Notion myths and heroes

Myths and Heroes

Introduction:

I am going to talk about the notion of Myths and Heroes. First of all, I’d like to start by defining both terms. What are Myths? the word “myths” comes from the Greek word ‘muthos’ which means legend. And, Heroes? the word hero also has Greek origin and means “demi god”.

Problematic:

In order to illustrate these notions, I will try to answer the following question: ‘How can myths and heroes change our lives and the direction of the course of History?’

Plan:

I’m going to focus my presentation on two points: real life heroes in society and after myths and fictive heroes in history.

1° Real heroes of life in society:

Since the beginning of mankind, some people or groups of people have distinguished themselves by their actions, their words or their character and are considered heroes in society. First, there is a hero recognized by society because of his self-denial like a fireman. Sometimes, they risk their life and perish to save others, for example during the Twin towers attack of 9/11. They entered the tower to help people to exit the building via the stairs. So, more than 300 firemen died on this single day. And also, after, lots of them died because they contracted diseases, due to the smokes and toxins created by the collapse of the towers. They put their lives at risk and they sacrifice themselves. They are admired for their noble acts of strength and courage. This role of rescuer gives them the status of a hero. In the society, they can also be an icon, a model for children, who want to save people too.

Then, there are also heroes who want to change History as a defender of common values. For example, in spite of the abolition of slavery by Abraham Lincoln, discrimination against Black people between 1865 and 1965 was shameful. It was during the time of the Jim Crow Laws which forbade Black people to mix with White people whether they were at school, in restaurants, etc. In the text “Forging an identity”, a black mother and her daughter travelling on a train were insulted by the conductor because they were in the White people’s area. Many people fought for freedom and equalities between Black and White people like Rosa Parks, who said “no” to these laws or Martin Luther King, with his famous speech “I have a dream” who incited to keep hope. Thanks to determined people such as them, black people achieved the abolition of the Jim Crow Laws and got Civic Rights. They changed the course of History and the conditions for black people.

2° Myths and fictive heroes in history:

To continue I am going to speak about Myths and fictive heroes in history. Depending on cultures, myths are also different. For example, the United States’ feasts are myths. In the NY Times, an article presented Thanksgiving Day as a very famous one. It is a day, in late fall, celebrated in the United States and Canada, to give thanks for the blessing of the crops of the previous year. Today, it has become a real myth in Anglo-Saxon society.

Another example is fictive heroes who allow society to dream by the myths they represent.

...