Myths and heroes : how do myths and heroes deal with different themes impacting our society?

Fiche Notion: Myths and Heroes

          A myth is a story or a legend about gods, heroes or kings. The myth of a superhero is a story about a hero coming from popular culture. A hero is a person who is admired for his courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. It can be a fictional character who has super power (which we would call a superhero), or it can be a real and ordinary person who makes the world a better place. In our society, heroes are something we look up to, something we admire and somehow something we identify to. Different types of heroes were featured throughout the years and every time they had to adapt their story to the society’s context. We can therefore ask ourselves: how do myths and heroes deal with different themes impacting our society? In the first instance we will talk about everyday life heroes; then about superheroes.

          A hero in real life is most of the time anonymous: for example during the 9/11 attack, a lot a firemen, doctors, nurses and police officers risked their lives to save others, however they stayed anonymous. These people do their jobs every day, they protect and save other people and this is why we can call them “heroes”. But all heroes aren’t anonymous because everyone is a hero in his own way: for example a mother can be a hero to her child or even a sister can be one. What defines us as heroes is the way people look at us.

As said in the introduction, a hero can also be a fictional character.

          During the Second World War, heroes such as Captain America were a source of propaganda and therefore, he was fighting the Nazis. Wonder Woman was also created during the Second World War and she also had to fight the Nazis. Those two heroes are examples of heroes who had to adapt their stories to the historical context in which they were created. However nowadays, heroes do not deal with the same issues : Captain America is now fighting terrorism and a lot of heroes deal with other issues that impact our society : Black Panther and also Captain Rugged grapples head-on with the issues affecting modern-day black life. Every hero has to adapt to his historical context so that people can identify to him, and relate to his story. Today, more and more main characters are antiheroes, protagonists that lack the characteristics that would make them heroes but instead have those of villains, because people identify better to those flawed characters than to the perfects heroes.

          To conclude we can say that heroes are everywhere and can become symbols or models for some people, and to deal with different themes impacting our society they adapt their story to the historical context they are in.

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