What It Means To Be A Hero Analysis
According to Angus Wilson, “The opportunities for heroism are limited in this kind of world: the most people can do is sometimes not to be as weak as they’ve been at other times.” In other words, heroism is kept at such a high standard in our society that it is practically impossible to be deemed heroic. Furthermore, we should educate ourselves on what comprises a hero and the aspects that should represent heroism.
We must reassess what being a hero means. A hero makes a monumental sacrifice in their everyday lives. They sacrifice their desire to do what is right for themselves, to do what is right for others. For example, parents in poverty give their children all the food they have, so they don’t go hungry, which is no small feat. This is what being a hero should mean and what it really looks like.
We must also consider what a hero isn’t. A hero isn’t purposefully rude and selfish. A hero isn’t arrogant, and they don’t flaunt how nice they’re being. Doing nice things for ulterior motives isn’t being nice, it’s being egotistical. For example, in the Odyssey, Odysseus uses his ignorance and curiosity to get his men killed, which isn’t heroic. It is being greedy and taking what you want, no matter the cost. Most people do this, which is blatantly sad. Most people aren’t heroes, they are people; they do things for a reward and always expect something in return for doing a good deed, which isn’t at all what is defined as heroism in my book.
Heroes come in all shapes, colors, sizes, and backgrounds. They can be your friends standing up for you in an argument. They can be your mom making your favorite dinner on your birthday. We can even find them in nature. Well-documented observations demonstrate how dolphins help injured animals by swimming underneath them and float them to the surface, so they can breathe. This shows that even in the animal kingdom, there is heroism. Heroism is when someone's action to help outweighs the benefit of doing that good action. This means that they do what they can to help not expecting anything in return. This is found over various species. If animals can be heroes, then so can humans.
In conclusion, humans are one of the few high consciousness beings on earth. Yet we lack compassion and true heroism, unlike our animal counterparts. We still have the potential to be a hero, but the endless pressures and ideals of our society make doing that 1000x harder. If we reevaluate ourselves and figure out which emotions are genuine, and which are fake. We can then determine what being a hero really means to us and how we can finally achieve human evolution.
