American
Literature
Matt Robbins
October 7, 1996
What is a hero?
Does one have to have superpowers, special abilities or incredible
talent to be
considered one? Well, some of us seem to
think so. Then there is the
everyday teacher
or local figure that is considered a hero to selected individuals in their
community. To me a hero has to have a few selected
qualities, and I haven't met anyone
who can fulfill
all three.
First, a hero must be good at heart. A hero has to know how to give and take
accordingly. When he/she is needed to make a great
sacrifice to help the community,
their closest
friends, or even their greatest enemies, they need to know that it is okay to
make that
sacrifice and know they did the right thing.
That person also needs to go out
and make a
difference in their community and not need any more motivation than the good
feeling they feel
when they've made a positive impact on the few people they met with and
helped. A person that is to be considered a hero must
be naturally good and work for
good and be there
when they are needed most. They should
not have to feel guilty about
the negative
effects of something they have done if the good it causes out weighs the bad.
Honesty is a good trait to have if you want to
be a hero. A hero needs to be
honest with the
public so that he/she will get the public's support to retain that hero status
among them, and
possibly gain that status with more individuals. Being honest is a quality
that is never
usually overlooked in naming someone a hero.
This includes being honest
with one's
self. Honesty with yourself is a very
important virtue. It is hard to get
through
life, especially
as a hero, lying or fooling yourself into believing something about yourself
or others that
you really know is not true. For
example; you are seen as a hero to many
people, but you
know that you did something to wrong many of your followers to better
yourself. Even though you knew it was wrong, you did it
and you are constantly
reminding
yourself that it will turn out good and then no one will ever find out. You were
trying to fool
yourself into believing that you did nothing wrong, but in reality you
betrayed
"your public."
Trustworthiness
is possibly the best and most valuable virtue of a hero in my eyes.
In order to
retain the hero image you have to be able to be trusted and relied on to be
there when you
said you would. Also, it is necessary
for people to trust you and what you
say to them, and for
them to know that you will stick to your word and not let them down.
To be trustworthy
you have to value what you say and say what you mean. If you would
happen to give a
false promise, you will most likely be caught in that lie and lose the status
you deserve or
think you still deserve. You would also
be hard pressed to find someone
that would still
believe anything you say after one fairly sizable mistake. That would really
hurt your image
to the people that once loved and admired you so much.
A hero must meet these three standards, and as
of yet I know of no one who can
presently do
this. There are hundreds of people who
can meet any one of these
characteristics;
of these there are probably a few dozen who can fulfill two of them. But
of all the people
I have known and met, is there a person who I look up to, and can meet
all three of
these traits I ask of a hero? No, but
maybe somewhere down the road I'll meet
someone who I
will consider a hero, as I have several people in the past. I'm sure there is
someone out there
who strives to meet these and I hope there is.
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