Heroes Through The Ages

Heroes of society have been told and heard of for hundreds of years. Weather the people are in rejoice or despair, they always have a figure that they look up to. Although there has always been a constant hero throughout time, the defenition that society puts on these figures changes tremendously. Going back to Beowulf, the society had viewed him as a great hero, while we today may not find that in him. In the society of that time, many were peasants or soldiers. Since they were considered weak and defenseless, so they developed a hero to look up to. In this case, Beowulf was described as having great strength and power over people. These were admirable characteristics that gave the people someone to look up to and strive to be. This is the main feature of a hero, though, throughout any time period. As seen in modern times, we still have this strong hero represented by superheroes, but there are also those who are average people doing special deeds in our world. Today's society now bases heroes more on morals than brute force. This is because the world looks down upon mass killing and murders and looks for what a person can do for the good of humanity. This can be found in superheroes, although they possess unnatural abilities. For example Superman has tremendous strength that would be related to that of Beowulf, but he is only out to save people in the world from danger. But the fate of the world does not rest in fiction. But those everyday people who serve and protect the people of the world. A very important event in the United States history would be 9/11. The men and women who helped save all they could no matter what happened are the heroes we look up to today. These acts of selflessness and strength are what we see in a hero today, much as did the people on Beowulfs time see him. 

A Howard Roark In All Of Us

In the world we live in, growing up seems to get harder and harder. Toward the end of high school, we are faces with decisions that could change our lives forever. One of the biggest is college.  Choosing if we do or not, if so where, when, and for what majors. This all will go toward where our lives will go. Other decisions that go along with it are what to do with our time. This includes balancing family, friends, work, sports, school, and time to just relax. Our ability to make it through these challenges so that we can enjoy ourselves the most determined on our mindset on life. If it has no direction, we will not get anywhere with ourselves. But if we think about what we want and not about the rest of the world, we have a chance to come out as our own being. This way of life was show in The Fountainhead. It is found in the character Howard Roark. He goes through his life at the extreme end of this thought. He does not care about anyone, anything, or any goal except his own. This enabled him to take his life in the direction he wanted, without anyone else to worry about. He always made decisions for his own gain. Roark put himself ahead of everything else, and even if his decisions put him in a hard spot, he still did it if that is what he wanted. I think that a little bit of this personality in ourselves can help us make it through life a little easier. Now this does not mean that we should not care about people in our lives that we love and cherish. It is the other side, though, that is the most meaningful. We should always have our goals in mind and not allow them to bend or even break for someone else's needs. This is especially important when making decisions like college and jobs. These are in fact the same ones Roark faced in the novel, and because he kept his own ideas and goals he made them successful. As long as we keep a little part of this in ourselves, we should be able to be who we want to be in the world.