Thinking About The Hero

In Beowulf, The Odyssey, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Huck Finn, the protagonist overcomes a series of difficulties resulting in either personal salvation of somekind or salvation for the masses and/or any fellow companions. The theme of overcoming adversity is one that is constant throughout humanity, as shown by Odysseus returning to Ithaca/Penelope, Frodo saving Middle Earth (fictional but written in contemporary times), and Beowulf saving the Danes.

A hero is one that inspires others, triumphs where others have failed, and prevails over hardships of some particular kind. However there is a clause to this definition which must include that the hero must not act solely for personal gain and be the "benefactor of their species." (Just to quote Victor Frankenstein) By defining the hero, we deduce that the actions that the hero takes can be described as: noble, courageous, kind, daring, generous, and humble. All of these adjectives cannot attributed to a single action, but instead outline the expectations or qualities that a hero is expected to have.

The idea of a woman hero is somewhat taboo in literature. The woman hero is extremely uncommon in literature- a fact that can probably be attributed to the lack of woman heroes in history. Now I base my assumption on the legitmacy of a woman hero on my naivety in terms of literature (i.e. the only "literature" that I read is assigned in school; my pleasure reading really consists of biographies, war-stories, etc.) however the legitimacy of heroic women in history is based on facts. To name a few female heroines: Boudica who lead the Iceni in resistance to the Roman conquest of Britain during the first century, Joan of Arc who inspired and commanded French troops during the Hundred Years' War, and Rosa Parks whose actions sparked the American civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century. However when one tries to recollect all the male heroes in history, significantly more come mind.Every culture has its women heroes, so why the taboo? The reason is that the overwhelming ratio of male heroes to women heroes can sometimes cause the latter to become obscured and uknown. This effect, when coupled with the medieval church's desire to lessen the importance of women, has resulted in the atleast Western view of male superiority. The major regional influences in Western civilization have all left their marks on the culture that is ours today. The Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and the Catholic Church have all made significant impacts on society during each power's respective dominance. The dominating influence will always challenge the ways of the past and this trend continues to this day as the society's outlook on the importance and role of women is again being challenged by the feminist movement and our modern quests for political correctness.

In a perfect world, heroes wouldn't be necessary. Everybody would be an upstanding citizen and crime and negative human traits would not exist. In fact, everybody would be a hero by the real-world definition, but because heroic traits would be the norm, the term "hero" would lose meaning and its purpose as a term to express an identity would be lost. In the imperfect world, heroes are necessary. Heroes provide for us a standard to which we compare our lives and strive to imitate. A civilization without heroes is a hiker without a compass. Civilization needs heroes to guide the population in the right direction by being an exemplar of virtue so that we can determine where we all stand in respect to the ideal citizens. Much like the hiker requires his compass to always show him north so that he can determine his relative direction and make adjustments accordingly.

Bertold Brecht implies that only plagued and disparaged lands require a heroine to lift them from their mire. Brecht failed to note however, that until humans perfect their existence, they will always need a mould from which to cast anew.