Hero As A Hero

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An author has the ability to design and alter a text to draw meaning from within a reader. With the combination of differing narrative techniques, a play on the contemporary term hero is conveyed. The term hero within a text defines one that has been strategically envisioned to be admired for their courage’s achievements and noble qualities. “Each generation creates its personal heroic figures to contest the well known imaginative creature. The hero is used as an authors tool to carry the main threads of pattern and internal custom” (Arrowsmith, p.200). Through the play on language techniques, the one-dimensional definition of a hero can be enhanced, minimised and juxtaposed. Heroic characters entwined within a text have the capabilities to express morals, messages and the resolution of a plot and climax. Despite the common focus on these individuals being powerful and positive, a hero can commit manoeuvres that will instantaneously remove this stigma from the reader’s consciousness. Within the novel Ransom by David Malouf and the poem “Triumph Of Achilles” by Louise Gluck, the alteration on a readers perception of a character within a singular text is demonstrated: “A hero proceeds back and forth from the standard world into a district of superhuman elements” (Campbell, p.23). Through both texts expressing compelling messages, the authors have both considered the physical expectations of the hero, the humanity developed within and the choice of resolution regarding peace and war. Throughout a singular text regardless of textual form, a character has the ability to shift through personal elements of heroic and unheroic actions. “A hero is a twisted representation of a common human being” (EBay & Greenlief, p.85). These factors hav...

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...ithin the individual, “as a method of acquiring bravery, masculinity and tolerance, war can be improved by pursuits of peace” (Carroll, p.33). Ransom by David Malouf and “Triumph Of Achilles” by Louise Gluck, both convey messages to the reader regarding a heroes identity. Through the analysis of a hero’s physical expectation, a sense of humanity and the resolution regarding peace and war, a hero can be viewed through a variety of angles. Within a singular text, a character designed with heroic traits can commit manoeuvres resulting in a failure to be heroic. The reading process can challenge the movement between the heroic and the unheroic. “Results are obtained at the end of a war” (Carroll, p.33). The conclusion of a text can leave a reader contemplating the status of certain characters due to their inability to maintain a steady approach to a heroic situation.

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