What makes a hero?

What Makes a Hero?
By Arnaldo Resto Rivera

October 12, 2010
Heroes are rewarded with admiration and remembrance of those who know their deeds. But what is a hero? Is someone who has a unique gift? Is someone who has the intuition to appear when needed? Is someone who has the courage to face adversity? Is someone charismatic or someone vulgar? I once heard that a hero is someone who is neverwrong. I found it quite good the definition until I realized that heroes are human and certainly have their moments of weakness. In WorldReferences.com dictionary defines hero as being a "person who fights for a cause." One hero would be someone who makes no mistake right at the moment were there can be no mistake. Throughout history, the heroes are cultural expressions of what men WANT to beor accomplish. Each culture constructs its heroes, a tragic (as the Greeks) and others with happy endings and destinations as our present heroes. But these heroes always have a constant: helping others through appropriate use of their special abilities. The very important thing is that it is not enough to get special abilities is but to manage them properly.
Andrea Puckett (2005) wrote anarticle that explains how people define the term Hero “The Definition of a Hero”. She explains that one night she learned the definition of what a hero is. Before that she understood the definition of a hero as being a person noted for feats of courage of nobleness of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life; she heard the term used so liberally by the authorities inthe times of war as either a propaganda practice or as a way to comfort inconsolable family members that somehow it lost its sense.
In a visit that she made to her parents, she found that a family friend was killed fighting in Iraq. She felt sorry but was angered by the way the news portrayed his death. He was one of two men killed in his troop on the same day; however their deaths wereportrayed differently on the local news broadcast. Her family friend came from a wealthy family and the other guy who died was a man from non- notable family. The news said that her family friend was a hero and spent fifteen minutes discussing the details of his death and showed photos of a military funeral and focused on the idea that he was a hero who had died for his country. The segment forthe other guy who died was approximately three minutes and showed images of his son playing on the headstones. Her first thought was that the television station focused on one being a hero and the other just a father because of the status that each of their families had in the community.
The first issue is about the definition that the media gave to the concept of heroes. Puckett (2005)indicates that she was angered by the way the news portrayed the death of the wealthy guy. As shown there is no equal treatment between the two soldiers who died under the same conditions. It is clear that social class to which an individual belongs determines their opportunity of life. While one is known for his social status, he is called a hero. The other guy is recognized just as a parent,which clearly distorts the definition of what characterizes a hero.
The next important thing is about how the social classes impose over heroism. Puckett (2005) says that her first thought when she watched the news was that the television station focused on one being a hero and the other a father because of the status that each of their families had in the community. Ray Brown (1995) inContemporary Heroes and Heroines writes that technological advances such as television have represented the evolution of tastes and needs of the public, as well the change in the heroic role. Clearly it is an instrument that is used to distort what the values and principles of what our role models or heroes could be. As he indicates the actual communication does not create heroes or heroines, but...