Definition of a hero
A hero can be thought as a person who has probably performed a number of actions that are beyond the ability of an average person, these deeds are regarded as extraordinary or amazing. Heroes perform superhuman deeds, some of the most known heroes in the past include Alexander the Great who conquered a vast territory, and he almost single-handedly penetrated more than 14,000 miles through Greece to the Far East.
The actions of Alexander the Great are a vivid demonstration of superhuman actions that earned him a heroic status. In a nutshell, a hero is a person who has performed actions that are by far beyond the abilities of any person in his or her time and maybe in the future. A hero is also defined by his or her community; one cannot earn a heroic status without the immediate society granting them the status.
How others define a hero
Many people have proposed different definitions of what a hero means, some agree on the uniqueness of a hero in terms of the abilities to perform deeds that are extraordinary, some argue that heroes train to become heroes through years while others tend to agree that heroes are simply borne heroes (Barnet, 37).
The age and the perception of an individual influence these definitions, a child regards his or her parents as heroes as they learn their environment, and they see their mentors or teachers as their heroes. With time, as the mind develops so does the scope and the definition of a hero.
In the ancient times, a hero in the Greek was regarded as a person with overwhelming courage to face the challenges that affected the community, some of the common challenges of the ancient times included enemy attacks, drought and religious conflicts. In the past heroes were worshiped as they were regarded as superhuman. In some other communities like the Hindus, their heroes were idols that were worshiped and highly regarded.
How I define a hero
To me, a hero is anybody who has played a vital role in ensuring that humanity develops towards prosperity or safeguards humanity from danger. Since life its future is the most essential factor in the human history, it is worth protecting the survival of humanity by all means.
There are a number of ways which ensures that human suffering is mitigated or eliminated completely through the contribution of science and human heroes. To me, people who have played a vital role in either whistle blowing the impeding danger or positively contributing towards a solution of a major crisis like the disarmament of nuclear weapons and mitigation of climate changes risks are my heroes.
The reason why I define my heroes with regard to the personality that will enhance longevity of mankind is fundamentally because of the undisputed value of life.
Some of the people that I regard as heroes include; revolutionary scientist who brought dipper understanding to what we could have otherwise ignored are Albert Einstein and Rutherford. The behaviour of micro-particles has been studied with the aid of Einstein world-shattering imaginative speculations that were later to shape our fundamental understanding of basic physics.
The imaginative minds of these scientists is what fascinates more, the idea of relativity and the revelation that time was actually not constant, the way we perceived makes these people heroes in my own definition of a hero.
How a hero relate to his/her society
Heroes are normally regarded as heroes within a given community, region or even globally. The fundamental concept here is that these heroes are literally defined by the immediate community based on the deeds of that particular person or people. The relation that exists between the society and these heroes is thus the regard and the perception of the society towards these people (James, 237).
In most cases, heroes of a particular region or community can only be regarded as heroes of that community or region and not outside that region because of difference in perception in other regions.
An example of how a hero relates to society is when Jack John was named the first black person to win the converted heavyweight tournament in 1908. The entire black society hailed Jack as their hero; this was not the case in the white community as bitterness prevailed.
The whites then named their hero Willard to return the white supremacy of the championship from Johnson; he was named the white hope simply as a sign of dissatisfaction as a result of Johnson prevalence in the heavyweight competition. The above example succinctly shows the difference of hero perception in different communities; it is thus obvious that heroes are defined by the society that they are in. A hero in one region may not be a hero in another.
On the contrary, there are heroes that are highly regarded all over the world, such heroes include Mother Teresa and Mahatma Ghandi, these heroes were highly regarded because of their admirable characters and actions that contributed more to the welfare of humanity, not only in their a regions but globally. The society that defines these people is thus throughout the world.
Works Cited
Barnet Sylvan, Burto William, and Cain William. A Little Literature: Reading, Writing, Argument. New York, NY: Pearson/Longman, 2007. PP. 34-57.
James Missy, and Alan Merickel. Reading Literature and Writing Argument. 4th edition. Michigan, MA: Prentice Hall, 2010.PP. 234-254.