Individual and community relationships and interactions

¶ … voluntarily engages in activities that take away his free time and during which it is even possible for him or her to risk his or her life. Most people are likely to associate the idea of a hero with individuals who react courageously when they are provided with dangerous situation and when they realize that their intervention can reflect positively on a certain person or group of people. However, it is difficult to understand what a hero is if one only concentrates on people who go through risky situations in order to assist others. A hero is practically any person who is willing to come out of his or her comfort zone with the purpose to make sure that other people suffer as little as they possibly can.

Being a hero can be difficult and easy at the same time. First of all, one needs the circumstances required for him or her to put across hero-like behavior. Second of all, the respective person needs to decide whether it would be right for him or her to intervene and save a particular individual or group. Many people that one encounters on a daily basis can have hero aptitudes but they are not considered heroes because they have not had the chance to prove themselves. Similarly, some persons who are unlikely to be heroes have become heroes as a result of coming across situations when it was essential for them to intervene and there were no actual courageous individuals around to do so.

It is very important to have a complex understanding of the term hero before actually being able to relate to a person as being a hero. Individuals need to understand that practically anyone can be a hero in exceptional circumstances and that many benevolent persons are probable to be unable to become heroes even if they want to.

There are some people in my life who put across hero-like behavior and some of them actually did this when no one was expecting them to do so. This is actually one of the dominant traits in heroes: they take on hero-like attitudes when all else is lost and they are actually not willing to receive any form of compensation for their work. I saw individuals who quit their jobs and spent all of their money getting involved in unpaid internships with the purpose of trying to earn money for underprivileged areas from around the world. In order to gain a better understanding of why this can be related to as being hero-like behavior, one simply needs to think about the definition of a hero. This is a person who risks his or her comfort with the purpose of helping others. What is intriguing about him or her is that he or she is well-aware that no one would criticize them if they were to stand aside and watch as others suffer. The contemporary society emphasizes the fact that particular communities experience great pain, but does not attempt to condemn the masses for not getting involved, as this is actually what provides people with the opportunity to become heroes.

Some people are unlikely heroes but are unhesitant about helping others whenever they have the opportunity to do so. In contrast, many individuals are probable to pose in benevolent characters without actually feeling that it would be right for them to get out of their comfort zone in order to help others. This makes it possible for people to comprehend that circumstances are responsible for creating heroes and not the other way around. Furthermore, a person does not necessarily have to have an extensive background in saving people in order to be considered a hero. He or she can actually put across hero-like behavior on a particular occasion when he or she feels that he or she is the only thing that can stop a person or a group of persons experience great suffering.

Etheridge Knight's poem "Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane" stands as an example concerning a person who most people feel has nothing to do with a hero. Hard Rock, the poem's protagonist, was one of the worse prisoners that someone could have imagined before being sent to the Hospital for the Criminal Insane. Upon his return the other prisoners feel compelled by a civic spirit to feel that justice had been done. Most people would feel that it would be perfectly normal for them to be satisfied knowing that a ruthless criminal can be controlled and that he can no longer harm other individuals.