Myths and heroes : is a hero always a role model ?

MYTHS AND HEROES

This notion I’m going to deal with is Myths ans Heroes. I’m going to give the definitions of myth and I will focus more on heroes.

A myth is usually a popular belief or an ancient story that has grown up around something

or someone. It could be true or not : for example the American myth. Now I will present

my presentation on heroes.

Since Antiquity, heroes have been considered as champions who defeat their ennemies

and maintains law or order within their countries. They are admired for their brave

achievement and noble qualities. They are regarded as a model or an ideal. They defend

good against evil but as we’ll see, this definition is quite limited!

*We can wonder if is a hero always a role model? And what about controversial heroes?

In fact, we’ve studied four documents on Firefighters , Bethany Hamilton, Steve jobs and

Athletes.

Firstly, I’m going to give all the definitions of heroes and give exemples of real heroes

we considered in class. Then I’ll talk about Heroes.

Heroes are people noted for courageous acts and admired for many values such as strong,

kindness, brave, loyal ...

To begin with, we can refer to the painting « to protect and to serve » by Tom Palmer we

saw in class. This document is based on firefighters who heroically contributed to the

effort to help those affected by terrorist attack in America 9/11. They didn’t hesitate one

minute and risked their own lives to protect others and to serve their country as a team.

Those pictures show unity through a disaster. These firefighters are young and attractive

and portray America’s men. They clearly embody the notion of myth.

Furthermore, we studied the incredible story of Bethany Hamilton who lost her left arm

after a tiger shark attack by saving her friend. She has become a source of inspiration

because she didn’t lose hope after being amputated. Bethany continues the surf and

became a professional surfer. She also writes a book called « Body and Soul » and a surf

movie « surf like a girl ». Bethany offers hope to the world and became such an icon for

all disabled people because of her heroic action.

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Beside that aspect, sometimes heroes have struggle with their own life and stay

« hero »just for few months. The real question is : « can we stay a hero for all life ? »

In classroom, we saw the case of Steve Jobs the founder of Apple. He was an amazing

businessman and fought for his dream and bravely succeed. He was a real genius even in

the choice of his company’s name. The apple is the symbol of temptation and the key of

knowledge in the bible. At first, Steve Jobs chose a picture of Newton : the link between

him and Newton is that they both discovered something which has changed our

...