The Paradox Of The Hero

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.

Being a hero is something everyone is capable of with bravery and intelligence. You don’t have to be a Greek God to be a hero, you can be a simple, average person living in a regular town. Heroism is not your social status and ruling the land, it is the qualities you possess and how you use them. Both the short story “The Hero’s Test” by Alisoun Witting and the short story “The Red-Headed League” by Arthur Conan Doyle shows heroism and how anyone can be a hero.

A hero, in the traditional sense of the word, is generally a protagonist in a story whose overwhelming power is the only which can defeat the evil of the day. In a classic example of this comes Beowulf, a novel adaptation of the epic Anglo-Saxon poem by Robert Nye. The main character and namesake of the story is Beowulf, an adventurous young hero. When he hears the tales of the monster Grendel that terrorizes the Danish kingdom, he immediately has the urge to lend his assistance to the situation, knowing that he is the only one who can defeat the evil. Not only is Beowulf a hero, he is an epic hero.

Satan is a hero by each of these definitions as defined through his war against God, his cunning and guile, his journey to Eden on Earth to corrupt mankind, and as the protagonist and most described character in Milton's epic poem. These definitions only scratch the surface of a hero, however, and could easily be countered simply by saying that Satan is a creature of pure evil who exhibits no admirable qualities, is ignoble down to the core in everything he has done - especially including his war against God - and that he is not the protagonist of Paradise Lost, but rather he is the antagonist who creates the conflict.

What is a hero? Is it a person children look up to? Is it a person who saves the world from monsters? The word hero is a vague word that can have millions of definition. Joseph Campbell, an american mythologist, once said “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek”. So is a hero a person that is brave enough to unearth the treasure? As a mythologist, Joseph Campbell studied myths from all over the world, and came to a conclusion that all heroes: Batman, Odysseus, Beowulf, or Tom Cruise, undergoes the same cycle.

In order to justify both Satan and Beowulf as heroes, it is imperative that we ask ourselves: What is a hero? William R. Herman’s article, “Heroism and Paradise Lost” looks at what pushes readers to view Satan as an antihero or as a villain. There are two main ways to view a hero. Herman states, “There are at least two basic and contradictory kinds of heroism, which I shall call Hellenic and Biblical.” (Herman, p. 13) He goes on to explain that, the “Hellenic hero we associate those qualities of individuality, self- determination, and physical courage that endure alone against what seems to be ineluctable odds.” (Herman, p. 13) An example of Hellenic heroes are the Roman and Greek mythological idols Hercules and Achilles, as mentioned before. Beowulf is a Hellenic hero, which matches the beliefs and culture depicted in the poem. The biblical hero, on the other hand, is characterized by moral strength, not physical strength. Milton intends for his readers to define heroism by this biblical definition. Viewed under this lens, Satan is definitely not a hero. This is where the debate over Satan’s legitimacy as a hero comes into play. This is the dilemma of comparing Satan and

Beyonders A World Without Heroes is about a well-adjusted 13-year-old boy named Jason Walker who works at a zoo. One day, while he was working at the zoo, he was cleaning out the Hippo habitat when something crazy happened to him. He was hearing music from the mouth of the Hippo, curiously he got closer to see if the Hippo had eaten anything and then was abruptly eaten by the Hippo. Jason entered the hippo’s slimy mouth and entered down a tunnel and realized when he came out he was next to a tree in a completely different world called Lyrian. In this world, he finds a library. In this library he finds a book called The Book of Salzared. This book describes how there is a six-syllable word that can kill the evil ruler of Lyrian, Maldor. Jason is given the first syllable from this book, and he learns that the only way to get home is to defeat Maldor, the evil ruler. Now Jason realizes he must find the rest of the syllables to defeat Maldor. On his adventure he meets another person from the normal world named Rachel and one of Maldor’s evil minions, Ferrin. Rachel and Jason try to get back home and defeat Maldor.

Only when all the spices combine will you be able to savor the pleasure and warmth that goes into your grandma’s pot pie. The hero rescues, society influences. This creates a huge controversy about if the hero alters society or the other way around. Although heroes are always there for people in need and ‘save the day’, this kind of a positive impact on society is in fact influenced by society. Society shapes their hero based on their desires or restraints, determining what type of hero they want, at that point in time. “No one can be a hero without others accepting they are”

The word hero holds significance for many. A hero is usually someone who is idolized or admired for the brave and courageous things that they have accomplished. Roland was a very brave and skillful individual who accomplished many heroic tasks in his life including his loyalty to King Charlemagne, but his bold personality also got him into trouble and ultimately led him to death. He maintained an honor and loyalty that led him to a martyr’s death, though. Although he was disliked by many, including Ganelon who was his own father, he came to be known as a great man in history and he played a major role that helped shaped medieval times. His temper and bold attitude are just a few attributes that helped propel him forward in his successful, heroic lifestyle.

If you was hero what would you do that makes people happy? If you was a hero you should help someone if they're feeling down or sad or maybe upset. Remember heroism is not just all about being brave like on tv when you see heros just saving people from falling off cliffs. What is a hero background? A hero background is all the things that makes up a hero.

We typically see them as good, righteous people make mistakes just like everyone else. So at their very core, heroes are human. This idea of being flawed comes up in the term known as “hamartia” which is known as “a fatal flaw.” So many of our classic heroes have them; Superman has kryptonite, Achilles had his week heel, and the list could go on and on. This concept can be considered useful while trying to understand and analyze Paradise Lost. Hamartia is a tool that the reader can look for in order to understand what will ultimately be the downfall of a character. For instance, Satan comes into the story with these ideas that are larger than life, but his hamartia is that he is very easily misguided. But honestly he can still still be viewed as a hero because he fights for what he believes and works tirelessly to achieve his goals (even if they are misguided.) One of the important quotes that shows this idea goes, “Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven.” He embodies the characteristics of a true leader, and fights to be different. Now even though it is a nice thought to be your own person and not have to serve anyone the truth is we all have to serve someone. And while it is bold and courageous to try to live on your own and serve yourself it is just not realistic. But he is a bold character that is the only one who dares to challenge God and His rules. He defies the norms that have been placed on him his whole life, and he embraces a life of being different. Frankly is he lived in our modern world he would probably be celebrated for his fight for his independence, and the speech he gave down in hell would probably have gone viral on YouTube. And even though Satan’s end result was full of deception and arrogance that was not the original intent. He didn’t go into this idea with terribly evil intentions. It was more like he wanted to

Heroes, they are often depicted as beings with superpowers or anomalously adept humans who achieve extreme feats others can’t. And no matter how cliche it may sound, we have learned that anyone can be a hero, they just find themselves in the middle of the quandary. In many movies heroes incline to find themselves surrounded with quandaries, in reality quandaries such as those don’t generally occur. Though we do have those recherche occasions. Like in the story “Man in the Water,” he didn’t cause the plane to crash, but he did save everyone within arm's reach. Sometimes heroes just transpire to be in the middle of a quandary, and ken that someone has to solve them. It is true that sometimes heroes do cause quandaries, but who doesn't, they may

While there have been many different studies done on the epic written by John Milton, his primary reason for writing Paradise Lost was to retell the story from the Bible regarding Adam and Eve. Although the epic runs alongside actual scripture in lots of ways, the aspect in which Milton characterizes the individuals in the story are far from that of the Bible’s form. Satan, in book II of Paradise Lost, is depicted by Milton as a being a rebellious individual who displays specific qualities of that of a hero, but does not at all turn out to be one.

To become an epic hero the character must travel over vast settings to meet the criteria to be an epic hero. Milton created the story in a religious sense which can be seen in the setting too. The setting consists of Earth, Hell, Heaven, and the space between them. Heaven and Hell are complete polar opposites which is in relation to the distance between them. The space between Heaven and Hell is empty space and Earth. Earth represents the middle ground between perfect and imperfect. Satan starts his journey in Hell and must travel through Hell to the far gates out of Hell. “ And thrice threefold the gates… Yet unconsumed”( II.645-648). His journey began from hell and then once he passed out of the troubling gates of Hell he ended up in a place he had never been before. This was

Success—the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. To thrive in life, one must focus on achieving success and fearing failure—or at least this is what society preaches. This mindset has altered mankind’s view on works of art, literature, and myths. Nonetheless, there are a few exceptions that do not preach this value; one being “Green Willow”. Retold by Paul-Jordan Smith, this myth follows the life of a samurai who meets his lover on his quest, and abandons all else for her. Similarly, “Percy Jackson: the Lightning Thief” by Rick Riordan showcases Percy Jackson and his journey to find Zeus’s stolen lightning bolt, while “Theseus and the Minotaur” by Gavin O'Rahilly illustrates Theseus’s quest to kill the minotaur, a half-bull half-man monster. The final myth, Michael Gibson's “Orpheus and Eurydice”, depicts Orpheus’s attempt to bring his deceased lover, Eurydice, back to Earth. These myths break the perceived image of success, proving the failures of heroes should not be overlooked. Regardless what others may say, it is pivotal for heroes to fail because failures allow myths to simultaneously craft realistic characters, as well as reveal their fatal flaws, proving that heroes are not as perfect as society portrays them to be.