On Heroes (essay)

In classic literature the vast majority of Hero's display a set of common personality features. These features repeat often enough that they can be considered hallmarks of the Hero personality. But what, really, is a Hero?

A Hero is a character that overcomes all obstacles to succeed. No matter what odds are stacked against him, be they mental or physical – no matter if they are orchestrated by an enemy that can be considered a God. And it doesn't matter what the Hero's origin is—he could be an orphan, a kings bastard or the King himself. The origin doesn't matter, except in a literary sense, where it can be used to disguise the fate of the character at the start of the story.

What makes a Hero a Hero is the personality. If a character displays those qualities, those "Hero Factors", then it probably is a Hero. Note that the character doesn't have to have them all—classically a Hero has had one or two of them in such quantities that it overruled all others. And remember, even though these features are found in literature, they can also be seen in living people who are considered Hero's.

The Prime Factor

If there is any single factor that a character can display and be considered a Hero it is the willingness to sacrifice themselves for others. Truthfully, this facet of a Hero's personality is so powerful that a lot of people that are considered Hero's displayed this one factor to the exclusion of all others. In literature this role is filled by every Hero, even the modern twist on the concept–the so-called "Anti-Hero".

In the mythology of the Greeks we learn of Achilles, invulnerable to all weapons except in one location. He knew that joining the Trojan War was risking his life, because the Trojans had their own Hero's that matched Achilles for combat skill. But he still took to the field and fought, believing that the Greek people had been wronged and that Troy had to fall. Before the end of the war Achilles was dead, killed by the Trojan Hero Hector with a poisoned arrow.

In the annals of History we learn of the Spartans who fought at Thermopylae under Leonidas. And though they were warriors–Spartans were born into the warrior tradition and their culture raised them to be warriors without any equal–they numbered only three-hundred for the duration of the battle of Thermopylae. Yes, there were something like 3000 other Greek warriors there at the start of the battle, but when it became clear that the defense was a losing proposition they sent the rest of the greek army away. This was nothing if not a practical choice–the Persian army that was invading numbered more than ten thousand men and the defense of the Greek city-states needed as many of the troops at Thermopylae to survive if they were to stop the Persians and remain unconquered. They sacrificed their lives to delay the Persians, paying the ultimate price but forever becoming part of history.

Literature and real life both are filled with Hero's who bear the title based on this factor alone. That is why it can be considered the single most important facet of a Hero's identity. The willingness and ability to sacrifice themselves for others or for their beliefs is such a common thread in life and literature that religion has a special word for it, though that word has become twisted in recent years. I am, of course, referring to the word "Martyr"–twisted into this thing that instills horror in people in the modern world by the swollen ranks of middle-east terrorists.

The Secondary Factor

The second most important facet of a Hero's personality, and the second most common, is that a Hero will always "do the right thing". That is, faced with the choice between dropping a nuclear bomb on a city to end a war and claiming malfunction, they will drop the bomb, because ending the war is the right thing to do.

During World War Two a Sergeant named Roger Young learned his platoon was heading into combat. Knowing that his deteriorating eyesight and hearing would put his men at risk, he requested to be demoted to Private. This led to him being accused of cowardice, but he perservered and proved that he was worried about his men. When the truth about his eyesight and hearing became known he was offered a desk job and a discharge. He refused them both, knowing that taking either option was the same as the cowardice he had been accused of. Instead he went on patrol with the men he had once led.

The patrol complete they began to return to the base. From the heavy jungle foliage overlooking the trail a Japanese machine-gun fired. Several men died in the original burst, some started to run, some froze in place and some tried to counter attack. The officer that was in charge of the patrol ordered a retreat, but Roger Young pretended to have not heard the order and moved in to attack. It may be that he truly hadn't heard the order, but it is much more likely that he'd spotted the machine guns location and knew that the right thing to do was to save the other men on the patrol.

Even though the Japanese gunner managed to injure him several times, Roger Young pushed on and eventually got close enough to through several grenades into the machine-gun nest and save the rest of the men. He died before they could get him proper medical care, and while this is also a story of sacrifice, he could simply have retreated as ordered. Instead he chose to "Do the Right Thing" and take out the threat to the men of the patrol. Because of this action he was posthumously awarded the highest military honor the United States have to offer—the Congressional Medal of Honor.

In the literary world it is difficult to find a situation where the Hero "Does the Right Thing" and succeeds. In Arthurian legend both Arthur and Lancelot try to "do the right thing" and fail and a similar pattern is common throughout the stories. But in one story, that of "The Lord of the Rings", you can find a Hero who "Does the Right Thing" and, had it not been for the quite singular evil against him, would have succeeded in all his goals without the final tragedy.

In that story the hobbit Frodo is given a magic ring by his uncle Bilbo. This ring, it turns out, was crafted as "The One Ring" by the evil known as Sauron, and if Sauron manages to reclaim it, the world is doomed. Frodo is chosen to be the bearer of the ring—the one who will take it into the enemies territory so it can be cast into the fires that formed it and thus destroyed. As he draws nearer to Mount Doom the ring grows heavier and begins to eat at him, slowly and steadily working at twisting the Hobbit into a thing of evil like the "Ring Wraiths" or the sadly twisted creature Gollum.

Frodo knew the risks and accepted them, not wishing for anyone else to be faced with the fate that the ring could cause. He "did the right thing" and took the journey to destroy the ring. That is the mark of a Hero, a sign that he has this "hero factor" in his personality.