My Hero : Moral Ambiguity

“Heroes represent the best of ourselves, respecting that we are human beings. A hero can be anyone from Gandhi to your classroom teacher, anyone who can show courage when faced with a problem. A hero is someone who is willing to help others in his or her best capacity.” (Ricky Martin). Being a hero can shape a community as a whole, some people can make a positive impacts but somehow the hero's might not even be recognized and be unscathed of any praise. But also some people consider others heros but do not fit in necessary . A hero is someone who influences makes a positive impact on a person or community.

A hero can teach many life lessons, morals and various other things. A hero is someone who can be seen as a role model or hope to people. A view of a hero is different to everyone. A hero can save someone from a fire, they can be there to give support or even enlighten people. My heroes may differ from another person writing this same paper. The title hero is given to people for multiple reasons.

"And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you."

The final bell rang and all the kids rushed through the door wanting to get free. Alan met Richie right by his new 2016 Camaro. Everyone adored it, and everyone knew Richie was cool and rich. The drove to Alan’s house and walked inside. They grabbed a snack but Alan wasn’t hungry. He was so nervous about this presentation that he hadn’t been able to think straight all

When Monday arrives, I dread going to work. Yet, I go and put on a brave face. Right off, Megan fills me in on Sarah’s new job. “It’s at another studio in motion picture marketing.” When I react surprised that it’s not in development, she says. “She wanted a change. What about you? Are you Afterwards, we discuss my plans. “I hope you’re staying?”

The son sits next to Julian’s mother while the black lady sits next to Julian. Julian sees this as an opportunity for his mother to understand the limited importance of white privilege today. In an ironic move, the mother begins to play peek-a-boo with the young boy. However, the little boy’s mother doesn’t seem charmed by the mutual friendliness and pushes her son away. As the bus comes to a stop, the black mother and her son advance to the door. Meanwhile, Julian’s mother has decided she wants to give a nickel to the black boy. “I can’t find but a penny, but it looks like a new one”, she then says to Julian, despite his advice not to do so. Though she can’t find a nickel for the boy, she feels it is her obligation to be charitable with the black boy. As Julian’s mother is about to give it, the black woman doesn’t find this act of generosity pleasing, saying that her boy doesn’t take pennies from anybody. Julian’s mother fails to understand that her privilege as a white does not bring an obligation to be generous with the

“Yes, but I spent months bringing you chocolate and ice cream and cookies and the like. I think you owe me something.”

She had forgotten her wallet on the timber coffee table in her cluttered apartment. She began digging through her purse scavenging for enough cash to pay the crabby cab driver. She found two twenty-dollar notes and sighed in relief, she spared herself the mortification of informing the driver she had no money.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said “A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer”, to me the definition of a hero is not the stereotypical broad-shouldered, invincible type, but the ordinary people that do even the simplest of acts to help someone. Notably, the good-hearted people that help people without expecting any personal profit are the true heroes.

A pleading expression crossed Thomas’s face. Surely his mother hadn’t forgotten that he was to meet his friends, Nicholas and Ricky, at the opera house down the street. If Frankie knew about his plans, he would be begging to go, and Thomas had no intention of taking him

“Why can’t my grandpa be a rich nut, that own a big company, and gives hundreds of dollars to me,” the teen muttered as she riffled through the numerous bills. Pulling out three twenties, she sighed, and handed it back him. “Put that back and don’t loose it.”

What exactly is a hero? A common pedestrian might say a hero is someone who goes out of their way to help people. A child may say that a hero is someone who performs valiant deeds. Merriam-Webster Dictionary itself has 3 definitions of a hero: “a person who is admired for great or brave deeds or acts,” “a person who is greatly admired” and “the chief male [or female] in a story, play, movie etc.” (Merriam Webster Dictionary). In a literary situation, a hero is defined as one with certain traits that follows the epic hero cycle. The epic hero cycle is a common literary tool used throughout the ages in famous epics, such as The Iliad and The Odyssey. It follows a simple pattern; a strong person, usually male and of noble birth, journeys on a long and treacherous quest, encountering many mythical beings along the way, and usually hitting a snag before their victory. John Milton’s Paradise Lost follows the exact same pattern, except with a character no one would expect: Satan. Satan exhibits many of the traits an epic hero while at the same time following the traditional epic cycle. Although he is not seen as a hero by many, Satan is indisputably the hero of Paradise Lost who follows the epic cycle down to the last detail: he is a powerful supernatural being of noble birth that is tasked with a long and treacherous quest and tested within that quest before his victory.

“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to preserve and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.”

personality/morality: Born in India (presumably during the late nineteenth century), Siddhartha grew up in a middle-class home under the care of his parents and under the teaching of the Brahmins. His early years are spent learning to meditate and speak the Om. In his village a group of semanas past through. From this day Siddhartha left his family and became one of the poor, misunderstood semanas. While a part of this group, he quickly rose in the ranks as he learned to fast, wait, and think. He spent these three years desperately trying to separate body from soul, ego from Atman. He only ever achieved this bliss for moments. Frustrated with this teaching, he sought out the greatest teacher of them all, the Buddha. Not satisfied with his teaching either, Siddhartha tried to find peace by indulging the senses. Crossing the river by the kindness of a ferryman, he entered and the city and soon became a wealthy merchant who drank, gambled, and learned the ways of love by a courtesan named Kamala. Eventually realizing that all this pleasure is ephemeral, Siddhartha went back to the one person that seemed to have true peace: the man who had ferried him across the river years before, Vasudeva. He became his apprentice and learned to sit still and listen to the many voices of the river. One day his former lover had come to the ferry hut in order to see the

The curtain of the story rises, and Porter’s protagonist emerges from her bath to see that her “gold cloth” purse is no longer on the bench where she spread it out to dry the night before. As she recalls the previous evening, trying to discover when it may have gone missing, we learn that she has been robbed several times either “material[ly] or intangib[ly]”(85), but not of the purse.