George Washington: A Heroic Person

Definition Essay

A heroic person that many people know of is George Washington. Most Americans know him as the “father” of our country as he was the General of the colonial army, and lead and fought for our freedom. However, most people don't know that George Washington was a soldier in the British army before the American Revolution. It was probably an odd experience for George to be fighting his former colleagues in the Revolutionary War. The function of a hero, like George, is to be courageous, to be a useful person to have around, and to not be manipulative or a liar.

The function of being courageous is to stand tall and to face a challenge head-on when nobody else does. Being courageous is definitely a function of a hero. In “Boatlift” ordinary people were courageous in helped rescue others from Manhattan to safety, using their own boats. This put the heros’ lives at risk, because people didn’t know if there would be more planes crashing down, or possibly any bombs being dropped. “I have got to do something. I’m going to take the Amberjack up into the city and help” (1). This was a true show of courageousness.

A Hero is an extremely useful and important person to have around. If Abraham Lincoln wasn’t president, the Civil War might have ended with a southern victory. Not only that, but

Heroes are not manipulative, and in the book, The man in the well, the children in the story have the chance to be heroes, but for whatever reason, they don't choose to be heroic. The children instead manipulate the man in the well by lying to him and asking him questions. They lie that there is help on the way, when there isn’t anyone coming to help him. “‘My father said he's coming with the police, and he knows what to do.’ We admired Aaron very much for coming up with this on the spot.” (3). Choosing to lie and manipulate are clearly actions that heroes definitely wouldn’t