Heroes

 

As children, we play with action figures and watch movie about Superman and Batman saving the world and its citizens from the captive forces of evil. Evil in these movies takes the form of one or two people carrying out a plan to eliminate the hero and dozens of other people in the way. This image has become all too real in today’s world. There are a few men out there planning to bring down our country and all that it stands for. If we actually, truthfully believed in “super” heroes, now would be the time to call on them for help. But we don’t. There is something inside that tells us these magical powers don’t exist – something that even at the age of eight prevents us from truly believing in these people and their ability to deliver us from evil. For example, when most children are asked who their hero is, you rarely hear “Spiderman!” or “Catwoman!” You usually do hear “my dad” or “my mom.” We, as humans, look for heroes in our own lives or history and not in the pages of a book or on the television screen. I believe this is because we have a connection with our parents and other human beings. We can see and feel all that they have done for us. They have made an impact on our lives. They have done something that deserves praise – a single mom working two jobs to support her children or a father that shows his son what love truly is. What they do teaches and inspires us to become better people. That is what real heroes are all about.

 

                              

 

          According to Campbell, a hero undergoes “some sort of dying to the world; …he comes back as one reborn, made great and filled with creative power” (Campbell, in Bump’s Course Anthology 13). It seems that this dying is the achievement of the impossible. “Aeneas went down into the underworld…and conversed with the shade of his dead father” (Campbell, in Bump 10) and Prometheus stole fire from the gods. The achievement of the impossible would in fact separate the hero from this world, in effect dying to the ways of the world.  In modern stories like Spiderman and Superman, an average man has powers bestowed on him from a supernatural, not of this world source. In their own way, they die to this world and come back of a different world, filled with powers beyond belief. They must then use these powers to get through all sorts of “perils and obstacles” in order to “have good fortunes of the way” (Campbell in Bump 8). Whether or not these super heroes do exist is not the most important matter. Their persistence and fight inspire us to persevere through times of trial and hardship and to always have faith. They provide us with a hope for a better future. Their fight teaches us to fight, in effect strengthening who we are as people. In that way they do become heroes. For heroes are those who shape us into better people.