In society, we all tend to have different perspectives on what a true epic hero is. As I was reading the blogs about heroes from our classmates in particular, I noticed that many of us had the same ideas when it comes to the qualities and the all around "idea" of what a hero is in our minds, but we did have some differences when it came to our personal beliefs and opinions of the heroes around us. A hero is someone who makes a difference in our society, or someone who would be described as brave or notorious, and lastly, it is someone who is known for and praised for their good actions or deeds; however, my blog post speaks differently of the last part of that definition when it comes to a modern day hero, because there are many heroes that exist in the past and in our modern society that haven't/will not receive the acknowledgement and praise they deserve for what they do. Unfortunately, many people do not see that, and that can be a huge problem in our soceity.
I read in Brittany King's blog post about a female character in the Hunger Games, where she explains that the character shows bravery by taking her own sister's place in the Hunger Games and eventually ending violence in the world. Her hero is based off of a fictional character, so it doesn't represent, in my opinion, what a true modern day hero is, however it does explain something pretty important. This fictional character can represent those individuals like Martin Luther King, Jr., who fought for equality of people in our nation, and eventually that led to justice, equal rights, and the end of the violence such as the KKK. There are also people in our modern day society that fight for their rights and fight against the violence, and this character can represent those types of people. The fictional, comic book, and cartoon characters are the heroes who receive all of the attention, and are the first to come to mind when people think of heroes, but no one really thinks to relate these characters to the real life people that those characters represent.
In Devasha Washington's blog post, she explained her idea of a hero as the Veterans of our country. She goes on to say that they are brave because they left their homes to fight for our country with the mindset that they may never come home again and see their loved ones. Veterans and soldiers who are currently fighting for our country are without a doubt the most important heroes Americans could ever have. Recently in our society, there are people who are choosing to disrespect these heroes, but will never forget the fictional super heroes in the stories. It's much more popular for someone to walk around in a Superman t-shirt vs. someone to hang an American flag in their yard, so in my opinion our modern day has the wrong idea when it comes to the real definition of a hero. Veterans will never receive enough respect and honor that they deserve as heroes of our country.
In my opinion, modern heroes and classical heroes are somewhat similar. A modern day hero, for example a soldier, would be considered a hero because he/she makes a courageous choice to fight for Americans, and they could die while doing this like a classical hero. But, a classical hero is considered to be "born perfect" and I don't think that anyone has or ever will be born perfect (except for Jesus himself), so I don't think a classical hero could have existed (besides Jesus) then or now in that case. Classical heroes seem to be fictional and dramatic characters in the stories of the Romans or Greeks, not anything to be taken seriously to me.
I was trying to figure out a word(s) that describes how different classical heroes are compared to modern ones and the part where you said classical heroes were "born perfect", that was the one I was trying to find. Great post!
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