Myths and heroes: Why are sports heroes so important in today’s society ?

MYTHS AND HEROES

I am going to talk about the notion of « Myths and heroes ». First of all I would like to give a defintion of heroes and of myths : a hero is a person who is admired for their courage or noble qualities. It can be the main character in a book or a film,or a person with superhuman qualities. It can also be a person who has performed a heroic act or simply our own personal hero, our role model, who we look up to.

A myth is a story that may or may not be true. Some myths may have started as ‘true’ stories but as people re-told them some parts may have been changed by mistake, or to make them more interesting.

This year in class we studied several documents about myths and  particulary about heroes. In order to illustrate this notion I have chosen to talk about « Race » and « Oscar Pistorius, our flawed hero has fallen » and try to answer the question : Why are sports heroes so important in today’s society ?

The first document I have chosen is « Race », one film based on Jesse Owens’s life. This film was directed by Stephen Hopkins. This film is extraordinary because it show us the environment of Jesse Owens and how he become a hero to black people by winning 4 gold medals at the Olympics Games in Berlin. After showing this film we understand that the producer want to show us that Jesse Owens was an incredible athlete and how he overcame the racism and make dream black people by participating in the Olympics Games in Berlin. Even though many black people didn’t want him to go to Berlin when Jesse Owens returned home he was the pride of many people.

The second document I have chosen is a newspaper article taken from « The Guardian ». It indicates the fall of Oscar Pistorius after he was charged with the murder of his girlfriend. The author draws our attention to the fact that before Oscar Pistorius become a murderer he was a hero and a legend in South Africa. After reading this article we understand that the author wants to shows us that Oscar Pistorius is a person who gave hope to his country and to the disabled. The author disapproves of the behaviour of Oscar Pistorius but for him the reasons of his violence were his environment because South Africa is a country of violence. This text perfectly illustrates the idea of myths and heroes and the question because Oscar Pistorius was a great athletes, he gave hope to many people and he perfectly embodied the hero but he commited a murder and now lot of people hate him and he is a fallen hero.

These two documents had a link because the first, which is an film, shows us to what extend Jesse Owens give hope to black people by winning 4 gold medals at the Olympics Games which took place in a really racist country. The second document, which is an article, shows us the important role of Oscar Pistorius for his country and disabled people and how he’s fallen from hero to zero leaving many people in misunderstanding.

In conclusion, society creates myths and heroes to dream of a better world and imagine perfection. And thereafter, it throws these fictional heroes in real life to have role models and progress in the right direction. I think sports heroes are a good way to set goals in life, to have an example to follow when we are lost but the example of Oscar Pistorius shows us that a hero is not necessarily the best example to follow because nobody is perfect and all of us can make mistakes

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