“A person who is admired for great or brave acts or fine qualities.”

The broad definition – from the Webster dictionary.

The definition can hold, but what does it really mean?

What does being a hero mean?

 

Who are the people that admire a “hero”?

Can they just be one person,

Can they be a certain band of people most don’t like,

Can they be puppets for something else?

 

What does it mean to be “great”?

Does this mean a wise, cunning person that tricks their way to success,

Does this mean brutal strength,

Does this mean saving people?

In the end, it can’t be any.

A wise person hurts the innocent person they trick,

The strong hurt their opponents that may be innocent,

The person that saves cannot save everyone.

 

What are “brave acts or fine qualities”?

Are they killing the bad to save the good?

Because if so, how do you know who is good and who is bad?

 

A hero cannot please everyone,

So who do they have to please?

 

This topic in question raises so many questions,

None with a definitive answer.

 

Was Odysseus a hero?

He fought off the Trojans, sacked their city, gained favor of the gods, and had unspeakable wisdom.

Yet, he did not care for his people, his citizens.

He did not care for his wife or her feelings.

And his fatal flaw was hubris.

He was not perfect, and to many, not even good.

 

I could go on, with examples, but it will take an eternity.

And I choose to be sane.

The definition of a “hero” is not simple, it is not concise.

 

No one is “great” enough to be a hero.

No one can be a whole hero.

Everyone has something, has done something, that cannot be considered a hero.

 

But in the end, Captain America will be the same level hero as Iron Man,

Despite being decades apart.

In the end, it is up to you to decide.

A hero is someone that you look up to.

Someone that you choose to follow.

And you can always pick and choose what you want to see, and what to turn a blind eye to.

 

Who is your hero?

What is your hero?

 

written by Aashritha Paluru

edited by Shivani Sukumar and Tryphena Pilli

 

Picture:

Becoming A Hero – Tristen MacDonald. (n.d.). Retrieved December 23, 2021, from https://www.tristenmacdonald.com/becoming-a-hero.