Tache Finale Myths and heroes

Sujet du devoir

Pourriez vous me donner votre avis sur ma tâche finale ?

Le style, la problématique, la forme, la structure... un peu tout en fait car je doute de moi !

Merci d'avance et bonne lecture !!

Où j'en suis dans mon devoir

Introduction : The subject of my oral presentation will be Myths and Heroes. I would like first to define the notion. A myth is generally known as a story which is not often real but known by everyone in a certain location. A hero is basically known as a person or a character who is a leader, can be a role model by helping populations, influencing them and defending values. A hero has an uncommun life, he stands out of the crowd. With theses definitions, we can relate both topics together to what we have learnt this year. We focused on historical and modern heroes and too much on myths to understand how heroes are landmarks. It could be consequently relevant to now ask ourselves : In today's society, to what extent is there a need for heroes, something to believe in that is greater than we are ?

We will first see that heroes make extraordinary things and promote values which reassure, influence and create hope for the populations in the current context. Nevertheless, we'll finally explain that the populations also need ordinary heroes to have another value of the human.

I – First and foremost, heroes may be considerate as a way to dream and stand out of the everyday life, as the fictional ones highlight it. For instance, the Marvel characters, who take part in the DC's universe, bring fantasy in the populations's lives. Indeed, the picture of Wonderwoman acting with her bucket we studied this year, shows the heroic dimension of this character. Wonderwoman is the princess of the Amazones, she has super-abilities and super-powers (She can fly and has a huge strenght) and she defends a value which is clearer than the other ones the Marvel Superheroes promote : to be a woman is not being inferior. And guess what ? All the women we know may identify themselves in a certain way to Wonderwoman. Nonetheless, altough she defends this value, she brings a lot more action and allows each person, man or woman, to dream to be as charismatic and ambitious as the Themyscira-island's inhabitant is. That's why populations need heroes.

Moreover, as regarding real heroes, these can trigger some evolutions in the society and be a role model and a symbol of courage and bravery. It could be relevant to take the example of Steve Jobs. In addition to the few newspapers articles's extracts like the « I-way to heaven » one we discussed in class, I've read some articles and I saw a movie which portrayed him to understand how he revolutionized the IT world. By creating Iphone, and combining art and technology, beauty and processing power, he managed to invent a resulting product that seemed personal for each of his customers. His life was a rollercoaster one, with a period called « fall from grace » in the 80's, followed by his return to Apple in 1996. He is considered as a hero, who succeeded to bring a phone in 1 billion houses in almost 40 years. Person like me, like you perhaps and just everyone we know may need emblematic leaders to dream to success and also to be reassured. In this category Winston Churchill is the most-known hero who fought againt nazism during the WW2 through his speeches advocating justice. He was a landmark for each citizens of the UK and of France, who were reassured to have a hero like him in their lives in the tense environment of the war. More recently, in 2015, three men : Anthony Sadler and Alek Skarlatos, two friends, helped by Chris Norman have neutralized the shooter on the Thalys train, thus avoiding a bloodbath. Accordingly, heroes improve our society and the populations need them to improve their lives, to evolve and to deal with their ordinaries dailies which need to have extraordinaries experiences sometimes.

II – However, in addition to needing extraordinary landmarks and to bounce back on my last example, society also needs ordinary heroes. To put it differently, what I really meant to say was that the three heroes on the Thalys train were three ordinary persons who acted heroically and were rewarded after. Each person, by doing an act filled with bravery may become a recognized hero, an ordinary one. Some of the ordinary heroes had an uncommun destiny, but were at the beginning person like you and me such as Rosa Parks. Known in the whole world as the woman who refused to give her sit in a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama on december 1, 1955 during the segregation, she became an activist in the Civil Rights Movement, whom the United State Congress called « the mother of the freedom movement ». By refusing to give her sit and by defying James F. Blake, the bus driver, she prompting the Montgomery Bus Boycott. She was a real hero. The populations and our society also needs heroes like her, to feel closer with these than with others, who may seem inaccessibles. Let me also take the audio document we studied in class about stopping a burglary brodcasted on the TV channel NBC news. The document was centred on Corey Bramwell, who rescued Susan Kirk, a saleswoman who had been attacked in her shop. Two teenagers, Dylan Bolton 19yo and Megan Stuart 18yo, pretented they had to buy something, she went to the store's store and when she came back they grabbed and threatened her with a knife. Corey Bramwell heard Susan's cries and came to her rescue. He took a piece of Chine shot in the skull before hitting the attacker. Despite the fact that he was injured, he carried first aid while waiting for the ambulance to Susan. He was the hero of the day, an ordinary man who did a brilliant and helpful action.

Conclusion : Therefore, there is a real need for heroes, something to believe in that is greater than we are in our society. Indeed, people are in search of landmarks, and they identify themselves to popular heroes, reconognized all over the world as Winston Churchill was but also people are in search of joy in the current context and fictionnal heroes like WonderWoman but we can talk about Superman, Batman or Flash Gordon for example, bring the happiness people are searching for. They make actions in movies or in comics which are valorized and seen as smart ones. The populations also need to believe in ordinary heroes, something in fact which is not as greater as the inaccessibles heroes but much closer. They have to believe in that to turn their lives into extraordinary ones, just feeling compleasant by reading Rosa Parks's exploits or the dedication of the 300 firefighters who died in the twins towers in New York on september the 11th 2001. In fact, everyone can become a hero and for this reason, the belief in heroes may be controversed. Why would we have to believe in something everyone can be ? I think personnaly we have because we were not born perfect, we are not perfect but we try to be by doing like the historical heroes we know, to improve the human race. We could then ask ourselves : To what extent do modern heroes more ephemeral than historical ones ?