Bac myths and heroes

Synthèse mythes et héros

A hero is a man who is idealized for possessing superior qualities in any field. This term is often use to describe superheroes, with superpowers and a characteristic outfit. However, heroes aren’t always wearing a cape, sometimes they’re just normal people acting heroically which is really inspirational.

Thus, we could ask ourselves what makes someone a hero.

My presentation falls into two parts. The first part will deal with the role of superheroes in our society, and then, we’ll insist on ordinary people who are considered as heroes.

Firstly, superheroes can be inspirational for the society. Although they may appear useless, they can convey a strong message. For instance, we studied in class an article wrote by Robin Roseberg in which he’s explaining how superheroes changed his life. He underlined an important point, superheroes serve as models of moral behaviour. Indeed, they’re fighting against evil and they dedicate themselves to saving people’s lives. As I said before, it’s inspirational, and it can maybe leads people to the right track.

Moreover, superheroes and heroes can be seen as icons and models, they are symbolic, therefore, it appeals to the society. For instance, Chris Browne used the image of superheroes to describe the courage of firefighters who saved lives during the attack of the 11th of September in 2001. Indeed, he draw a 6 vignettes cartoon entitled “Hagar the horrible” in which a father is explaining the main characteristics of a hero to his son. From his point of view, a hero is loyal, brave and he puts others first. He adds that we can find heroes everywhere, implying that they aren’t only in imaginaries stories, and that they are in our hearts and memory. It refers to firefighters who have given their lives on that day, which is honourable and brave. Thanks to this document, we can say that heroes aren’t necessarily superheroes.

Secondly, even if superheroes have a non-debatable place in our society, we can separate heroes from superheroes. Indeed, heroes can be men and women from our everyday life, they don’t need to have superpowers. It’s reassuring to know that some people put the humanity before them, because some are risking their lives to save other.

I’ve been marked by a report that we saw in class about an American dentist, Dr Trey Wilson, who put aside his life in order to provide free dental care in Kenya. In this country, there is only 1 dentist for 60 000 (sixty thousands) people, which is a disaster, because dental care shouldn’t be an option, it can really lead to serious problems. Thus, Dr Trey Wilson provide free dental care and free dental medicine, besides, he’s providing education on dental hygiene, because dental care are almost non-existent in Kenya. As a result, he’s offering to Kenyans the opportunity to save their smiles, as Dr Trey Wilson said, rather than doing some gardening during the weekend, he prefers to help and to makes himself useful.

Furthermore, heroes are defined by their actions, nether by their social position nor their gender, nor their origin. For instance, a group of Mexicans women are providing food and water to a hundred of migrants daily. They’re called “Las Patronas”, which can be translate as “the mistresses”. Every day, volunteers prepare and distribute about 300

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