notion myth and hero

Sujet du devoir

I’m going to deal with the notion of Myths and Heroes. 

First I will explain what I understand by myth and heroe: A myth is a traditional  story concerning the early history of people or explaining a natural or social phenomenon and typically involving supernatural being or event.  A hero in mythology and folklore is representing by a person with superhuman qualities, who is admired for his or her courage or outstanding achievements  

So I would like to try to answer the question why does a society create myths and heroes? How can myths and heroes change our lives or the way of history ?

 My presentation is made up in two part, the first is about The real heroes of life in society and history  the second part is about Myths and fictive hero in society and history

The real heroes of life in society and history

Since the beginning of mankind, some people or groups of people have distinguished themselves by their actions, their words or their qualities and are considered as heroes in society and in people's minds.

First, there is a hero recognized by society because of his abnegation like fireman. Firefighter helps people all day when they are in danger, they risked their life and perished to save them as we have seen with the attentat of 09/11. A documentary ( THE FIREMEN OF 9/11) I have see, explain how the fire department of New-York is one of the biggest and busiest department in the world. They mobilized them to go on World Trade Center, entered on tower  go into the seat of the fire, push it out and in the same time they incited people to came down the stairs with their 60 kg of equipment on the back. Many fireman are never come back and died.

However, they save and change lot of life. 

So they are admired for their achievements, noble qualities as their strength and their courage.  Their roles of rescuer give them the status of hero. 

Then there is hero who wants change the History as a defender of common values. For example, in spite of the abolition of slavery by Abraham Lincoln, discrimination against the Blacks between 1865 and 1965 was shameful and shocking. It was the time of the Jim Crow Laws. These laws forbidden to Black to be by Whites side at the school, bus, restaurant, etc. A black man and a white women were not authorized to married and have children. So many people fighted for freedom and equalities between Black and Whites like Rosa Parks, who said “ no ” to the driver of a bus  when he told her to let her place to a white men, the realty was that she was tired of these law. During the Speech at the four-day march in Alabama in March 25, 1965, she explain what happened to her and her family after her decisions, she said that it was good decision. But Rosa Parks was not the only person who try to make the situation change for the black people Martin Luther King, with his famous speech “I have a dream” who incited to keep hope with his nonviolence, so many people support them and so many others try to abolish this law.

Thank to determined and tough people such as Martin Luther King, the blacks achieved the abolition of the Jim Craw Laws and got Civic Rights even if the racism is also present. They change the course of History and the condition of Blacks today. 

Finally, there is also many person who are an object of extreme admiration and devotion. They are icon. Today there are also some people who make the world move on like Greta Thunberg who is fighting for the environment  or Muzoon Almellehan who is the youngest ambassador of the Unicef All of them have an impact and modify our lives. They change or have changed the course of History and the actual society.

Myths and fictive hero in society and history

Depending on different cultures, myths are also different. 

Heroes allows to dream by the myths they represent. For example, the story of Peter Pan embodies the dream of everyone to eternal youth and our fear of old age and death. 

Thanks to the effects produced by the literature, the iconic fictional hero becomes. The subsequent era of great discoveries gives the world a new kind of hero : the adventurer, as Sinbad the Sailor, inspired by the myth of travel.

Similarly, Romeo and Juliet represent the myth of eternal love, while Harry Potter shows the victory of love against the darkness. 

In society, many fictitious hero, superhero in comics, cinema are invented as Superman, Batman. They symbolize the civism, the strength, courage, etc. They have many qualities and become a model, an ideal for kids who wants look like them and do what heroes do. 

In one sens, this incites children to be a good man or girl, with values, civism and so to be a good citizen.

It may also happen that the authorities or a marginal group use a mythical image as Captain America fighting the communist and represent the superiority of America. This hero give to the population some new allies and show them that with this valus and this behavior they never will be loser

Myths and heroes who represent are created by the company to us implicitly format has certain values and principles.

There is also the myth of an area, a time of the past as many people consider the 60s as mythical. The decade was also called the Swinging Sixties and lots of people see that era as vibrant, exciting and fresh with all kind of new ideas concerning lifestyle, culture, sexual freedom, politics, films, TV and popular music. I think the drawing on the cover of the Time Magazine that we saw in class really illustrates the idea of a new era. We can see a discotheque, the singer of the famous rock band The Who, there’s a woman on the corner that seems to be on drugs and people are wearing typical clothes from the 60s, but we can also see men with suits and bowler hat. The magazine was published in 1966 and it shows London as the Swinging City. And I think it is an accurate representation of what London was at this time: the city was incarnating the renewal of society and it was the place where the spirit of the 60s was born actually. 

The 60s were also the time when Pop Art, fashion, and Rock’ n’ Roll (with pirate radios) developed, which was incarnating an artistic and cultural revolution.

So the 60s can be seen as a mythical decade considering that it was a time of renewal and revolution in many domains. But everything wasn’t good during this decade.

Indeed, people who lived through the 1960s and many younger people today think well of the fashions, the tolerance, social reform, new liberal ideas. But for many others, that decade started the rot in society evident today.The revolution was extolling anti-establishmentarianism and was epitomized by pirate radios, but these pirates were in fact very motivated by money. Another myth from the sixties is tolerance, because in fact, that was the time when racism really started to spread in UK, and the 60s weren’t great if you looked different, if you were Black or Asian. This was a period when a series of riots against immigration took place. To illustrate this, I found a photograph of an anti-immigration demonstration that took place in 1968 after Enoch Powell pronounced his speech about the consequences of immigration. The decade was supposed to be the final liberation for women thanks to the creation of the pill, but instead of making them freer, it has made them more available and that’s how the sexual culture that we know today was born. The drug culture also developed during the 1960s and has caused many problems since then

So to recap I’d like to wind up by saying that the concept of myths and heroes has an important place in the society. We must not forget that the definition hero is subjective, it depends on us and society. Define someone as hero is acceding to its causes, goals, which can sometimes be good and just as bad or faked. Some people or characters are considered heroes in reality impostors or corrupted. 

Narrated and presented to the children, myths and heroes are part of their education. These are examples of models to be chosen carefully. I have the feeling that they are sometimes a source of manipulation. 

However, a fictional hero as real must be courageous, honest, just, that is to say have qualities.