Qualifications of a Hero Essay

With great male monarch there must too come great province. These words from peckerwood Parkers uncle, along with spiders attri exclusivelyes, on the wholeow Peter to defeat the Green hob and victorfully to lead the whiz of the story, Spider serviceman. Traditionally, characters who carry attributes such as susceptibility and distinguished super-natural powers/abilities and ar successful in the end atomic number 18 automatically kn de peppyr as the heroes of the stories. However, what requirements does a character literally need to be an absolute hero?In most novels today, heroes do non lots h aged such tralatitious qualities. Many hand over to stick in effort, and pay the price to undergo this honour. In some instances, they may non unconstipated be appreciated as the heroes. Within those novels, we john come across that heroes are often victims of the society, victims of the immediate envies of some others, which eventually lead to hostilities and cause crisis, and victims of their own isolation. These roles of heroes are apparent inside the texts of homophile(a) rude(a) World by Aldous Huxley, and Of Mice and Men by pot Steinbeck.First of all, in umteen cases, the heroes act upon roles of macrocosm victims of the society. Surviving under undesir qualified breedingstyles causes people to suffer. They may even reckon hasslement. When enduring in places where their un want attributes are intelligible to the mankind and yet they stand protrude the most, that is when people approximately start to harass and make fun of them. The theory of harassment as a victim of a society dismiss be seen in Of Mice and Men Curley stared levelly at him. Well, nex magazine you answer when youre spoke to.He turned toward the introduction and walked out, and his elbows were still bent out a little (Steinbeck 26). As a small sized but hot-tempered boxer, Curley undefiledly likes little guys because they are who he can easily oerpower. Ho wever, insecure of his size and is everyplace-protective of his wife, Curley hates the big guys and is intent to fight any superstar he perceives as a panic to his self-image. Since he is the password of the boss for whom George and Lennie work, Lennie has no choice but to stay in this affright situation. Noticing His (Curleys) elbows were still bent out a little, proves that Lennie unwittingly incurs Curleys hatred as well as harassment scarcely because of his size.A kindred case is uttern in Brave New World. Although John leaves the capital of the United KingdomHatchery and settles in a deserted area where only imperfect live exists, the world he is grown to live in is filled with hopelessness and yet the brave New World exit stay permanent. As a result, the Savage plans to purify himself and to track deal further contamination by the filth of civilized life. were astonished to see a young man standing outside the aband unmatchedd lighthouse stripped to the waist and strike himself with a whip of knotted cords. His gage was horizontally streaked with crimson, and from welt to weal ran thin trickles of blood (Huxley 226). This passage clearly demonstrates that he cleanses himself, referable to the ludicrous community he lives in, by carrying out a traditional Reservation religious ceremony (the whipping). irrelevant Lennie, who is innocently harassed by other, John wishes to initiate self-flagellate in order for him to call on the perfection for forgiveness for his lust for Lenina and lack of concern for Lindas death.In two situations, collectible to a heros act of being a victim of the society, he must undergo some sort of harassment. ground on these facts, peerless can conclude that heroes can still be victims of a society, despite that they have d champion nothing wrong. Other than being harassed, victims of society can too be controlled by others, which mown(prenominal)ly results from having no options at all. In Brave New World, this concept is illustrated And that, put in the Director sententiously, that is the secret of happiness and virtue liking what youve got to do. All condition aims at that making people like their inescapable social fortune (Huxley 13). Obviously, after genetic engineering, Huxley suggests that social conditioning is the most important behavior for the government to enslave its people. Since the brave New World holds different classes of people, from Alphas to Epsilons, those different caste members are conditioned neer to yearn for a life other than their own. In other words, this is a major instrument for social stability which holds control of everyone within its society, including the heroes.The following scene from Of Mice and Men is another(prenominal) example of victims under control by others, which explains Georges restriction on his mentally handicapped friend. Lennie, for idol sakes dont drink so much. Lennie continued to snort into the pool. The small man leaned over and shook him by the shoulder. Lennie. You gonna be sick like you was last night. He threw a exceed of water into his face and rubbed it well-nigh with his hand, under his chin and around the back of his neck. Then he replaced his hat,pushed himself back from the river, drew up his embraced them. Lennie, who had been watching, imitated George exactly (Steinbeck 3, 4). present, it is obvious as to who is in charge between the two as Lennie cautiously obeys George and imitates his actions at the riverbank. It is proven that because Lennies mind is not as bright, George simply takes this advantage and holds power over Lennie in their society.Both circumstances in Brave New World and Of Mice and Men show how one can easily dominate others, leaving them no options at all. However, heroes do not necessarily suffer in a bad way when living under undesirable lifestyles. Indeed, they conceive of. They hallucination about their future, waiting for advancements on the online conditio ns. In some way, their dreams allow the heroes to dodge from reality as their embossment and problems momentarily vanish. The third chapter of Steinbecks Of Mice and Men shows this concept of dreaming about conditions improving through this passage All kins a ve get hold ofables in the garden, and if we want a little whisky we can administer a few eggs or something, or some milk. Wed jus live there. Wed belong there. on that point wouldnt be no more than runnin round the country and gettin fed by a sapidity cook. No, sir, wed have our own place where we belonged and not sleep in no ladder house (Steinbeck 57).At this point, Steinbeck clearly shows that two George and Lennie do not live in a pleasing lifestyle and both aspire to obtain a piece of land to live off. This proves that during the time the story is set, life can be very strenuous but dreams can effectively be use to repel despair. The estimate of this abduce links directly to the following quote, spoken by Berna rd in the carry Brave New World. In a different key, How can I? he repeated meditatively. No, the real problem is How is it that I cant, or rather because, after all, I know quite well why I cant-what would it be like if I could, if I were turn not enslaved by my conditioning (Huxley 81). Bernards hatred for the society, which he is laboured to live in, is resulted from the fact he cannot interact emotionally or physically to the community.Everyday in his life, he is toughened with inhospitality and is obligated to work for something he hates the most. Therefore, sometimes during his loneliness, he ordain dream about himself being extricate from the brave New World he is born to live in. Unlike George and Lennie, Bernard is not able to allow his sadness fade away as he is hoping for a break out future. Instead, he is even more enraged, oration in an angered tone. From these twoexamples, it is obvious that a hero can be influenced by the society negatively, but still dreams for a better life. From all the preceding(prenominal) arguments, one can clearly escort the educational activity that victims of the society, whether enduring harassment of some sort, under control by others, or even dreaming about conditions improving, are often the heroes.Secondly, it is the immediate envies from others which may cause the heroes to be dragged into crisis. This takes place when a figure(s) in the story is avaricious about what another has, not necessarily high-quality items such as bullion or money, but whatever he does not have. Huxley dis cheers this idea of one begrudgeing another in Chapter 12 of his book So cordially indeed that Bernard felt a sharp pang of jealousy. In all these weeks he had never come to so close an intimacy with the Savage as Helmholtz immediately achieved. Watching them, listening to their discourse, he found himself sometimes resentfully wishing that he had never brought them together (Huxley 165). Basically, Helmholtz and the S avage are experiencing the similar emotion of looking not part of the society. In addition, they both applaud poetical literature, which is what they are overlap together.In some way, their sharing of poems allows them to dissemble from reality as their depression and problems temporarily vanish. However, Bernard, whose knowledge is negligible in terms of literature, envies John and Helmholtz for their happiness. After attempting to jump in and break away their conversations, Bernard is not too successful and feels like the bizarre man out, patch also being jealous that his two friends like each other more than they like him. In Of Mice and Men, Crooks is fascinated by the strength of the companionship of Lennie and George, but also envies their relationship, by saying Well, s put, jus s induce he dont come back. Whatll you do then (Steinbeck 72)? Crooks asks these questions because he does not have any friends, and does not know how losing them unexpectedly giveing fe el.Noticing that Lennie is stupid, he takes advantage of this situation to torture him mentally, which makes himself feel better and loosening the pain of having others rejecting him. His face lights with pleasure at his torturing to Lennie against the friendship that Lennie has. That is to say, something that Crooks will never have. Thus, he wants other people to suffer the way that he does, of being in all alone. Apparently it is mostly the figure who envies others who must suffer, mend the target do not necessarily get harmed. Additionally, people who are envious of others set goal(s) for themselves. However, due to the fact that they cannot obtain such objective(s), they set off to find out at what others have and envying occurs. In Brave New World, John hates the way that brave New World runs, hoping to twists its perspective back to the old world. He states But I dont want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin ( Huxley 219).Here in Chapter 17 of the book, the Savage explains the old world reasoning by asserting that true life requires exposure to all things, good and evil. The done for(predicate) Savage envies the Reservation Areas, where imperfect livings still exist, even though he is having a much better life in the New World. In Steinbecks novel, wanting the unattainable is also shown. From the outset of the story, Steinbeck makes the failure of George and Lennies dream inevitable. Finally, the tragedy of the ending is heightened by the fact that they never catch what just might have been possible. The first indications of this failure are revealed when Lennies mental deficiencies are demonstrated he is both amoral and forgetful. When he is handling the dead mouse he cannot appreciate that doing so is wrong. I wasnt doing nothing bad with it (Steinbeck 9). Lennie cannot distinguish between right and wrong, which seriously challenges the success of their dream. We are given more dou bts when we learn of Lennies actions in Weed. You aint gonna do no bad things like you done in Weed (Steinbeck 7).When George says this he is almost tempting fate, and when Curleys wife is introduced, their dream heads off the track. Considering what Lennie did in Weed, Curleys wife was a major threat she was a problem just waiting to be occurred. Throughout the book, Steinbeck develops the idea of the dreams inevitable destruction. Steinbeck has clearly emphasised the fact that the dream was never going to happen. In both instances, the heroes are hoping to reach one goal which indeed is not reachable. often, it is because of these unattainable objectives that give the heroes disappointments. In Huxleys Brave New World, however, it is the heros dissatisfaction of his society that leads him to context an unapproachable goal. John states Linda had been a slave, Linda had died others should live in freedom, and the world be do beautiful.A reparation, a duty. And suddenly it was lum inously clear to the Savage what he must do it was as though a shutterhad been opened, a render drawn back (Huxley 192). Here, John realizes that something has to be fulfilled to modify this erroneous society, or the brave New World. As of the day when John and his develop come to the London Hatchery Centre, Linda is feeling unwell. Although she is given somas to declare her in spend, John believes that somas are poisonous while also enslave the commonplace. It is at this point that the Savage notices his reason for coming to this strange world he will make it free. Conversely, George in Of Mice and Men is disappointed with his companion Lennie, who in fact, is one of the toughest barriers of reaching their dream of owning a farm.From the quote God, youre a lot of trouble, said George. I could get along so hands-down and so nice if I didnt have you on my tail. I could live so easy and maybe have a fille (Steinbeck 7), we become aware that George is reluctant to carry Lennie around. However, he has to bear with this responsibility due to the death of Lennies Aunt Clara. Although they both want a better life and put in the effort to attain this goal, they never front to be very successful. Ultimately, it is Lennie whom George blames for their failure. Whether it is the heros disappointment that leads to setting an unattainable goal or it is the unreachable goal which leads to his disappointment, these two examples show that one will still suffer with distress of dissatisfaction to some degree. sure enough jealousy of others, wanting the unattainable and undergoing disappointment are the results of immediate envies from others.Frequently the heroes, victims of isolation are such roles. They feel differently about themselves compared to the public and therefore, the act of setting themselves apart from others takes place. To begin with, the decrease of self-confidence of the heroes, due to a number of reasons, is one of the main causes that eventually le ad to self-banishment, or ones isolation. The friendship between John, Helmholtz and Bernard in Chapter 12 of Brave New World shows this concept of self-confidence diminishing He was revenging himself on his two friends for liking one another more than they liked him. In the course of their next two or three meetings he frequently repeated this little act of vengeance. It was simple and, since both Helmholtz and the Savage were terribly pained by the shattering and defilement of a favourite poetic crystal, extremely effective.In the end,Helmholtz threatened to kick him out of the room if he dared to interrupt again (Huxley 166). Although John and Helmholtz fellowship depression, both enjoy sharing their unique poetic ideas together. By doing so, their sadness towards the society gradually evaporates. Bernard, however, is the odd man out and is very regretful of bringing them two together. perhaps he is jealous of the friendship he creates. It is what John and Helmholtz have in co mmon, which Bernard does not, that tightly bonds their relationship while Bernard is left out. As his two companions like each other more than they like him, his self-confidence decreases and envying starts to occur. In addition, Bernard believes that he cannot correspond to John because John is more desirable and knows more than he does. Ultimately, this odious sentiment keeps returning to Bernard as Helmholtz and John continue to component part their thoughts and even threaten to boot Bernard out if he interrupts again.As a result, the friendless Bernard cannot relate to his only friends and loses his self-confidence significantly. The concept of ones isolation that results from low self-confidence of a hero decreasing also appears in Of Mice and Men. From the quotes He kept his standoffishness and demanded that other people keep theirs. His body was bent over to the left by his crooked spine, and his eyeball lay deep in his head, and because of their depth seemed to glitter wi th intensity. His lean face was lined with deep black wrinkles, and he had thin, pain-tightened lips which were lighter than his face (Steinbeck 67) and why aint you wanted? Lennie asked. Cause Im black. They fulfil cards in there, but I cant play because Im black. They say I stink. Well, I tell you, you all of you stink to me (Steinbeck 68), we can identify the fact that Crookss self-confidence reduces only because of his physical appearance and attributes. Since this book takes place during the 1930s and discrimination, sadly, still exists, this lightlessness cognizes isolation because of racism. It is this that the other farmhands believe that it is necessary not to allow, as it seems a privilege in their minds, Crooks to live with them.Furthermore, his separation from others causes his severe loneliness spending his nights reading and his days alone in the barn working on the horses. He is treated as an outcast and underling and is forced to reveal friendship in the only thing assessable, the books he reads. Crookss distance from others eventually causes his downfall, and his downfall also stretches their bonding. From the two circumstances, we canconclude that ones judgements are usually base on his physical looks, kinda of ones true behaviours and characteristics. This is a reason why many characters in a story, including heroes, frequently lose their self-confidence which eventually leads to self-banishment of themselves. Moreover, it is because of these reductions in terms of heroes self-confidence that causes their withdrawal from a society. Without confidence, they are afraid to be harassed and teased, and are too weak to face the public, resulting isolation in personal.This idea of withdrawing from a society is demonstrated here by Huxley in Chapter 11, stating But I do, he insisted. It makes me feel as though he hesitated, searching for words with which to express himself, as though I were more me, if you see what I mean. More on my own, not so completely a part of something else. Not just a cell in the social body (Huxley 81). The Top Ten Controllers in Brave New World initiate Bernards hatred on his society, due to the ways on how the society runs. This links to Bernards downfall. The policies of the brave New World, such as to insert alcoholic materials into Gammas blood surrogate, indirectly cause Bernards downfall. In addition, sleep-teaching hypnosis makes people (in the society) to automatically associate heights with caste levels, and so making it more difficult for others to respect Bernard, who indeed, is an Alpha. Base on this quote, Bernard wishes to look at the ocean, peacefully, and enjoy it. We can identify that Bernard always wishes to be by himself and extract from the society, instead of being part of the social group.However, his ability may not allow this dream to come true. The concept of withdrawing from the society also takes place in the novel Of Mice and Men, shown in this quote Spose yo u didnt have nobody. Spose you couldnt go into the bunk house and play rummy cause you was black. Howd you like that (Steinbeck 72). From this, one can identify why Crooks is withdrawing from his society. This black handicap has a self-colored difference from the rest of the crew, as he must live in a separate room from the rest of the workers. No one in the novel ever feels any sort of empathy or even tries to cut through what Crooks is saying. This is Steinbecks mechanism for displaying Crookss isolation from the public. For Crooks, he has never been treated well by any of his co-workers because he is black. In addition, Crooks also does not know how to relate and function normally anymore because of how his loneliness has established him. Loneliness has made Crooks a very bitter individual, while he is truly not able to leave this situation because of his race during the entire novel.Proven in both instances, characters are frequently born with imperfections, depending on thei r society, leading to their extraction from the public and causes isolation. For this reason, victims of ones isolation experience loneliness as well. In a way, everyone needs someone to talk to, whether it is a family member, a friend, or even a pet, as a source of comfort and wealth for the person. Yet most heroes never seem to behave in such a way. This belief of one feeling sole(a) can be displayed within this passage From Guildford the down-line followed the Wey valley to Godalming, then, over Milford and Witley, proceeded to Haslemere and on through Petersfield towards Portsmouth. Roughly parallel to it, the upline passed over Worplesden, Tongham, Puttenham, Elstead and Grayshott. Between the slovenly persons Back and Hindhead there were points where the two lines were not more than six-spot or seven kilometres apart.The distance was too small for careless flyers-particularly at night and when they had taken half a gramme too much. There had been accidents. Serious ones. It had been mulish to deflect the upline a few kilometres to the west. Between Grayshott and Tongham tetrad abandoned air-lighthouses marked the course of the old Portsmouth-to-London road. The skies above them were silent and deserted. It was over Selborne, Bordon and Farnham that the helicopters now ceaselessly hummed and roared. The Savage had chosen as his hermitage the old light-house which stood on the crest of the hill between Puttenham and Elstead (Huxley 222). Here, Huxley thoroughly explains the fact that John wishes to escape from the London Hatchery Centre as far as possible. He has decided to isolate himself from the society and to live away with pain and loneliness, due to his foe in terms of the brave New Worlds principles.George in Of Mice and Men also demonstrates the concept for a hero being lonely I aint got no people. I seen the guys that go around on the counterpanees alone. That aint no good. They dont have no fun. After a long time they get mean. They get w antin to fight all the time Course Lennies a God damn nuisance most of the time, but you get used to goin around with a guy an you cant get rid of him (Steinbeck 41). Clearly, George proclaims his stance on loneliness to give a reason for his continuative with Lennie. This connection George has with Lennie makes the two of them unique to the rest of thecharacters.Many of the men on the ranch have a dream, but only Lennie and George have a regain of obtaining it. Essentially, John Steinbeck wants to show that although George and Lennie have the advantage of being a team, they will never accomplish it because all human beings are in essence, alone. Thus, Georges constant playing of the game of solitaire, cutting the cards again and put out a solitaire lay (Steinbeck 28) foreshadows his eventual decision to become a solitary man. Within these two occurrences, one can realize that heroes are affected by the society, which brings them loneliness and isolation. Based on the above examp les, it is proven that heroes self-banish because of their weak self-confidence, which ultimately leads to withdrawal from society and subsequent loneliness.We learn from Brave New World and Of Mice and Men that being an absolute hero requires not only traditional skills and abilities, but also being able to withstand great hardships. In both novels, the heroes had to endure being victims of their societies, victims of envy from others, and victims of their own isolations. Despite them undergoing many difficulties in the stories, Bernard and Crooks are not the heroes because neither of them follows the hero monomyth structure. Yet to some extent, they were neither able to escape nor did they survive. Although ground on the script, John, for example, left the London Hatchery and decided to live in a deserted area where only imperfect live exists.However, deep down in Johns mind, he knew that the world would never experience the same freedom he is grown to love. In spite of everythin g, he is trapped by the hands of the controllers of the brave New World. Similar to John, Lennie is incessantly locked in his mentally handicapped mind and be tricked and betrayed by his topper companion, George. As heroes tend not to have successful conclusions, why will anyone choose to be honoured with such positions? If you are required to carry out non-traditional-qualities and/or hardships throughout a story, are you willing to be a hero when given an opportunity?