Categorical Definition Argument Writing about Heroes - Case Study Example

Categorical definition argument writing about heroes Introduction: A portrait of a typical hero can be drawn with the qualities such as sacrifice, determination, loyalty, courage, dedication, selflessness, gallantry, perseverance, fortitude, bravery etc. It is the society or the people who make the person a hero because of some of the extra qualities dwells in him. He becomes hero by his outstanding and praiseworthy deeds. There is quite difference between the concept of the hero in the past and in the present. In the past the hero used to be the ideal figure with morality and it was anticipated that he is never bound to make any single mistake. His personality used to be exalted. In mythology or in the great epic of the world Ramayana, the hero is Ram. Ram is shown as an obedient, selfless, and the most valiant person of the world. But in the modern time the concept of hero has changed. The hero is supposed to be the person who has glamour due to his qualities. The modern heroes can be of different field such as the hero in sport, cinema, or politics. The hero in modern term is the person who has his influence on the people and he is an idol for them. The influence of the hero could go even to that height where the ordinary people start thinking him as a divine figure and they worship him. In India, especially in South India the people are so crazy about films and the heroes of the film that they have built the temples of these heroes. It is the different thing whether these people deserve worship or not, but the major point here to be considered is that the height of influence of the hero can go at any stage. It is always the quality of the hero to battle hard and reach to the pinnacle of success by overcoming all odds. These heroes have tremendous power and strength. There are different types of heroes; among them are seeker, victim hero, anti-hero, tragic hero, epic hero, culture hero, folk hero and reluctant hero. Keywords: hero, outstanding qualities, worship, idol, odds, seekers, victim hero, anti hero, tragic hero, epic hero, culture hero, folk hero, reluctant hero A Hero is a man who ardently devotes his life to the divine and inner truth and shares his vision with the rest of the world. For Carlyle, this is the definition of a true man: one who is a deep and spiritual being, living his life by divine truths. Carlyle in his book “On Heroes, hero-worship and the heroic in history,” he talks about the following different categories of the heroes” The Hero as Divinity - Odin The Hero as Prophet – Mohammad The hero as Poet – Dante, Shakespeare The hero as Priest - Luther The Hero as man of Letters – Johnson, Rousseau, Burns The Hero as King – Cromwell, Napoleon “All sorts of Heroes are intrinsically of the same material; that given a great soul, open to the Divine Significance of Life, then there is given a man fit to speak of this, to sing of this, to fight and work for this, in a great, victorious, enduring manner; there is given a Hero, — the outward shape of whom will depend on the time and the environment he finds himself in.”[1] John Locke – A Hero As discussed above that the hero is typically represents the extra ordinary qualities, but what about that person who becomes hero by a particular circumstances? If taken into consideration John Locke’s character he is very similar to Odin whom Carlyle calls the Hero as Divinity. John Locke is a very complicated figure like Odin. Like Odin, John Locke is the hero, who is connected with wisdom, war, battle and death. In his entire life he is shown struggling hard with his destiny. His battle with the destiny is continuously going on till his death. John has spent his childhood in very adverse circumstances. Apart from having father and mother he has to spend his childhood in the foster care. Thus his childhood was not a happy period for him at all. We see an extraordinary selflessness in his personality which cannot be found in the real and materialistic world. He gave his father his kidney and thus saved his life but his ungrateful father on the other hand pushed him out of the window just because John was trying to give him some advice. It badly affected his back and he becomes paralyzed from the waist. When he crashed the unknown island surprisingly his paralysis was healed and it made him believe that he had some connection with this island and there is a special task for him given by destiny. This is the reason why he reached on this unknown region. His entire life is like a life of a philosopher. When he was there on the island along with the other people due to his heroic deeds he became the leader of the people. John Locke’s life, from his childhood is without any direction. But the plane crash has brought a drastic change in his life and made him to understand the purpose of his life. Here he understood the divine purpose of his life. The origin of the character of John Locke is the English philosopher of same name who lived in 1632 to 1704 who was the middle class puritan and educated from Oxford. One more similarity in the character of John Locke in Lost and the original character of John Locke is that like the original one the character in Lost John Locke also saved his father by donating one of the parts of his body. There are other categories of the heroes. Let’s think about those categories and in which category John Locke’s character fits. The categories are as follows: seeker victim hero anti-hero tragic hero epic hero culture hero folk hero · reluctant hero John Locke as a seeker: A seeker is a typical romantic hero which can be found in the legends or fairy tales. He sets in pursuit of his beloved who is abducted. While describing about the seeker Vladimir Propp in his book Morphology of the Folktale describes, “The departure of seeker-heroes and victim-heroes are different. The departures of the former group (Seeker) have search as their goal, while those of the latter mark the beginning of a journey without searches, on which various adventures await the hero.”[2] Propp here wants to tell that the seeker does many adventures in the process of seeking the object. Of course many times the abducted victim is the girl. “In seeker-hero sequences, the protagonist, with the help of donors, helpers, rescues the abducted victim.” [3] In case of John Locke we can say that though he is not a seeker from the fairy tales or legends, he can be called a seeker. It is because he is constantly searching for the aim of his life. For this purpose he wanders in his entire life. He finds the purpose of his life when he found himself on the island after the plane crash. His dialogue with Jack reveals his simplicity and his firm belief that everyone on the earth has some purpose. "Each one of us was brought here for a reason," John Locke says. "Brought here?" Jack answers, shaking his head. Knowing that he would not believe Johns answer, he asks, "And who brought us here, John?" "The island." [4] He is shown as a seeker who tries to seek his lost parents, his love and the aim of his life. John Locke – a victim hero If taken into consideration the second category of the hero, that is victim, one can call John as a victim rather than a tragic hero. John is very simple and selfless as mentioned above. This is the reason why he is used by the other characters of the story such as Jack, Ben and he was also used by the Man in Black. Even his father also used him when his father was fighting with death. After that he also kicked his son. Since his childhood he suffers a lot and he is constantly the sufferer and the victim of the destiny also. His childhood was not a congenial thing for him but on the other hand it was a nightmare for him. He has to part from his mother and his father and spend his childhood as an orphan. In short John was used by many people and so in that sense he can be called a victim hero. “Perform your task and don’t expect fruit.” This is the principle of his life. This is the major reason of his tragic end. Sometimes too much goodness is also harmful for our life. Generally the freedom fighters can also be the victim heroes. The best examples of the victim heroes are Saint Joan or Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated for the sake of his motherland. The real leader whose teachings of non violence not only influenced in India but the entire world still bows the extraordinary principles of non violence of Gandhi which otherwise are very difficult to work out in practical life. Mahatma Gandhi was great hero because he attains those things which are very impossible. This is the reason why he is called Mahatma, i.e. great soul. The second category of the hero is anti hero and it is absolutely not the question of John Locke to be the anti hero. From the beginning to the end of the story he gets sympathy from the audience for his simplicity and his continuous sacrifice. His sacrifice for his father, for the people of the island is really remarkable. Hence he can never be an anti hero. John Locke – a tragic hero According to Aristotle the tragic hero is the person who has noble structure and amazing greatness. He opines that though the tragic hero is great, he is never perfect. The people see in him somebody who is like them. John Locke in this term can be called the tragic hero due to the misfortune happened to him in his entire life but here we notice that whatever worst things happened in his life is merely the part of his destiny. According to the tragedy of Aristotle and Shakespeare hero’s downfall is the consequence of his own fault and not the destiny. In that case John Locke cannot be called a typical Aristotelian or Shakespearean tragic hero. Further the fall of the hero, in both of their tragedies is not just fall but this fall brings self awareness in the hero. The hero gains the self knowledge from his downfall. The tragedy of the plane crash gave the self knowledge to John Locke who understood his purpose of life. Till then he was just wandering without any direction. But in the end he ends his life for the sake of other people. Here this tragic hero becomes the victim of circumstances or we can call him a martyr like Saint Joan or Mahatma Gandhi. This makes him totally different from the tragic hero of Aristotle and Shakespeare. So we can say that he has some qualities of being a tragic hero but he cannot be called a complete tragic hero. Epic hero is the figure of mere fantasy and those qualities cannot be translated in real life or they are not convincing in the concept of modern hero. Epic heroes have generally those characteristics which are supernatural. In short he is the super human. He is larger than life and embodies the value of particular society. John Locke cannot be said as an epic hero because he is never shown as a supernatural figure. His character is depicted as a normal human being. So he can neither be an Epic hero or a culture hero. Next category of the hero is the folk hero who fights against the authorities to give just to the common people. He is popular among a particular country. Robin Hood, William Tell, Paul Bunyan are some of the examples of the folk hero. John Locke cannot be the folk hero as he had not fought against any authority. His fight is with himself and with the destiny. John Locke is succumbed by circumstances. John Locke can also be described as a reluctant hero. In case of a reluctant hero the person is a normal human being who thrust into an extraordinary situation which compels him to be a hero. At initial stage of his life he is a normal human being with no heroic qualities. He was living a very humble life, but later on his extra ordinary work reaches him at the height of heroism. Conclusion: John Locke is the person who always thinks that every person is always good like him. He trusts that there is goodness in every human being and this type of nature of his personality always betrays him and he has to face hardship due to this attitude. He suffers a lot in his entire life but still struggles to make his life meaningful. He has no urge to become a hero nor does he have the specific qualities of being a hero. Rather he is the worst sufferer at every stage of his life and the victim of either the circumstances or in the hands of the other characters. So he can best be called a victim hero rather than a tragic hero. Sources: 1. Thomas Carlyle, Michael Kenneth Goldberg, Joel J. Brattin, Mark Engel, page 99, “On Heroes, hero worship and the heroic in history, published by University of California, 1993 2. Vladimir Propp (Pg 39) “Morphology of the Folktale” (1997) Published by University of Texas Press. 3. Dennis Jonnes, “The Matrix of Narrative: family systems and the semiotics of story”, published by Walter de Gruyter 1990) 4. Quotes taken from the article “The Appearance of Coincidence, by Bonny Covel, website: http://lost.about.com/od/theories/a/coincidence.htm Read More