Preview

Essay On Hero Archetype

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1422 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Essay On Hero Archetype
In a time of devastation when all hope seems to be lost, a hero emerges to fight against the tide of depravity, firmly standing their ground to oppose injustice and restore order. In the past few years, heroes have grown increasingly common within popular culture. The celebration of superheroes has flooded nearly all forms of media. From television, to films, to graphic novels heroes are everywhere. Despite the general enjoyment, the abundance of these heroes does beg the question of their presence. Why are they so prevalent and why is society so obsessed? In order to answer these questions it is important to understand the meaning behind these heroes and their roles within society both fictional and non-fictional alike. The hero archetype proposed by Carl Jung is one that is often associated with honor and order. A hero does what must be done in order to bring about peace. Writer Sophon Shadraconis best describes …show more content…
It seems as though the unraveling has begun within the U.S. in the past few years. So as the nation begins to unravel further the call for millennials to step up and act has become much more common. Now is the time for millennials to take a stand.
Classic heroes like Superman, Captain America, and Batman have made a sudden resurgence in recent years. Superheroes have once again achieved mainstream status and are now known worldwide. This comeback most likely arose in response to the political actions of the millennial generation. Because millennials are associated with heroes, it is unsurprising that many characters within millennial pop culture would reflect the same archetype. Similar to how Batman and Superman fight against crime and oppose oppressors; millennials are forced to battle against injustices of their

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The idea of superheroes is surprisingly well fitting in this era, as it lies during a time of lies, anxiety and propaganda. Superheroes represent a symbol of hope that citizens were able to look up to, when normal humanity had devastated itself in the destruction of war. The helplessness and paranoia of the time had influenced not only the people of the time, but also the literary works.…

    • 718 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nowadays, there are more and more movies and books about hero. For example, the hero in the movies: superman, spider man, and the Avengers, those hero they all have super power, they are very strong, and they job was saved the world and survival humans. The view of those hero was so powerful they will not die and any challenge will be solve. Hero can also be explain in different way, in the “Unbroken” the main character Louis Zamperini is the hero. Louis didn’t have superpower, he did go to the war during WWII but that was not the reason make he as the hero, he was a hero because everytime he have a challenge he never give up, his hope for survival was very strong and that saved his friend too, and his kindness to forgive “the bird”…

    • 407 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    People read and watch things about heroes all the time because in the deepest reaches of their mind they aspire to be among their ranks. The problem with the average person’s desire to be a hero is that they don’t truly know what a hero is. A hero is able to bounce back from a defeat that would stop any normal man in their tracks, they are inspirational, they gain followers and believers just by doing what they think is right, and they don’t have to be strong, but have to be able to take mental punishment like no other.…

    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In popular culture, comic book heroes are individuals characterized not only by their superior physical and cognitive abilities, but also their desire to use those abilities to promote justice—justice, for Immanuel Kant, being the virtue of “respect [for] other’s freedom, autonomy, and dignity.” Oftentimes, the hero’s desire to promote justice is carried out in the form of retributive vigilantism, which, in its most basic sense, involves the hero operating independently of the state to punish wrongdoers for wrongdoing. Intuitively, at least according to J.L. Mackie, we are quick to side with these characters because we share this basic retributivist sentiment. The vigilante aspect of retributive hero justice, though, presents a more contentious…

    • 2032 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    America's Anti-Hero

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In Stephen Garrett’s article, Why We Love TV’s Anti-Heroes, he shows how the heros of today are different from those of the past because they have changed with the world. The focus has shifted from the flat out hero, to a hero that has everyday issues like everyone else, making the character easier to identify with. Our culture today is enthralled with the anti-hero because the character is realistic to people in our society now, rather than someone who is held up on a pedestal for being perfect. Instead of the typical “superman” like plot where the pure hero has to be something other than human to be that perfect, Stephen Garrett offers the idea of the anti-hero being so popular because it resembles the average person who has struggles and does the right thing. There is also a certain sexiness to the anti-hero which we can partially blame hollywood for. Hollywood casts the anti-hero in such a way that the role demands a certain amount of charm and seductiveness. He is the one who will surprise everyone and do the right thing in the end; whereas a villain will never be able to conquer his urges to do something bad because in his heart he really wants to be bad.…

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Heroes are the game changers in society, who create the misfortune and accomplishment through their efforts. Throughout time, heroes have been represented in a variety of different ways. The Canterbury Tales and the Odyssey both portray their heroes far different than the other. In addition, heroes from the fifteenth century may be considered villains in today’s society. In conclusion, heroes are viewed in different ways because of perspective, the time period, and their self morals.…

    • 542 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Sanford “Bill” Nye, popularly known as Bill Nye the Science Guy. He is an…

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tough Alice In Wonderland

    • 833 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Most frequently, the common conception of the word “hero” automatically refers to Marvel characters of beyond-human abilities pulverizing deformed aliens on top of the Empire State Building. There are expectations of those who save the world, but heroes can be within anyone and everyone. We, as a society, soon lose sight of what it really means to be a hero, and real heroes lose the degree of respect they deserve. Glorious heroes aged from centuries ago and had set the path for modern-day heroes to advance. One example is the classic tale of “Alice in Wonderland” in the version of “Tough Alice”, where the protagonist, Alice, falls through a rabbit hole consisting of her imagination and encounters the Jabberwock, the monster…

    • 833 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    As humans, we tend to overlook certain things and assume there is an easy answer for them, such as the question “What is a hero?” While, at first glance, it seems like an easy question to answer, the answer is not that simple. Some might say Superman, some might say Batman, and some might even say Barney or Mom and Dad, but the reality of it is that even those answers do not expose the truth and the beauty of what it means to be a hero. However, as said in the article, “What Makes a Hero? Debating the Status is a Delicate Matter,” “Debating hero-status is a delicate matter, because, who wants to argue that a person so acclaimed does not deserve the title?” (Dribben).…

    • 2850 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Epic vs. Modern Heroes

    • 1078 Words
    • 5 Pages

    <br>Modern heroes come in all shapes and sizes, even the anti-government brand. Modern society is crazy about the anti-hero, especially in entertainment. Many protagonists in movies are, in fact, characters that, while they do not embody cultural perfection, they are…

    • 1078 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hero vs Villian

    • 321 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Punisher, Robin Hood, Batman, and Superman are some of the characters that we stereotypically constitute as heroes. They are known to fight with courage without fear of death. They destroy the enemy within a blink of an eye. They fight using their own body strength, superpower, or some kind of weapon. They come to the rescue miraculously and leave without a trace. They are mysterious. We are unable to identify who they are underneath the masks and disguises. Yet, we praise them and ignore the real heroes that surround us regularly, ordinarily. “All of us …like to believe that in a moral emergency we will behave like the heroes of our youth, bravely and forthrightly, without thought of personal loss or discredit”. In other words, we are quite oblivious to the ordinary people of the world that are, in fact, the true heroes.…

    • 321 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Superhero Glamour

    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Robert B. Ray looks at the way’s films have treated different characters as heroes. Heroes may be on both sides of the law. However, there are official heroes and outlaw heroes. The outlaw hero tends to represent a person who does not, for the most part feel comfortable in society and therefore, takes the law into his or hers’ own hands. Official heroes, on the other hand, symbolize adulthood and somewhat confident in society in which they make sacrifices for what they believe in.…

    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Trans-Media Stereotypes

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Super heroes and their narratives play an interesting role in the their relationship to fandom, whether it be through films or books each story becomes different through fragmented circulation as McGee suggest of which I talked about earlier in this paper. These fragmented or as Jason Mittell suggest trans-mediated narratives add to the stories of these characters. (Mittell, 2015) Goes on to define trans-media storytelling as, “significantly expanding the scope of a television series (in this case comic book character) into an array of other media, from books to blogs, videogames to jigsaw puzzles. (Mittell, pg. 292, 2015) This trans- mediation thus creates new stories for these characters that further expand their cultural…

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Whether they are wearing capes or rags, fighting crime or injustice, movie heroes are some of our most influential cultural icons. However, heroes are not just wholesome, good willing and lovable rogues but also prickly anti-heroes. Travis Bickle is solitary, disenfranchised and even homicidal. His power has been stripped away from him and he’s taking a violently socially unacceptable route to get it back with rage and murder. But those are very real urges. Urges that are mostly supressed by functional members of our modern society but identifying with an anti-hero provides us with an acceptable outlet to express these dark desires and live out these unacceptable lives. They are a blow off valve for the darker more repressed parts of our psyche and they allow us to live out a very human evil without actually being a very human evil which is exactly why they’re important.…

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Epic Hero Essay

    • 2934 Words
    • 12 Pages

    Tolkein, J.R. R. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the…

    • 2934 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics