What Is A Hero?

What is a hero that we read, heard, or even watched about as children? While we were young children and we movies about the princess or damsel in distress and the hero was the strong, handsome prince who comes in to save the day. But what is a true hero? A hero in everyday life for us is a firefighter, police officer, a part of the military, or someone who just does a good deed at the right time. In Beowulf, Beowulf is the hero in the story. Now this story has been passed down through many generations, and has different variations, but one thing that remained constant was Beowulf defeated Grendel and Grendel's mother. Beowulf boasted about how he could best anything that came his way. To be a hero and to be immortal in Beowulf's time, one must boast about their accomplishments, and make sure they are talked about in generations to come.

Beowulf to me did not seem to fit the hero character I had always pictured. I know that a hero is not a handsome man (though it is an added plus) who comes in on a horse to wisk me away into the sunset. But a hero is also not one to boast about their accomplishments, instead they should be humble about it, and try to switch to a different topic. I did not respect Beowulf as a person or as a literary hero because he just seemed far too cocky. But I did remember that Beowulf is set in a different time where Beowulf was their ideal hero. It is difficult to think without a twenty-first century mind, and instead switch it to a medieval time set. As time changes the ideal hero also changes, as well as each culture has a different hero. For our time and place, a hero is an everyday person, while in another part of the world our everyday hero could the antagonist whereas what we might think of as an antagonist is their hero. Heroes vary with each passing day, but it's our idea of having someone to admire for their talents that we keep them close to our hearts.