“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles” –Christopher Reeve. A hero is someone who faces and encounters difficulties and overcomes them regardless of how challenging they are. To pursue your beliefs and to become divergent and atypical lets a person lead a cheerful life. In the play “Inherit the Wind” which is written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, Bertram Cates is a respectful, modest, shy and not a very attractive man. The people of Hillsboro hold the same beliefs and gather at the same church to castigate Bertram Cates, a man who presented and expressed contrasting beliefs from the people of the town. In Hillsboro, the concept of evolution was shunned. …show more content…
He had risked demolishing his reputation just so he can express his thoughts and beliefs. Stating your opinion to a town full of hard headed people who are not willing to change or progress takes courage. In the text it states “I had the book in my hand, Hunter’s Civic Biology. I opened it up and read my sophomore science class Chapter 17, Darwin’s Origin of Species” (8). This shows that Cates was unique and different among the people of Hillsboro. He believed in evolution opposed to the townspeople who accepted and understood creationism. Many people often embrace other people’s beliefs to fit in. To go against everyone’s acceptance and view is a very courageous thing to do. In life preserving individuality and standing out is crucial. Regularly, tension is confronted and the horror of becoming an outsider of society so people tend to cave in. Cates took action and dared himself to go against everyone’s beliefs. He explicitly set and presented his thoughts to his classroom. He has showed each and every person that he is not scared to fight for what he believes in and he is not going to …show more content…
Some people argue that you are naturally intelligent as opposed to gaining knowledge and understanding concepts. Bertram Cates showed that he possessed intelligence. He thought in a way that an average individual did not. In the text it states “It isn’t as simple as that. Good or bad, black or white, night or day. Do you know, at the top of the world twilight is six months long?” (9). This proves that Bertram Cates was a critical thinker and thought outside of the box. The people in Hillsboro were set and determined on the idea of creationism. They had never taken into contemplation about other view points or beliefs. The first person to do so in the town was Bertram Cates and this proves that he acquires the ability to think critically. Almost all heroes we know are intelligent and Bertram Cates is far more brilliant than the average individual in his time period and
Northrop Frye states in his book Anatomy of Criticism that the tragic hero is “on top of the wheel of fortune, halfway between human society on the ground and the something greater in the sky”. The book also declares that tragic heroes are “inevitable conductors of the power around them”, and conductors may be victims as well as instruments of destruction (website). Willy Loman, the epitome of a tragic hero, brings suffering upon not only himself, but others, including his wife and sons. Willy establishes Northrop Frye's definition of a tragic hero through the suffering of both himself and his friends and family, and this suffering contributes to the great tragic vision of the play as a whole.
“If the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's.” (Joseph Campbell). Every character walks through an astringent journey throughout their lifetimes. This journey can be viewed as the Hero’s Journey. Undertaking the journey of the hero can elevate the character achievement. The protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye--Holden Caulfield with no exception undergoes the journey. Holden’s journey ventures beyond what he is able to endure, forcing him into the unknown territory. Holden received the quest call to adventure, and responded to the call for the journey when he left Pencey prep school. Holden accepted the call, faced his challenges struggling through hardships and oppression, with helps from the guidance, he then eventually returned to his comfortable world with a tremendous intellect and physical transformation giving a closure to his journey.
Who is a hero? In contemporary times, usage of the term has become somewhat of a cliché. Over the years, the term “hero” has become representative of a wide variety of individuals, each possessing differing traits. Some of the answers put forth by my colleagues (during our in-class discussion on heroism) as to whom they consider heroes pointed to celebrities, athletes, teachers and family members. Although the occupations differed, each of their heroes bore qualities that my classmates perceived as extraordinary, whether morally or physically. Nonetheless, Webster’s defines “hero” as “a person who is admired for great or brave acts or fine qualities.” Thus, it is worth considering that individuals become heroes relative to the situation with which they’re faced.
Primarily, Bert Cates, a 10th grade teacher, struggles to obtain his right to have an open-mind, and encourages others to do so. The defendant, simply tries to teach a lesson in his Hunter’s Civic Biology, but while doing so is hastily over charged by the bigots of Hillsboro, Tennessee. As he explains himself to a fellow school teacher: “I did it because...I had the book in my hand...and read to my sophomore science class chapter 17, Darwin’s Origin of Species...All it says is that man wasn’t stuck here like a geranium in a flower pot; that living things come from a long miracle, it didn’t just happen in seven days”. It seems odd, or even bizarre that this premise is so hard to accept in Hillsboro. All in all, Cates is merely opening another aspect to the beginning of time.
Heroes in literature and history, more often than not, meet tragic ends, unless they were created by Walt Disney. These particular people are often seen as someone who is apart from the masses in morals and attempt to accomplish a higher calling for the common good. The problem with this type of hero is that they are destined for suffering.Two such characters exist in classic literature, Winston Smith of George Orwell’s 1984 and Hamlet of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.” Hamlet is the true classic tragic hero, though, because he is of noble birth, possesses high moral standards, completes the task he is given to better the world, and causes tragedy in both his life and the lives of others.
In Grant Wiggin’s speech about heroes, Jefferson displays many of the qualities that, according to Grant, a hero must possess. Grant himself, for all the good he does Jefferson, is not a hero, following his own formula. However, we cannot simply say that one is a hero and the other is not. In comics and fairy tales, the divisions between heroes and average people might be clear, but in real life, the lines are blurred.
Hero is a word that is commonplace in our society. We seem to always be able to turn on the latest news story and find the newest local man who saved that beautiful kitten from that building that was burning down. When we say hero a vast array of different definitions come to people’s minds. Our definition of hero in our world is most definitely not a constant. In the Epic of Gilgamesh and the novel Monkey many would consider the main characters and their strongest companions nothing close to heroes but rather tyrants. I have to say that these people have defined hero too narrowly, and I must prove them of their folly. Monkey and Gilgamesh, despite the many sins they commit, highlight what it truly means to be a hero, reminding us to always aspire to greatness.
Can moral obligations be blinded by religious views? For some, the sense of religious pride reigns stronger than the moral belief. In the beginning, citizens of Hillsboro from the novel Inherit The Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, acknowledged religion as something far more valuable than the moral truth. As the novel continues the prosecuting attorney, Matthew Harrison Brady, enters the scene which reveals the prejudice of the courtroom regarding the case of Bertram Cates. When Brady takes on the challenge, the exposure of excessive pride and boasting of recent cases won can be seen as a certain Dramatic Personality Disorder from a medical standpoint. Throughout the novel, more symptoms of the disorder are revealed through Brady, who continuously proves to have a Narcissistic Personality Disorder or otherwise known as NPD.
In many works of Literature, a character comes forth as a hero, only to die because of a character trait known as a tragic flaw; Hamlet from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Okonkwo from Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, and Winston Smith from Orwell’s 1984 all exhibit that single trait, which leads, in one way or another, to their deaths. These three tragic heroes are both similar and different in many ways: the way they die, their tragic flaws, and what they learn. All three characters strongly exhibit the traits needed to be classified as a tragic hero.
Have you ever felt so much guilt and shame that you want to kill yourself? Francis Cassavant in Heroes, by Robert Cormier, is a realistic and relatable character who has suffered from this feeling ever since he was little. Even as a child, he has felt unusual and out of place compared to everyone else. Francis’s characteristics determine his actions throughout his story and motivate him to join the army, beginning his expedition as a so-called “hero”.
Some people are born to be heroes. Some people may be forgotten heroes. Some people are born not to be heroes at all. In ways they are similar and in some ways they are different. John Campbell’s Hero’s Journey Monomyth shows the certain stages that a hero would traditionally go through to be qualified as a hero. Elie Wiesel is not a monomyth hero, because he does not follow the correct steps and does not hit enough steps to be considered a monomythic hero.
One great quality of heroes is their devotion to help others in need. They see importance in all life, no matter animals or humans. In a poem, “Gracious Goodness” by Marge Piercy and short story, “What Happened During the Ice Storm” by Jim Heynen, the reader can see that a hero is someone who just wants to help others. In “Gracious Goodness” the speaker is depicting of a royal tern on the brink of death, as it was crippled with a hook and the fishing line. The speaker decided to help the royal tern out of the kindness of the speaker’s heart. The sp...
Heroification is the process where details—both important and trivial—are left out or changed to fit the archetypical mold of the flawless, inhuman "heroes." This "degenerative process" makes "flesh-and-blood individuals into pious, perfect creatures without conflicts, pain, credibility, or human interest (Loewen 19)." For example, many people know of Helen Keller only as the blind, deaf girl who despite her handicaps learned to read, write, and to speak, but this is only the first twenty years of her life. Whatever happened to Keller for the next sixty-four years of her life? Keller was, in fact, a radical socialist in Massachusetts starting in the early 1900s, and was one of the most passionate and famous woman during that time rallying for the new communist nation. Keller's love for socialism did not stem from a vacuum but was rooted deep within her experiences as a disabled person, and she sympathized with other handicaps and learned that social class controls not only people's opportunity but also their disabilities. But during the heroification process, the schools and the mass media omitted Keller's lifelong goal and passion to bring about radical social change because we would rather teach our young to "remain uncontroversial and one-dimensional" than to have a room full of leftists (Loewen 35).
Are heroes important? This is the question that Scott LaBarge, a philosophy professor at Santa Clara University, tackles in his article “Heroism: Why Heroes are Important.” He encourages teachers, parents, and students to realize that heroes are tremendously significant in society by using references to factual and historical details, personal association, and various examples of different types of heroes. LaBarge effectively uses the rhetorical appeals of ethos, logos, and kairos to convince his audience that heroes are important.
Wilhelm, Jeffrey D., et al. A Brief History of Heroes. 2004. Glencoe Literature. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2009. 69-72. Print.