humble, and emerges a man equal to all.
There is another type of hero that almost no one is aware of. In the poorest areas of the country, live mostly minorities and other ethic background. All their lives they’ve been expected to work harder and expected not succeed in life. Some individuals living in poverty with a determination to succeed work hard all of their lives to become what everybody doubted they could. Escaping the crime, drugs, and prostitution is enough to escape hell, even if they don’t go to college. Despite of their financial problems, drug and crime surroundings, or difficulties in the language skills, their desire to triumph fuels their persistence. Those who make it to success are the few living examples of the purest form of hero anyone can be. They are not only their own heroes but also the heroes of the poor children who dream of becoming like them someday.