The Steel Heart: The Power Of The Epics

Throughout life there will be many challenges that will present themselves some of them will be caused by someone else but others will be caused by yourself. Some people will call these people Foes or Anti-Heros. They can range from a monster called Grendel to just a teacher at your high school or just earning the high school diploma. The “Hero” will need to overcome the foe in whatever way they chose.

An epic hero is a brave and noble character in an epic poem, admired for great achievements or affected by grand events. Edward Bloom is a fantastic example of this in Big Fish, a Daniel Wallace novel. The book begins where Edward is dying.

The book The Chrysalids is a unique book with suspense, mystery, and different ways of how people view life. With every good book comes a catchy title like “The Chrysalids” but, what does the title mean? How does it relate to the story being told? Personally, I don’t know the meaning of chrysalids although it’s a very interesting word and so simple so it must have some meaning to the book. The book has a very unique storyline with an intriguing title, but what is the true meaning behind the title?

The film and epic poem Beowulf may seem alike because of their similar plots and characters, but when looked at deeper, it is clear that their cultural differences set them apart. Traditionally, epic poems are lengthy stories that praise the deeds of heroic warriors whilst reflecting the brutal reality of life. They expressed cultural pride and teachings, while telling everyone that we are hopeless in the hands of fate; that all human ambition ends in death. In our modern world today, movies are made to entertain, but more importantly to sell and make a profit. This means that they portray what we like, value, and can relate with. It is obvious that we like different things now than we did before. Loyalty, revenge, sexuality, and violence all accurately represent their respective time periods for different reasons in the text and movie Beowulf.

People are not just given the name "hero"; that name is earned by doing something heroic in life. An example of an epic hero is Hercules. Hercules was once an immortal god. He was the last son of Zeus and became mortal. Hercules was known as the strongest mortal and is even stronger than some gods. Disregarding his strength, Hercules is not very smart and lacks wisdom, but he will help out a friend at any time. Hercules is an epic hero because of his strength, bravery, and his selflessness.

Would one think of Odysseus as an epic hero? Although he had excessive pride and cheated on his wife, he has many traits that makes him an epic hero. For example, Odysseus was able to come up with a genius plan to injure Polyphemos before he could eat any more of Odysseus’ men, that demonstrates the trait of intelligence. Odysseus has been through many hardships and has always used his traits to help him get through any obstacle. Throughout Odysseus’ journey home, he demonstrates leadership, intelligence, and superhuman strength.

The qualities that make an epic hero are strength, courage a strong mentality, and the aspiration to achieve heroic acts. Many heroes are considered role models as they make brave decisions attempting to do something extraordinary. Heroes often fight against the causes of evil as they try to make the environment a better place. Hercules (son of Zeus) is one of the many known Gods to Greek mythology. He is supernatural and immortal. The hero has extraordinary strength, being the strongest man on earth he is sometimes he is unaware of the power he posses, Hercules is invulnerable. Although worshiped as a God, he was properly a hero.

Pieces of writing are often viewed as a product of their origin time period, even in the modern day it is not uncommon to view our time plane as independent to what preceded as if we were somehow separate from every moment that came before. Instead every aspect of a story is ingrained with the message of millenniums before it, so much so the effect that the present has pales in comparison. This is present throughout Dante’s inferno written by Dante Alighieri as it is not merely a representation of the time period it originated from, rather the present represents the top of an iceberg whose very existence and stature are fully dependent on the times that preceded. This phenomenon of the past is fully present in Dante’s epic hero cycle.

In the epic poem, Beowulf, by the Beowulf Poet, it talks about the battles, and the challenges that Beowulf the protagonist has with the supernatural antagonists Grendel, and Grendel’s mom. After reading this poem and discovering what it took to become an epic hero, Beowulf strongly represents most of the characteristics of a hero. Some people may say that Beowulf was just a guy with some good luck, and he was not an epic hero at all, but this statement is proven to be false. In the poem it talks about the Anglo- Saxon way of life and what an epic hero was to them. The Beowulf character is based off many of the Anglo- Saxon characteristics and beliefs, which are portrayed throughout the poem.

Kairos is an intrinsic quality of the epic hero. The epic hero encompasses communal ethos into the entire lively hood of his or her own self. Distinguishing an epic hero is very simple search for the most courageous, wisest and unselfish person you know. These people are the ones who step up to the plate when no one else even remotely has the idea cross their

As the creator of the 25 epic hero steps, Joseph Campbell said: “We must let go of the life we have planned to accept the one that is waiting for us” because every epic hero must put aside his own plans for his life to accept the one that was meant for him. In order to maintain the title of an epic hero, a champion must complete the hero's journey steps. The words from Joseph Campbell describe the journey of our once comfortable hobbit, Samwise Gamgee’s transition to becoming an epic hero in The Lord of the Rings as a epic hero must be willing to step out of something they are traditionally comfortable with. Along next to the mighty Odysseus

“He thought of his sister, pale and thin, trying to catch her breath, and his mother turning to the window to hide her tears. ‘Don’t you see?’ he asked, his voice soft. ‘This poor child will most likely have a serious heart defect. A fatal one. I’m trying to spare us all terrible grief’”(18).

Superman, Gandalf, Jay Gatsby, and Harry Potter. All of these character have something in common, all of them are heroes. Heroes are common in many literary works. They help portray messages and feelings in ways the reader would understand. There are three main archetypes of heroes. “These heroic archetypes pop up all over Western Lit. They are: Stereotypical/Classical Heroes, Everyday/Everyman Heroes, and Anti/Un Heroes” (Bunting). Each type of hero is used for certain reasons; not all stories use the anti-hero and the classic hero is not always the way to go. There are many reasons why an author would choose to use a certain type hero in their work.

On February 4th, 1974, a kidnapping shocked the nation. Patricia Hearst was a 19 year old girl, the granddaughter of a wealthy man named William Randolph Hearst. William became wealthy as a magnate for the newspaper. On February 4th, a day like no other happened to Patricia. Rebels from the group SLA went to Patricia 's apartment, beat up her fiance, and kidnapped patricia. SLA, the Symbionese Liberation Army’s wanted complete anarchy against the U.S. government. SLA was comprised of many different ethnicities and different ages, all wanting the same thing, to rebel against the corrupt “capitalist state”. SLA kidnapped Patricia in an effort to gain attention from the nation, a wealthy girl living a normal life being kidnapped was something

The three criteria for the a developing characters in a story are on the consistent behavior, there motivation and the quality being lifelike. The characteristic for consistent behavior is that the characters attitude and behavior are consistent throughout the story and remain the same, however if the behavior does change it would be justified why it would be. Another characteristic is the motivation for the character, why they act/do stuff a certain way aswell to what they believe in. Lastly is whether this character could be plausible in realife, the character with hold traits that can exist with someone in this world. In the short story“The Man Who Was Almost a Man” by Richard Wright, a young minded boy named David showed all three characteristics