Hero One of the most pervasive archetypes in literature is the hero. The Greeks presented a complex and very human type of hero, often referred to as the tragic hero. Readers can relate especially to tragic heroes because tragic heroes have flaws. Their flaws make tragic heroes more human, and are effective protagonists even when their plans fail. The hero who is semi-divine or divine is a less compelling story, given

Hero with 1,000 Faces The classic hero seems to teach us the value of humanity, while helping us strive for excellence by understanding the value of the experiences rendered through intuition, emotions, and often feelings that are special to the hero -- often rather than logical reasoning. The paradigm of heroism transcends genre, chronology and has become so common in the human collective consciousness that it is easily recognized and repeated

Hero and Saint An Analysis of the Hero and the Saint from St. Francis to Kierkegaard's Abraham Francis of Assisi is one of the most famous saints of the Church and Dante is one its most famous literary heroes. St. Francis received his vocation at the beginning of the 13th century, while Dante had his celestial vision roughly some hundred years later. One was a friar, the other a poet. Yet both

However, because of Gilgamesh's thought that he may be invincible, he is actually putting his friend's life at risk by going on his adventure. In his attempt to prove that he is brave and that he would rather die for a cause, he actually indirectly causes the death of Enkidu, who shows that he was the stronger of the two. 5) Defining Honor Honor is a characteristic that few individuals posses.

Hector's own human vulnerabilities that account for our sympathy for him as a character (and likely his creator Homer's special authorial sympathy for him as well) also contain within them the early seeds of the conditions of possibility for his later tactical failures: including Hector's defeat in battle at the hands of his Greek enemy and (arguably) alter-ego, Achilles, and his brave, sacrificial, and premature death at Achilles' hands. In

Heroes & Anti-Heroes Chester Himes and Americo Paredes tell stories that compel readers to be concerned about structural racism in America. Though the settings are circa 1900s and 1940s, the stranglehold that bigotry has on America -- particularly in the South -- has not been eliminated. Certainly bigotry -- or the overt expression of bigotry -- has abated some, but one wonders if Himes would still conclude that society is characterized