Myths and heroes, baccalauréat oral d'anglais

The notion I’m going to deal with is myths and Heroes. A myth can be defines as a story about gods and heroes, it can be a popular belief, a tradition or a false notion. A hero is a person who is admired for his or her achievement. He can be a mythological figure, a superhero or “a normal people”.

Thus, we can wonder why myths and heroes are important to our society. I will divide my answer in 3 parts.

First of all, they are important because some of them change the world. Indeed we can take the example of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King who had a political influence. They had an important role in the story of black’s men. MLK was the national leader of Civil Rights Movement. He wanted equality for all, he fought against discrimination. In his first major civil right action, he led the Montgomery Bus boycott during more than one year. This started when Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. She was then arrested. MLK continued the fight. Then in 1963, there were the march on Washington. There he gave his famous “I have a dream” speech. Thanks to that, it was the end of segregation laws with the civil rights act in 1964. Barack Obama is the first black president in the USA. He symbolizes what Rosa Parks an MLK make possible.

Then, heroes are important because we admire them. They represent models to us. Indeed, a lot of “normal people” can be considered as heroes and become models to us. For instance, Bethany Hamilton is a young surfer who lost an arm in saving her friend of a shark attack. Despite this, she carries on surfing and become a pro surfer and a world champion. She shows that you can live a “normal” life being disabled. She can be a model for other disable people or also for anyone else. Furthermore, every young kid watches superheroes movies. They are model for them because of their bravery, courage. We can take the example of Batman who lost his parents in front of him and who decided to dedicates his live in doing justice. Furthermore, is different to others superheroes because he doesn’t have superpowers so it is easier to identify with him.

Finally, Heroes are important because they allow us to learn our duties. Superheroes are good examples. Robin Roseberg writes a book named The psychology of Superheroes. He said that super-heroes stories are about morality and self-doubt and conviction and beliefs. These models help us to think what is good and what is bad.

To conclude, heroes are important in our society because they are models, example who make good things for us, (changer le monde) and who make us thing about what we have to do to do good things too.

...