Matthew Magill Mr. Kearney American Hero (6) 12 November 2012 The Outlaw Josey Wales In The Outlaw Josey Wales, the viewer finds the hero, Josey Wales, representing Christ to a world of sinners. It is unclear whether Clint Eastwood intended to direct the movie in mind with such similarities between Christ’s role as a savior and Josey’s actions. Christ is an archetypal, mythological hero figure that the well-read viewer finds often. From the physical wound in Josey’s right rib, to the fact that Josey, a lone hero, cannot help but guide and protect genuine people likens him to the figure of Christ. Furthermore, Josey indirectly offers his path to redemption to everyone around him, even the sinners, often portrayed as bounty hunters …show more content…
Josey’s inability to turn away from those in need is expressed repeatedly by Clint Eastwood in the film. For example, when Josey is firing away at the wicked Union soldiers, Jamie asks him why he won’t leave. The answer is that Josey is sacrificing himself to save the boy, replying with “I got nothing better to do.” Not until Josey realizes that the boy is wounded does he drop his weapons to guide Jamie to safety. Jamie passes away in the rain, signifying that he has been cleansed of his sins with the help of the savior Josey Wales. He states his satisfaction for what Josey has done for him with “I’ve never felt better.” Furthermore, we find Josey, much like Jesus, protecting the weakest in the film. Josey takes a special interest in protecting Indians, including Lone Watie and Moonlight. Everything has been taken from the Indians, including their dignity, and Josey find himself as a leader for these vulnerable people. Josey trusts Lone Watie, and he is not afraid to share his wisdom with the man on how to rid the world of the sinners. He tells him his tactics on how to pull a gun quickly on mercenaries. Later, when Josey faces the Comancheros, Lone Watie states, “We’re facing the sun; this will give him an edge.” Josey stands as a lone savior against a large group of rapists and murderers, and they are afraid of the “Son.” Josey’s followers become a closely linked family, and
While at a movie theater, Dally is antagonizing and annoying several Soc girls. Johnny stands up to Dally, his hero, and states, “‘Leave her alone, Dally.’ ‘Huh?’ Dally was taken off guard. He stared at Johnny in disbelief. Johnny couldn't say ‘Boo’ to a goose. Johnny gulped and got a little pale, but he said, ‘You heard me. Leave her alone’” (24). It took all of Johnny’s bravery to stand up to his absolute idol. He was willing to stand up to a dangerous boy that could easily defeat him in a fight, to save others. Not only this, but when a church is burning down with children inside, Ponyboy states, ”Johnny wasn't behaving at all like his old self. ... he grinned at me. He wasn't scared either. That was the only time I can think of when I saw him without that defeated, suspicious look in his eyes” (92). Johnny gives his own life for kids who have futures. He charges into the church at full speed when necessary. Johnny becomes brave in the middle of the
Johnny would do anything to save his friends. After Dally drove Pony and Johnny to eat some much- needed food. They came back to see the church that Johnny and Pony were hiding out in on fire. There was a school having a picnic there. Some of the kids trapped inside the church. Without saying anything, Pony jumped out of the car and ran into the burning church with Johnny behind him. Right after saving the kids, Pony described, ‘‘Johnny shoved me out the window. ‘Get out!’ I leaped out the window and I heard timber crashing and the flames roaring right behind me” (Hinton 97). Instead of saving himself, Johnny pushed Pony out the window and saved him. Johnny puts others before himself and is willing to risk his life for others. This act is truly heroic.
A Christ figure can share attributes with Jesus and be the antagonist of the story. In Thomas C. Foster’s novel How to Read Literature like a Professor, he analyzes what a Christ figure looks like in literature. He argues that a character who shares personality traits and or physical characteristics with Christ is a representation and reflection of Jesus. Similarly, in Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Poisonwood Bible, her character Nathan Price believes he is synonymous to Christ while in reality, he is far from perfect. She uses irony to exploit the idea of the Christ figure. The use of irony as seen in Kingsolver’s novel, up-ends Foster’s claims as to what makes a Christ figure by creating a character who assumes he is Christ yet does not reflect Christ’s attributes.
Johnny has a fear of Socs after getting jumped by them, which led him to kill Bob. He is regularly beaten by his father and emotionally abused by his mother. Ponyboy mentioned a quotation of Johnny “ I had never been jumped, but I had seen Johnny after four Socs got hold of him, and it wasn’t pretty. Johnny was scared of his own shadow after that.” After Johnny killed Bob trying to protect Ponyboy from drowning he ran away with Ponyboy to an abandoned church in Windrixville. At the time he was afraid of anybody that he thought could hurt him. When the church went up in flames Johnny made the decision to run in with Ponyboy to save the children in the burning building. His gallant actions led to him being paralyzed, but he learned to overcome his fears of easily being frightened. Before that, he always used to think about killing himself because he was scared and hurt, but now knowing that he has something to live for he thought he was too young to die. He said this “you want to know something, Ponyboy? I’m scared stiff. I used to think about killing myself… ”, “ I don't want to die now. It ain’t long enough. Sixteen years ain’t long enough. I wouldn’t mind it so much if there wasn’t so much stuff I ain’t done yet --- and so many things I ain’t seen. It’s not fair. You know what? That time we were in Windrixville was the only time I’ve been away from our neighbourhood.” Thus, adversity can help to overcome the hardships and
Later, Johnny conveys his guilt to Ponyboy when he says: “‘There sure is a lot of blood in people.’”(Hinton 74), nearly quoting Shakespeare in Macbeth. In a later conversation with Johnny, Ponyboy gets thinking about this new world he has been thrust into. In the text he says: “I liked my books and clouds and sunsets. Dally was so real he scared me.”(Hinton 76) This shows how Ponyboy likes when the hero can beat the villain and get a pretty sunset at the end. But now Ponyboy has to deal with the real-world effects of violence, and he doesn’t like it. This marks one of Ponyboy’s first major changes of his mindset on violence.
In the movie Tombstone Wyatt Earp is made to appear like a hero who does his heroic acts in a way that could make him seem like a criminal. In the film Wyatt is seen shooting and killing people out of what seems like vengeance. But like all hero movies the Tombstone film also follows a hero quest. A hero’s quest is a outline of what the hero goes through in his journey. The hero’s quest contains the three crucial parts of the separation, the initiation, and the return.
He sacrifices himself to save his friends and innocent children, and also shows no regret for it, despite losing his own life, shown in his dialogue ‘It’s worth saving those kids, their lives are worth more than ours’ (page 216) This demonstrates that he no longer fears death and that he feels that his life was not wasted because he saved the children. Johnny also ran into the church with Ponyboy, demonstrating that he would do anything at the side of his friends. This helps the reader to understand many of the key themes in the novels, as it shows that the bond that the gang shares is stronger than any other bond they
Owen Meany was predestined to be a savior for the Vietnamese children and he had been preparing for this sacrifice his entire life. From the time he was born, Owen was always special. His parents admitted that he was unnatural when Mr. Meany exclaimed, “‘She just conceived a child—like the Christ Child.’” (Irving 545). This shows that Owen’s parents did not purposefully conceive him, but he was born for a greater purpose. Later on in Owen’s life, he has a vision of his grave and how he will die, which leads him to prepare for his death. He saw his death so vividly, he knew Johnny would be present, therefore he involves Johnny in his practice. Johnny explains, “We practiced the shot for three or four days in a row; of course, my part in this exercise was extremely limited, but I
Moving closer to the battle, Henry, the rookie private with a lack of self-confidence and courage, starts thinking if he should run away from a battle or fight in the battle. With a lack of war experience, he feels insecure going to battle and does not know what to do. He starts to ask his fellow soldiers on their thoughts and opinions about running away from a battle as he felt cowardliness of doing so. He also asked one
Johnny Cade is hero because he was one of the Greasers that were saving the children in burning church without thinking. Johnny is a hero
Lucas Kelleher/ Street Law 10/3/08 The Zodiac Killer The Zodiac Killer is a serial killer who operated in Northern California in the late 1960s. His identity to this day still remains unknown. The Zodiac coined his name in a series of taunting letters he sent to the press. His letters included four cryptograms (or ciphers), three of which have yet to be solved. The Zodiac murdered five known victims in Benicia, Vallejo, Lake Berryessa, and San Francisco between December 1968 and October 1969. Four men and three women between the ages of 16 and 29 were targeted. Others have also been suspected to be Zodiac victims, but they have been ruled inconclusive. The lack of consensus about the number of victims, the inability of law enforcement
In the book The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Johnny, a 16 year old boy greaser, is courageous. Johnny is courageous because he has bravery, honesty, and loyalty. Bravery describes Johnny because he went into a burning church to save little kids, honesty describes Johnny because he wanted to turn himself in so Ponyboy wouldn’t get in trouble with the police officers. Johnny also has loyalty and this describes him because he stood up for Cherry at the theatre. Johnny’s courage is displayed through his honesty.
Jonny, as Ponyboy, is a legend in his own particular one of a kind way. Johnny is an awesome case of chivalry since he demonstrates that everyone has gallant characteristics of valiance boldness and support within them and all it takes is an occasion to bring the qualities out. One critical illustration is that amid the section when the congregation is ablaze Johnny spares school youngsters as well as spares Ponyboy by driving Ponyboy out of the congregation abandoning him self in awesome threat of being smashed by the building's falling timbers. Ponyboy depicts it like this; "Johnny pushed me in reverse towards the window… [and screamed] get out." This demonstrates Johnny's dauntlessness and bravery on the grounds that the building was caving in and going to pulverize him. Another demonstration of chivalry that Johnny submits is that he stays standing for two young ladies
“The Youth,” which Henry is referred to as, dreamt of glory in battle and being a hero (Crane 2). That is the reason why Henry enlisted himself; even though he told his comrades he was forced to be in the army. His mother’s farewell speech is ironic because he thought that she would give him a tearful and long speech, but all she really said was to “Watch out, and be a good boy” (4). She does not want Henry to be a hero even though that is what he went to war for. She told Henry that she will be fine if he does not return home. Henry tries to pull off being a confident and good soldier, while in the reality he is very nervous about what will happen in battle. Throughout the novel, he questions his courage and if he would run from battle. At an early battle, Henry continuously fires at the enemy line and feels like he is a courageous soldier. However, soon after this battle, another one erupts and Henry runs from it. This is
Set on Death Row in a Southern prison in 1935, The Green Mile is the remarkable story of the cell block's head guard, who develops an emotional, and unusual relationship with one inmate who possesses a magical gift that is both mysterious and miraculous. This inmate is John Coffey, who beyond his simple naive nature possess a supernatural gift. This gift is what introduces the correlation between Coffey and Jesus Christ.