Flames are coming out of every opening in a building and a firefighter runs in to save someone that is inside. A police officer is shot while trying to ensure that no innocent lives are taken of those being held hostage inside a bank. A lifeguard jumps into the deep end of the pool to save a drowning child. Firefighters, police officers, lifeguards or even the next door neighbor could be considered heroes. Why does society have a need for heroes? What traits should heroes have? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a hero in the following ways: a) a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability b) an illustrious warrior c) a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities d) one that shows great courage. Most of society considers a hero to be someone that saves another person’s life. The person doesn’t necessarily have great strength or ability. In mythology, a hero is a role model with extreme courage that does something to change or improve life for everyone.
Heracles, from Greek mythology, is one of the greatest examples of a hero.
The story of Heracles is a simple one. Alcmene, a mere mortal, is tricked by Zeus when he turns himself into her husband. She becomes pregnant with Zeus’ child. Heracles is born part mortal and partly immortal because of the situation. Hera, Zeus’ wife, became angry that Zeus has been unfaithful once again and tries to kill Heracles. As Heracles began to grow older, Hera became more and more jealous of him. She became jealous of his strength, prowess and good looks. Knowing that every other scheme she had failed, she decided to drive him to a state of insanity. In his insane state of mind, he murdered his wife and children. He exiled himself and didn’t know what he was going to do. Feeling extremely remorseful and wanting to atone for his sins, he was told to serve his cousin, Eurystheus, king of Mycenae and perform twelve labors. Each task became more difficult than the one before it but Heracles successfully completed them all. After his success with the twelve tasks and being freed, he obtained another wife. An enemy of Heracles, on his death bed, gave Heracles’ wife poison which she thought was a love potion. He told her that it would make Heracles fall back in love with her if she suspected that he was falling out of love. She washed his clothes with it and e...
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...ot done while here, will be reflected on upon a person’s death. Technically, everyday that a person lives, is one step closer to death. Life is a lot shorter than people realize. Life is already predetermined before we are even born. When we die, it’s God’s way of letting us know that our time is up. People say that they cheat death all the time, but that isn’t necessarily the truth. A person that survives death once or twice should realize that it just wasn’t his/hers time to go. Most people have a fear of death. I think it’s because some don’t know where their soul will end up when their time is over on earth. People shouldn’t fear death, if they are doing the right things in life.
Learning about different types of myths is interesting. Myths give a person insight into the culture of the people that wrote the myth. You can find out what their belief system was all about. Judging the validity of the myths is the same way atheists and other religion judge the validity of the Bible. People have to be able to keep their own beliefs with judging others’ beliefs. It’s all about being open-minded. Learning about mythology helps a person to learn about themselves as well as others.
The issues involving The Tragedy of Julius Ceaser is an equivocal topic, although to narrow one down is to reiterate how the men and women are viewed in this society. This play written by William Shakespeare, he introduced numerous characters but there are a few focal characters that surface around the idea of a bend in gender roles. To clarify, the characters that illustrate this are Julius Ceaser, the romans leader, as well as, his wife Calpurnia; and the other being Brutus, Ceasers friend, and his devoted wife Portia. This book reveals how dominance was ensued in men, while women’s worries were taken into account, but when challenged by a man’s there was no decision to be made the man hurled toward their fellow man’s idea. They felt that the men made more logical decisions when in fact that was utterly wrong.
According to google.com a hero is someone who “is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievments, or noble equalities.” (google.com). For example, superman , superman is an all time american classic modern hero who is admired for his courage and for saving earth multiple times from super villains. Another example of a hero is Beowulf. Beowulf was created around 1000 AD and was known far and wide throughout the lands for his selflessness,bravery, and courage .
Loewen defines heroification as “a degenerative process (much like calcification) that makes people over into heroes” (Loewen 11). During this process, negative or controversial facts are often ignored or altered in regards to these heroes, which create “perfect creatures without conflicts, pain, credibility, or human interest (Loewen 11). When one changes or omits facts concerning figures in history for this type of glorification, we are left with an invented story of the event or person; in other words, history has become a myth. History textbooks are filled with these types of glorifications, especially older texts. The purpose of heroification is to present events or people in a favorable light and to give ideal role models in which to follow. In my own words, I call Loewen’s heroification an effective form of brainwashing. For example, I was always taught that the Civil War was fought to free slaves, but later learned this war was about states succeeding from the Union. Many people still believe the Emancipation Proclamation’s purpose was to free the slaves; however, it was actually the last resort Lincoln used to win the Civil War. Of course, this is not how these events were portrayed to most of us in History class. Heroification alters the purpose of these events so that we, as citizens, can feel proud that America did away with slavery because our forefathers felt it was morally wrong. Loewen also points out how heroification can lead to role models in the case of Helen Keller, “the blind and deaf girl who overcame her physical handicaps, as an inspiration to generations of schoolchildren” (Loewen 12). The problem with Keller being used as an exemplary model for American schoolchildren is that only her early life is portr...
On the way to their prom, there was a horrific car crash. 20 teens exited their white stretch limo to help the people that were hurt. They worked together as a team to evacuate the cars and bring people to safety. Once everyone was taken care of and everyone was safe, the teens continued on to their prom to enjoy their night. All of the teens that helped save the victims of the car crash are heroes. What is a hero? There are many different types of heroes. Whether it is a teacher that helps a child realize what they wanted to be in life or a firefighter that saved someone from a burning building. A hero is someone that would risk everything to save only one person. A role-model that everyone should aspire to be. Not someone that manipulates
Fear of the unknown, and fear of what is to come in our lives, has generations of people wondering what will our lives be like tomorrow or the next day. Death is always there and we cannot escape it. Death is a scary thing. Our own mortality or the mortality of our loved ones scares us to the point that we sometimes cannot control how we are dealing with such a thing as the thought of death. Why do we fear such a thing as death? We don’t know what happens after we don’t how it feels. The fear of death is different for most but it is most certain to come and we cannot hide from it. For death is just around the corner and maybe it’s will come tomorrow or the next day! We fear not death, but the unknown that comes from death, that is the
What makes a hero? To me a hero is a person that does whatever is necessary to protect the people they’re serving or protecting. In the dictionary it says a hero is “a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.”
Alternative medicine can also be defined as the result of a series of important changes occurring within the American health care system today. For example, health care practitioners are coming to the realization that conventional biomedicine cannot solve many of America’s health problems. Therefore many doctors have begun to accept the idea that Holistic Medicine is based on, that is, that health involves more than just the physical body. They have also found many alternative medical treat...
The majority of the population believes that they're to blame for being homeless but the truth is that most of them are victims. Some suffer from childhood abuse or violence. Nearly one quarter are children. Many have lost their jobs an...
When people ponder death they wonder about the unknown with trepidation. As a young man, William Cullen Bryant wrote the "Thanatopsis." His thoughts progress from the fear of death to the acceptance of the event. People should not fear death because everyone dies and becomes a part of nature.
In my opinion, a hero is someone whose principal purpose, whether it be in one situation or over the span of their entire life, is to help others while simultaneously making the world a better place. When the word hero is brought up, the most prevailing image that comes to mind is superheroes like Batman and Superman. But I don’t think you have to have superpowers or even be well known in order to be a hero. There are people all over the world whose intention is to do selfless deeds and go out of their way for others without expectation of obtaining anything in return. These are the type of people I like to consider everyday heroes. They go through life just trying to be the best they can and trying to help as many people as they can. Whether
If one fears death, then one claims to know that death is not the greatest of all blessings for man.
What is a hero? Is a hero someone that is the same for each person, or is it for each person different? Does someone’s hero depend on their perspective? Do all heroes need superpowers or something that puts them above the regular human? While those are arguable one thing is for sure heroes are based of heroism, and heroism is “Great Bravery” as defined by google. A hero is anyone who shows great bravery and is uses courage, a hero can be anybody, there is no true definition of what a true hero, and because it could all change because of your point of view or perspective.
Lindberg, D. (n.d.). Herbal Medicine: MedlinePlus. U.S National Library of Medicine. Retrieved May 7, 2014, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/herbal
Heroism is defined as an act of courage and an act of selflessness. They reflect the highest levels of morality in society. Heroes have embodied the morality codes of civilizations throughout the ages. When heroes display courage, observers often identify with that courage. The refusal to take the easy way out and the ability to act in spite of fear, is what makes a person a hero. This is the way everyone wishes to react in the midst of a crisis. As witnessed in literature and real life, mankind needs heroes to provide an inspirational role model, an escape from the mundane, and a guide for morality.
Death will always be universal and is continuously seen or heard of everyday. The fear and death its self affects everyone, but it’s important to feel accustomed and comfortable about it. Sure it will be sorrow or and painful when the day comes for you or a loved one, but that’s the world. We must feel comfortable and learn to accept this topic. Finding motivation or something to distract you from this is a good way to motivate your life and build up a positive lifestyle. Death will always induce fear, but it’s just another chapter in life. Even though death has been studied for many years, it will forever be one of the most debated topics, including the fear of