Ellen Ripley: A Modern Day Hero

In today’s society the value of human life is based on discrimination. Occupational salary, insurance plans, and tax deductions define a person’s worth in the eyes of the government. Inequality plays a significant role in this unjust system that categorizes each life into a monetary bracket where the story of each individual is disregarded and forgotten, leaving only a dollar sign. A life is worth more than any dollar amount and should be valued by individual compassion, impact, and attitude. Humans are not numbers.

Anne Frank’s diary has changed how people have thought of world war 2 for many years. There are many differences in how the story is told through a play and a movie.the story takes place in a secret hide out called the annex. It is mainly about the 2 years that Anne, her family, the Van Daans, and Mr.Dussel.

Amelia Earhart was an icon. She was a feminist. Not only a pioneer but also brave. During Amelia’s life, all the goals she had achieved were attained through pure perseverance and resilience. While Earhart had become well-known for being the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, she was likewise known throughout the world for her individual developments and aid in the feminist movement. She acknowledged a grander purpose in life which was the desire to live a life that surpassed beyond home and being confined in society. Her achievements in becoming an active feminist and succeeding in her dreams and goals prove her resilient courageous nature of being a woman during the 20th century despite being in a male dominant society.

The term hero means different things to most people. A young kid might describe a hero as a superhero. Some would say a hero makes the world fun and entertaining, but others would describe a true hero is one who helps people in everyday life. Very few would describe a hero as they would describe a hero in Shakespeare's time. These heroes would be classified as tragic heroes. A tragic hero usually dies within the story and do not always win. Shakespeare's arguably two best dramatic heroes are Macbeth and Hamlet,but a more modern example of a tragic hero Amelia Earhart.

Norman Mailer once stated, "For what does it mean to be a hero? It requires you to be prepared to deal with forces larger than yourself." This quotation means that there are some things that certain people will not be able to face head on. It takes them a while to physically and mentally prepare themselves for what forces lie ahead. This quotation is valid because there are going to be certain things people just can't face or they aren't strong enough to face them. The film, The Fighting Sullivans and the film The Diary of Anne Frank prove the interpretation because both of the films are about a group of people who have to deal with forces that are bigger than themselves. The film The Diary of Anne Frank supports the critical lens about Norman Mailer's quote because they had to go into hiding, hiding from the Germans which in this case were the bigger force. The first

Ellen Grace Philpotts Page was born in Halifax Nova Scotia, on February 21st, 1987. She spent most of her childhood life living in Halifax and she went to Neptune Theatre School and made her small screen debut at age ten. Her role in locally-produced TV movie Pit Pony, led to an award nomination and a role in the spin-off TV series. She continued to combine working in Canadian films like Marion Bridge and TV shows such as Trailer Park Boys and ReGenesis for which she won a Gemini while keeping up her education and indulging in her love of sports. Ellen Page is most famous for her acting career and is most famous for Trailer Park Boys, X-Men, Inception, and Flatliners.

Cathy Gernack, also known as my mom, is my hero because she satisfies many of the heroic qualities we discussed in class. She is brave, giving, and determined on a daily basis. She is currently employed as an Intensive Care Neonatal Nurse at Kaiser Permanente here in San Leandro. She was born and raised in Alberta, Canada. After she graduated from High School, she attended the University of Alberta and received her bachelor’s degree. In 1999, she was given an offer to move to Hawaii where she would be working at the Kaiser Permanente hospital in Honolulu. She graciously accepted the offer and brought my dad along with her as they started a new life in another country. On August, 26th 2000, I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. In 2002, my mom, my dad, and I moved to Boise, Idaho where my little brother was born. When I was four, we all moved here to San Leandro and have lived here ever since.

“Aliens” was directed by James Cameron. James Cameron is 62 years old and he is a Canadian filmmaker, producer, screenwriter, inventor, engineer, philanthropist and deep sea explore. “Aliens” is a horror, science fiction and blood-thirsty film. This movie was released in 1986. The main character was a woman called Ellen Ripley. She was the only survivor on the spaceship and was saved by a crew from a company called Weyland-Yutani Corporation. She has been asleep and drifting for fifty-seven years. On an interview with all the executives from the company, they wanted to know testimony about the Aliens. However, everything that Ripley told them was all true, but the executives think the things that Ripley told them regarding to Aliens are made up by her. Therefore, the executives still decided to go on an expedition to that spaceship, also they want Ripley to go with them. They went on to spaceship and they found a girl called Newt. They went through a few fierce battles and this story end up with only a few survivors. In this movie there are many examples of gender stereotypes.

Louise Erdrich was born on June 7, 1954 in Little Falls, Minnesota. She grew up in Wahpeton North Dakota near Turtle Mountain reservation, where her grandfather Pat Tourneau was a Tribal chairman. Erdrich uses characters not only to demonstrate the experiences of Native Americans, but also the heartache and pain she has gone through in her life.

One of the three colonists who should survive, due to importance, would be the female air force pilot named Airwrecka Jones. The starship became damaged and if the autopilot deactivated, the pilot would be the most experienced to handle the situation of flying the ship. This situation, however, is a possibility; which means, if the ship functions correctly, Jones would be useless. Consequently, the risks seem too high to not have the pilot on the ship as a precaution. The minor flaw and background story of Airwrecka Jones is that she sleep-walks for miles and appears in hidden places like inside of bank

While Ripley manages to use the technology, machinery and weaponry to defeat the aliens, she tries to be as inventive and resourceful as possible to distinguish herself from the militarised approach of the marines. And so when the marines start to be wiped out one by one by the aliens, Ripley decides to take on a leadership role because no one would listen to her at first and doesn’t want to feel responsible for any more deaths. At this point in the film, she destroys any fantasy version or perception of what men want in women. We fully now know how Ripley is a person. She is pushy, aggressive, rude, injured, suffering from PTSD, doesn't wear makeup, tired, smart, motherly, angry, empathetic, and determined to save others, even at great cost to herself which makes her character all the more heroic and masculine as a majority of these attributes hold connotations with masculinity.

Heroes in society have inspired others with their acts of selflessness and bravery. They demonstrate courage everyday. Courage is standing up for what is right, doing things and knowing the risk, and that courage is different from bravery.

The author of The Round House is Louise Erdrich . Louise is the author of fifteen novels. Children’s books , volumes of poetry , and a memoir of early motherhood. Louise had won the National Book Award for fiction, for her book The Round House. Louise was the oldest of seven children. Born July 6, 1954. Growing up in Wahpeton , South Dakota. As a child Louise was encouraged by her parents to start writing stories, as she got older she kept journals . Louise attended many colleges. In 1972, Louise attended Dartmouth College, majoring in English and creative writing. 1979 went to Johns Hopkins University to get her Master of Arts degree. After graduating from Hopkins Louise she began her novel Tracks and worked at The Circle , which was a

Sarah Lynn Butler was born July 18, 1997 in Irving, Texas. She went to Wilford High School and was a member of the aspire club and band. Sarah was a believer of the Christian Baptist faith. This beautiful young girl had just been voted queen of the fall festival. Her family saw her as usually very happy, always cutting up and laughing. She had many friends. Most people would have expected her to have a perfect, happy, problem-free life, sadly this wasn’t exactly the case.

“As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others”, says the British idol Audrey Hepburn. I profoundly value service and helping others in my daily life. Throughout my first two years in high school, I participated in several volunteer opportunities. The Special Olympics and bell-ringing for the Salvation Army were two volunteer opportunities that I whole-heartily dedicated my time to during my first two years in high school. I thoroughly enjoy helping people, because I believe that everyone that I help makes me a better, humbler person. However, as I grew older I had a desire to find a volunteer opportunity where I could commit myself to over an extended period of time. My