What Makes Someone a Hero

What makes us good? What makes us evil? What features do “heroes” have that regular people don’t have? A hero can be defined in so many ways because everyone in the world has different objectives of what a hero is. When I hear the word hero, I think of someone who is idealized for their courage and bravery, having outstanding achievements, and having noble qualities. Policemen and firefighters are heroes to me. Heroes can come in all different shapes and sizes and that’s important for some people to understand, just because they aren’t super tall and lusty doesn’t mean that they can’t be a hero. In the earliest English epic poem, “Beowulf”, the hero is Beowulf. As a hero, the Anglo-Saxons made Beowulf have certain hero characteristics. Today we still have heroes that have the same characteristics because authors took the image of Beowulf and created other super-natural heroes. Beowulf was a warrior and a king that showed great courage and he was admired by his own people and King Hrothgar. Epic heroes are social icons and they are imposing in stature, physically and socially. Their style is grand, yet simple, and they have super-human strength and they also face super-natural forces. Just like all of the other superheroes that we know today (Superman, Spiderman, and Wonderwoman). Obviously superheroes aren’t real, but regular heroes can have some of the same characteristics that a superhero can have, for example being physically and socially imposing in stature and having great courage and being admired by thousands of people.
Over the hundreds of years, we’ve come to define heroism as a certain act with many different views. One view is performing in service to others in need, whether it’s a single person, group, or community. Another view is someone that is engaged in voluntarily, even maybe in military contexts, as heroism remains an act that goes beyond