Mythes et heroes: Bethany Hamilton

Mythes and Heroes

I'm going to talk about the notion of myths and heroes. First of all, I would like to give a quick definition of that notion.

So a myth can be defined as a story about gods or heroes, it can be a popular belief or a tradition or a false notion. And a heroe is a character in a book, in a film or in real life who is admired or respected for his good qualities or achievements.

There are different types of heroes. There are real heroes such as policemen and firefighters or war heroes. There are also legendery heroes such as Robin hood. Or superheroes such as and fictionnal heroes such as James Bond.

Today I would like to talk about Bethany Hamilton, a young American surf champion who is disabled, she is one-armed. When she was 13, one morning in Hawaii, a tiger skark attacked Bethany and her friend Greg while they were surfing. Greg got panic-stricken, lost his balance and fell into the sea. Bethany got him back on his board but the shark attacked a second time and her left arm was bitten off,

Bethany survived and she was considered a real heroine

After this terrible accident, Bethany learnt to surf with only one arm, and she has become a surf champion, she reached the semifinals of the Fidji women's pro competition in 2016.

She has becomme a rôle model for young girls, because she has never given up despite the obstacles, she has fulfilled her  professional and personnal dreams (she is married and she has got 1 child). And, she is modest, clean,  she is a churchgoer and she supports a lot of charities.

So for all of these  reasons, Bethany Hamilton has became a real heroïne.

Now, I'd like to talk about another hero, Oscar Pistorius, is a paralympic champion. He became famous in 2012 because he became the fastest man on no legs on earth. He won gold in the men's 400 metres and he broke the world record.

He was the first disabled athlete to compete against able-bodied.

But, He has been consiered a fallen hero since Valentine's day 2013, because on that day he commits a crime. He was accused of shooting his girlfriend dead, she was a model. He said it was self-defense, he mistook her for an intruder. First the prosecutor  convicted him of manslaugther and then he was convicted of munder because Pistorius showed no remorse, so the state called for the minimum 15 years sentence.

But he will serve 6 years in jail because he was amputated when he was baby so he is disabled and he suffers from mental stress, his life and his carerre are in ruins and he will never be at peace.

Finally, he spent nearly 1 year in prison when he was released to spend out the remainder of his term at his uncle's.

So, in South Africa there are 2 sides; on the one hand Pistorius supporters who want him to be released because he is a hero. On the other hand rights groups who say that South Africa's legal system is not reliable. They say Pistorius is white, rich an famous so he received a special treatment.

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