Myths and heroes: why Robin Hood is a hero and how he became a modern myth ?

Myths and heroes

First of all, I‘d like to give a definition of myths and heroes. A myth can be defined as a story about gods or heroes, it can be a popular belief or a tradition. A hero can be a mythological figure,an icon or a person who is admired for his or her achievements. Some heroes are famous for standing up against devil like Batman, Superman,ect ,… We call them Superheroes. Whereas, some heroes are real-life persons who were outlaws to rebel against a given order. I would like to illustrate this notion through the topic of Robin Hood which we studied in class.

So, we may wonder why Robin Hood is a hero and how he became a modern myth ? In order to answer this question, I have chosen 3 documents.

1)The first document is a webquest which describes the story of robin hood. RB is a hero because he is a man with outstanding skills (as an archer and a swordsman). Indeed, he uses those skills to fight against vilains led by the tyrannical king john. He robs from the wealthy people to give to the destitutes. Moreover, he’s a real hero because he acts without expecting anything in return. His actions are totally altruistic.

He may not have existed. But he is still a legend. That’s why he is considered as a myth.

2)Secondly, A press article written by a sociologist in 2012 in Pittsburgh is about a modern-day Robin Hood who performs subversive acts every day to help the working poor survive. Indeed, a supervisor of a food store steals from his own company to give to his staff. So, we can say that he has become an outloaw like RB. He is a modern version of robin hood. The author say that it’s a form of robinhoodism, because he fight against the consequences of the economic crises of 2008.

3)

Then, we compared 2 excerpts from 2 movies which are about Robin Hood in which we can see the different representations of the hero in a similar scene. In both scenes, a person who has killed a deer is chased by king john’s men when robin hood arrives to save the situation.

But on the one hand, the second movie is more realistic, the characters looks more medieval and on the other hand in the first movie the environment is much more colorful.

Those movies show that RB is still a hero of today and that he had become a modern hero has been represented in differents ways.

Conclusion :

Therefore, to conclude , RB has become a hero who transcended the ages through movies or real people. He has been admired and praised espacially in England for centuries and his story has been adapted since the 13th century.

But, Robin is also a cruel, merciless hero who kills and robs from people

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