L'héroïsme (document en anglais)

As a starting point, the heroism is a courageous action accomplished by a man or woman regardless of the risk involved. It might be rushing into a burning building to rescue civilians, but also participating in a mission for charities. Actually, I would like to conceptualize what heroism is by pointing out three types of heroism which are, first of all, the fantastic heroism, secondly, the heroic deeds of the everyday life, lastly, the heroism achieved by emblematic figures.

On the one hand, heroism is the key of fairy tales, all these heroic adventures made many generations dream. These super heroes passed their whole life to leave no stone unturned in order to improve the whole earth, thus Mulan, a young woman who goes to war, shows an inhuman courage. By hook or by crook, she is determined to save her country and basically put her own life in jeopardy. To sum up, this heroism inaccessible to mortals is the reason why it is described as fantastic, and permit happy endings.

On the other hand, I’m pretty sure that the behavior of anonymous persons could be seen like a heroic accomplishment. Indeed, I think of a fireman saving a child from a burning house, or someone who donated to help out the less fortunate. For instance, Manuel Gonzales, the Chilean rescuer of 2010, risked his own life to save those of the 33 trapped miners, he was the first person down the shaft, and also the last out. This accomplishment may not make an impact on society as a whole, but he will definitely change the life of a few people one act at a time.

Finally, I would like to insist on many remarkable men and women sacrificed their whole life in order to fight for their rights. For instance, one of the heroic figures most emblematic is Gandhi. His fight for the independence of India is perceived like heroic because he advocated and practiced non violence in his political. Therefore, symbolic heroism represents those who dared to take the bull by the horns and who were standing their ground no matter what in order to improve the conditions of the oppressed, their emblematic heroic acts have left their mark upon the time.

In conclusion, Heroism is not necessarily about superhuman strength, heroes are simple people who chose to lend a helping hand when everyone else was afraid and feared their own safety. According to me, I think that to face the life, we materialize this heroism to give us an objective to be reached, for instance children choose super hero figures or their dad or someone they admire greatly like an icon to imitate.

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