From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
1 a : a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability
b : an illustrious warrior
c : a person admired for achievements and noble qualities
d : one who shows great courage
From Wikipedia:
A hero (masculine) or heroine (feminine) is a person or main character of a literary work who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, bravery or strength, often sacrificing their own personal concerns for a greater good.
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I'm going to talk about two different kinds of heroes in this post, real world heroes and heroes of fiction. I'll go over why I think blurring the line between the two as we've seen in recent decades is a mistake, and why one is empowering while the other is quite the opposite. My explanation of what a hero is and means is offered from the perspective that masculinity is a positive force in the world, not a negative one. For reasons that will probably become more apparent below, I think this is important to note.
Heroes in Fiction
Fictional heroes have changed a lot in modern society. To mark the contrast I'll use one of my favorite examples, Beowulf. Beowulf is the man made ideal. He is adventurous but not particularly ambitious. He is proud, but doesn't look down on others. He is strong, but uses his strength for only good. He cares deeply for the well-being of his fellow man. Above all though, he is courageous. Remember those definitions up there at the top? Take special note of "one who shows great courage". In my mind this should be at the very top, not the bottom, for it is possible for a man to possess all other virtues but without courage he cannot be a hero. One might argue that courage is the greatest of all virtues, but I would certainly argue that is the case for the hero.
Heroes inspire us to be in all ways virtuous. Heroes must be inspirational, in that they draw us toward a virtually unachievable ideal. Beowulf is so much more than an impossibly strong man who can kill supernatural beasts. He symbolizes man's tenacity to overcome impossible challenge after impossible challenge. Almost as important as courage, Beowulf possesses another trait, one all too often missing from the modern hero in fiction.
He is relentlessly incorruptible. Not once is he tempted to wrong his fellow man. Not once does he feel fear of his enemies. He never chooses the easy way out, and he never loses any fight or challenge he participates in. This is where I think virtually all modern film adaptations of Beowulf get it terribly wrong. In an attempt to make Beowulf more relatable, they strip him of a quality that made him one of literature's greatest heroes. He gives in to greed, lust, and fear. He doubts himself. He loses. Does this make him more relatable? Sure, but what it doesn't do is inspire. A hero must inspire us to be greater versions of ourselves. To reach for a version of ourselves that is forever beyond our final grasp, but will always motivate us to be more virtuous.
Of course, incorruptible doesn't mean flawless. Maybe your hero likes to get into the occasional bar fight. Maybe he likes to sleep with a few too many women. Maybe he tries to avoid choosing sides and winds up wishing he'd chosen one earlier. However, "every man has his price" never applies to the hero. He may on occasion pretend to be bought off, but he never truly is. It's just a ploy to defeat the bad guy. In theory, the hero could have deeper flaws as well, but the reader will never know about them. Essentially, they don't exist. As for what flaws the reader will tolerate and still consider the character a hero, this depends upon the author knowing his or her audience. When in doubt, less is more. When a skilled author does go bold and has their hero truly fall, they are always afforded the perfect set of circumstances by which to wholly redeem themselves to the reader.
Real Life Heroes
Real life heroes can never replace fictional heroes. Fictional heroes are crafted. Real heroes are limited to the very real weaknesses and limitations of humanity. Don't get me wrong, there are real life heroic acts that live up to the ideal in confined spaces of time, or in single events. A soldier who draws fire from enemy combatants, willing to sacrifice himself to allow his brothers to escape. A firefighter who rushes into a burning building that's a little too far gone to save a child trapped inside. Tank Man, an unknown Chinese man immortalized for standing in front of a row of tanks in the street. For all we know, Tank Man could have been a serial child molester. That soldier may have come home with severe PTSD, became an alcoholic, and beat his pregnant wife so badly he put her in the hospital. That firefighter might simply be a big supporter of the second amendment or pro-choice when it comes to abortion. A large chunk of you will likely see at least one of those things as not very hero-like, as the real world is rife with political divisiveness and hatred for those with whom we disagree.
In order for us to hail a real person as a hero, we often self-erase. We have to substitute our own ideas and positions with theirs. On the flip side of that, we may raise them to hero status by assigning them the fictional hero's trait of infallibility. The very thing that makes a fictional hero inspirational will inevitably lead to disappointment when made the standard for a real person. No living person is capable of living up the the standard of infallibility.
Instead of assigning ourselves heroes, I believe it's better to admire someone's embodiment of virtues that are valuable to us where those virtues are displayed. We should let our own values drive this admiration, and we should be willing to change our positions when evidence threatens them. Just as we should not elevate others to heroes, let us not elevate ourselves to hero status either. Just as everyone around us is wrong about a large portion of things a large portion of the time, we must also recognize that so are we. Be reluctant to package a person and judge them as a whole. Could I not say that Adolf Hitler possessed impressive charisma and gave incredible, rousing speeches? If not, why not? If so, then if it can be applied to a man who is often considered one of the most evil men in history, why not all men?
We will be drawn to those who embody the most traits which we consider to be good, the most consistently, and the most courageously. This is not the same as making them a hero, as it allows them to succeed as a positive force in our lives despite their glaring flaws. It allows us to admire qualities in those who may not be in the same political party as we are, or of the same religion. It allows us to hear others out on the merits of their argument, rather than packaging them up as a whole and judging the whole as bad, because they belong to a different tribe of thought than we do.
[Disclaimer: I'm not saying any of this from a position of authority. I'm not a "real" philosopher. I'm not a professor who teaches literature, nor am I a writer of any renown. I'm just some guy on the internet. It's amateur hour. Take everything said with a grain of salt. Maybe a few grains. Actually, just bring the whole shaker.]
