Synthèse Myths and Heroes

Today, I would like to talk about myths and heroes. I will first define this notion, a myth is a story of gods or demi-gods. These myths are the bases of civilization. A hero can be a mythological figure, a person admired for his achievements, a superhero or perhaps a model or icon. They fight for good against evil. Someone who does something extraordinary.

To illustrate my idea, I will talk about the myth of the cowboy in American civilization and I will ask myself what is the impact of this myth on America today?

We can see the image of the cowboy is still widely used in America today: to advertise different products for example.

Nowadays, the cowboy has many values: freedom, independence, self-reliance, uprightness and morality.

I was lucky enough to discover this aspect through different documents, such as "Our western roots", presenting the origin of this mythical image. Indeed, in this excerpt, the author presents various clichés associated with cowboys: this is exactly the image conveyed by Hollywood western movies. That's why this image is engraved in people's minds. Of course, we also have preconceived ideas about "bad guys" and "good guys". When we think of the bad guys, we associate them with bank robbers and the kind of people we can meet in the living rooms. Traditionally, these people are arrested by the sheriff. At the "good" we usually associate those who stitch to the law and respect the rules: trustworthy people and God fearing. If we were to transfer these concepts to our time, we could certainly draw up a list of "bad guys" (the terrorists, for example), but in the case of the "good guys" it would be much more difficult to come with them. That’s why people regret this mystical. West conquest time when you could have a Manichean vision of the world.

Some people still claim to carry they carry these values, even if we may doubt it. We studied an article about the McCoy brothers, two cowboys from Oklahoma who took part in a TV reality show called "The Amazing Race". A game in which eleven couples have to perform different physical and mental challenges. Obviously, it's rather superficial and trivial. The image the brothers give is quite advantageous and positive; they showed qualities; they are described as honest, hard-working, serious and fair-play. They are attached to traditional values ​​and this is paradoxical with the rules of the game. They lost, but they did not betray their values. It is quite surprising to see such people is a game like this. All these cowboys and cowgirls apparently stand for a laborious and simple life. People who wake up early in the morning and devote all their energies to their simple tasks. They are honest, hard-working people who succeeded, this is an image American people like to have of themselves. This text shows that cowboys have been important for centuries and still today. Here, cowboys are interested in youth through reality TV. They are also featured in many books and movies.

These documents clearly show people still love this idealised vision of their ancestors. But, we studied a video untitled "Ten Strange Facts About Cowboys" and allowed us to break these stereotypes and better understand the cowboys. For example, cowboys rarely had guns and almost never fought.

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