Simon Birch Heroism

The movie “Simon Birch” directed by Mark Steven Johnston, portrays its main character Simon Birch as a hero. Some people may agree and others may not. Simon is not a hero in the film and the main thing reasons are: his defiance, he is disrespectful and he is irresponsible.

Simon Birch is the most defiant person in the movie. During the movie, Simon’s baseball cards are taken away from him by the pastor for disrupting the service. Simon decides while Reverend Russell is away at the winter getaway to get the cards get back. He breaks into the reverend’s office which many people will find disrespectful and breaking the law. Simon is also defiant when he helps Joe get in their baseball coach’s office. Shortly after Simon hits Joe’s mother in the

Leavy. The scene that introduces Reverend Russell is at the church after Ben stays with the Wentworth and they go to Sunday mass. The Reverend notices Ben is new, so he invites him to have concessions after the mass. Simon mutters something, and the Reverend asks him to speak up and he responds with “What does coffee and donuts have to do with God?” The reverend responded with that it is normal it is about socializing and talk about upcoming events. Simon escalates the situation which forces the Reverend to yell at him. Simon embarrasses the reverend just from him offering to help Ben meet new people and he turns it into a big scene in front of the whole town. The other crime Simon commits is molesting Marguerite in the Christmas pageant. Simon takes advantage of him playing the baby Christ and Marguerite playing the virgin Mary. He grabs her breast and drags her into the manger which angers Miss Leavy. By doing this, he pushes Miss Leavy over the edge making her take some time off. A hero would not take advantage of another person for their own personal gains and to harm others. He disrespected a tradition in the town with the Christmas pageant by taking advantage of a situation to show heroism by helping out at the pageant, but he uses for his own advantage. Even though he is twelve years old, Simon should know that this act is inappropriate. With these acts Simon shows no respect to almost the whole