Carle's 'And Of Clay We Are Created'

The Greeks created some of the most influential pieces of literature in history. Their stories and heroes appear many times in popular culture, like Hercules with his amazing strength and ability to take down the most formidable beasts. However, heroes in reality do not have superhuman strength or the ability to kill giant beasts. They are usually people who help others and push towards a better future. These people would have qualities such as determination, humbleness, and selflessness.
In the short story “And of Clay We are Created,” by Isabel Allende, Rolf Carle was heroic for his determination to save Azucena. He tried many methods in order to save her, but was ultimately unsuccessful. He tried to pull Azucena out of the mud using a
He was doing his job as a hotel manager in a country that descended into anarchy, but also was keeping over a thousand people alive and unharmed. He said that his actions were not heroic. “I survived to tell my story . . . [t]here was nothing particularly heroic about it. My only pride is that I . . . continued to do my job as a manager when all other aspects of decent life vanished” (Rusesabagina 78). He considered his actions as anything but heroic when in reality they were heroic. Saving a thousand lives was a courageous act, but he did not think so. Rusesabagina also said the lives he saved were a significant amount compared to the deaths in the entire genocide. “[T]he best you can say is that my hotel saved about four hours worth of people. Take four hours away from one hundred days and you have an idea of how little I was able to accomplish against the grand design” (Rusesabagina 79). He did not think he saved many people compared to the total amount in the genocide, but a thousand lives was a lot of people saved. His humbleness showed he would not boast about how heroic he was, but instead would have acknowledged his actions and dismissed them as not being significant. Rusesabagina additionally said he was just a normal person and was neither higher or lower than that. “I am nothing more or less than a hotel manager” (Rusesabagina 84). He considered himself as a normal person, but
Anna had risked death throughout her life when she tried to save someone else's. She saved her unborn daughter during the Circus Incident. “[S]he managed to hang on to the braided metal, still hot from the lightning strike. Her palms were burned so terribly that once she healed they bore no lines, only the blank scar tissue of a quieter future” (Erdrich 342). She saved her unborn child from dying when she grabbed onto the metal bar nearby, which caused her to burn her hands. Saving someone else’s life but in the process getting injured is selfless and heroic. Anna Avalon also risked her life when she went into her burning house to save her daughter. “[The mother] made her way up . . . she swung down, caught the ledge, and crawled through the opening . . . [the narrator and her mother] flew out the window, toward earth . . . as we skimmed toward the painted target of the fire fighter’s net” (Erdrich 345-346). She risked her life to save her daughter’s, which was selfless of her. Going into a burning house, let alone climbing into one, to save her daughter was heroic of her, when she took immediate action when nobody else did. In addition she also risked her life when she climbed up to her daughter’s window. “[S]he broke a branch falling so that it cracked in her hands . . . as she vaulted with it toward the edge of the roof,