Myths and heroes : everyday life

Everyday life heroes                                                                        Myths and heroes                              

A myth is generally a story about gods or heroes, it can talk about a popular belief or a tradition. Then, a hero is a person admired for his achievements or his great courage. Moreover, they can be fictional or real.

In this notion we spoke about everyday life heroes. We saw 3 types of heroes. 

We will ask ourselves What makes a hero ? 

First we will speak about the fallen hero, the we will show the reluctant hero and finally campbell’s theory. 

1. The fallen hero 

• In the serie Americain crime story : The people vs O.J Simpson we saw a hero O.J Simpson. First he is a suspect in the murderer of his ex wife but at the beginning, we can believe he isn’t the murderer because in the second episode O.J wants to commit a suicide. When he learns his ex wife is dead he had no reaction and after he fled. The prosecution think it is a evidence of his guilt. O.J’s relative are afraid of him committing suicide and think he is being chased because of his color and O.J’s lawyer decide to play the discrimination/racial card they plaider. They put forth the fact that it was a set up. The public support O.J, most of the people were cheering for him. 

• Consequently he is a fallen hero. In 1973-1974 he was the one of the FNL quarterbacks and in the 1980 he was a actor. We can see that before he was famous. But in 1989 he beat up of his ex wife, he became violent and in June 12 1994 he commit a double homicide. The June 14 1994 he was in a car chase and he was arrest. Now he is in prison and we know that the knife of the murder was found. So he was loved and today everyone hate him. 

1. The reluctant hero 

• T.C Cassidy is a former 34 years old firefighter who used to work in a Manhattan fire department and is now working in administration offices. He has a tattoo which represents the first terrorist attacks on the usa, the twins tower on the 9/11. Thousand of firefighter tried to rescue people working in the twins towers. We saw in tattoo, the angel, a cloud of smoke, a banner and twins tower. On the tattoo there are  the name that refer to the squad friend of this firefighter who died the terrorist attacks. His tattoo had a motto : all gave some; some gave all. T.C Cassidy decided to have a tattoo because on the one hand he has his tattoo made fo psychological purpose : to forget the pain of loosing his friend. One the other hand he needs this to pay tribute to his friend. This tattoo have a impact on the life of Cassidy : That would become iconic. 

• Thus he is a reluctant hero, which is typically portrayed either as an ordinary person thrust into extraordinary circumstances which require him to rise to heroism, or as a person with extraordinary abilities who nonetheless evinces a desire to deny those abilities. In the case of T.C Cassidy, he decided to flee his upcoming fame by changing his job and becoming anonymous.

1. Campbell’s theory 

• Campbell wrote a book « the hero with a thousand faces » and he had a theory : All heroes have a common point : they all follow the same pattern. Campbell discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero found in world mythologies. Campbell explores the theory that important myths from around the world which have survived for thousands of years all share a fundamental structure, which Campbell called the monomyth. In a well-known quote from the introduction to The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell summarized the monomyth: A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

• According to Campbell we have common point with all these heroes, first we all are in our confort zone. Suddenly an experience comes up and changes our life to transform us into a stronger person. We have to face our fear to become the hero of our own life. We are also a hero according to Campbell because we all have trials to over come and succeeding make us everyday life heroes. There are similarities with the pattern of heroes. 

To conclude a hero isn’t only fictional. We saw 3 types of hero the fallen hero who knows a fall in his glory. The reluctant hero who didn’t expect to become a hero. And Campbell’s theory which makes everyone a hero. Still he exists fictional hero but he don’t always represent the real life. So we can not have a real vision of the hero.  

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