Throughout time, heroes have stereotypically been described as men who possess qualities such as courage, strength, leadership, and determination. Certainly, many of these characteristics have changed as time has passed. In modern society, heroes can simply be average people who sacrifice their own happiness for the welfare of others and do their best to create a change in the world. Beowulf, an extraordinary warrior in the Anglo Saxon period, is an epic hero because of his pride, strength and courage. He fought many battles in order to protect the Danes from chaos. Angelina Jolie, like Beowulf, is a hero because she defeats every impediment to help and fight against inequality.
Heroes do not wait still in one place. Heroes step beyond frontiers to provide hope and help to those who have none. Heroes even make the sacrifice to abondon the confort of their homelands to fight for a good cause. The brave warrior Beowulf departed his native Sweden to defend the Danes from the monster Grendel "who haunted the moors, the wild marshes, and made his home in a hell..." (Beowulf 17-18). He promised Denmark's king Hrothgar that he would kill the powerful monster so the people in the mead hall could live in peace and have justice. Beowulf's courage surpasses every impediment and his strength defeats every power. Angelina Jolie also left her wealthy state in America to help less fortunate countries, such as Afghanistan and Cambodia. Jolie is dedicated to the "education and healthcare in Cambodia" and has donated more than "one million dollars for Afghan refugees" (Mayell). She devotes hope to mothers, fathers, and children who have suffered from persecution and violence. Heroes do not need to wait until justice comes for its ...
... middle of paper ...
... Life moves on whether people act as cowards or heroes. The world can be better if everyone decides to be a hero.
Works Cited
Beowulf. Holt elements of literature. Ed G Kylene Beers and Lee Odeel. 6th ed. Austin: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 2008. 21-48. Print.
Mayell, Hillary. "Angelina Jolie on Her UN Refugee Role." National Geographic News Reporting Your World Daily. National Geographic Society., june.2003. Web. 20 Oct.2013.
"Transcript: CNN interviews Angelina Jolie." Edition.cnn.com. Cable News Network, Feb. 2008. 20 Oct 2013.
Veselinovic, Milena. "Five reasons we love Angelina Jolie." Leading Women. Cable News Network., May. 2013. Web. 20 Oct. 2013.
"World Refugee Day: Angelina Jolie calls for greater understanding of the plight of refugees." unrefugees.org. USA for UNHCR., April 2013. Web. 20 Oct 2013.
Bloom, Harold. “Introduction.” In Modern Critical Interpretations: Beowulf, edited by Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.
Varying from time, location and person, what it takes to be considered a hero has remained for the most part unanimous and throughout time has been represented in multiple ways. Most present in dated writing, a hero 's image and pride make up a big portion of most heroes. Their heroes aren’t so humble and they aspire to keep their title of "hero". On the contrary, most heroes in literature today are quite modest and don 't expect to be viewed as or considered heroes (more often than not they themselves do not classify with being heroes). As is the case for Beowulf and Katniss Everdeen, both different and yet also similar in terms of action, motives and thought (their personality being what really separates the two). Perhaps the biggest part of how a hero is treated and acts depends on what their society is like. Throughout time, the overall qualities of a hero have remained very similar. What has changed, is
Damrosch, David, and David L. Pike. “Beowulf.” The Longman Anthology of World Literature, Compact Edition. New York: Pearson, Longman, 2008. 929-970. Print.
Angelina Jolie’s persuasive speech at the World Refugee day was direct. From the beginning she got straight to the point, “We are here today…millions of desperate families.” She announces the problem that she will be addressing in her first sentence and tells the audience why she is there. Then she states the purpose statement, which was, “Refugees are not number but are farmers, teachers, mothers, and most importantly, individuals.” She also included a personal opinion, saying that the “refugees are the most impressive people I have ever met.”
2 days before Angelina made her speech in 2009 the UNHCR (United nations high commissioner for refugees) reported 42 million refugees worldwide, now they report there being 65 million. At World Refugee day, Angelina Jolie makes a compelling speech about the severity of the situation for refugees around the globe. She uses moving anecdotes, vivid imagery and uses all three of the argumentative appeals to stir emotion in the audience that something must be done about refugees in need.
Crossley-Holland, Kevin, trans. Beowulf The Fight at Finnsburh, edited by Heather O’Donoghue. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Beowulf. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume A. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2006. 34-100.
The audience knows Angelina Jolie as an excellent actress. She is using her celebrity influence to push for worldwide action toward the Syrian refugee crisis through emotional articles, essays through newspapers, magazines to share her experience with the audience. Angelina Jolie spent time with a Syrian refugee family during a humanitarian trip and said that the conflict in Syria has "created a wave of human suffering." Syrians are suffering from the bombs, chemical weapons, rape and massacres (Jolie, 44). For example, she mentioned a story in her essay “A new level of refugee suffering: Complementary”a family of eight children with no parents, their father had been killed and mother was taken by ISIS (Jolie, 44). Angelina Jolie is very emotional when it comes to the fight against the refugee crisis, in her article “A new level of refugee suffering: Complementary” she recalls the stories which she heard from the Syrian refugees which made her speechless and very emotional toward helping these refugees to raise the issue to the world and helping them to defend the country and resolve the refugee crisis (Jolie, 45). Angelina Jolie evokes – “ How can you speak when a women your own age looks you in the eye and tells you that her whole family was killed in front of her, and that she now lives alone in a tent and has minimal
Wright, David. “The Digressions in Beowulf.” In Readings on Beowulf, edited by Stephen P. Thompson. San Diego: Greenhaven Press,1998.
Abrams, M.H., ed. Beowulf: The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001.
On September 5, 1995, Hillary Clinton delivered an influential speech at The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. Clinton expresses general concern over escalating violence toward women, in other word’s gendercide. “Gendercide refers to the systematic elimination of a specific gender group, normally female. It’s most common in India, China, and other regions in Southeast Asia” (GirlsKind Foundation). Crimes, such as bride trafficking, infanticide, abandonment, and dowry related murder; often take place within private households, going unnoticed and not even acknowledged. “Tragically, women are most often the ones whose human rights are violated. Even now, in the late 20th century, the rape of women continues to be used as an instrument of armed conflict Women and children make up a large majority of the world’s refugees” (Clinton 3). By addressing her speech in Beijing, where gendercide is prevalent, Hillary expressed her objective effectively not just the United Nations, but to audiences across the world. Clinton effectively delivered her speech by portraying her purpose for women to achieve equality and better opportunities, with ethical appeals, emotional appeals, and logical appeals.
Oskar Schindler was a German business man in German occupied Poland during WWII and the Holocaust. He was described as “...a cynical, greedy exploiter of slave workers...a black-marketeer, gambler, member of the Nazi party eternally on the lookout for profit, an alcoholic playboy and shameless womanizer…” (oskarschindler.com). However, as the he began to be exposed more and more to the horrors of the Holocaust, he devised a plan to save Jews from slavery and extermination. He built factories that Jews from concentration camps would come to live and work in, away from the prying eyes of the Nazi SS, where they would be fed, allowed to sleep, and be treated as human beings. He saved more than 1,000 “Schindler Jews” as they came to be called, from extermination. Oskar Schindler is now known as a hero, disproving the common theory that those who have not shown previous integrity and good choices cannot be heroes. In more recent times, Angelina Jolie, a former Hollywood actress who early in her life working in the movie industry was involved in several unethical incidents, “she even admitted to trying alcohol, suicide and drugs in an attempt to overcome her existential emptiness” (International Business Times). However, Jolie is now the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHRC) Special Envoy, focusing on large scale crisis’ resulting in mass
In “Melissa Femiling’s Ted Talk”, she told a story about a 19 year old syrian refugee trying to escape their home to come live in America. She and her husband took a boat with 500 refugees on it and the boat ended up sinking leaving only two survivors Doaa and a little girl she took in. Doaa wanted
Malala shared her story at the United Nations to the narrative that directs attention toward equality and rejection of dignity.... ... middle of paper ... ... Retrieved from http://www.alistapart.com/articles/writeliving Watts, P. (2013). Analysis of Malala Yousafzai’s speech to the UN General Assembly. The presenters' blog.
Angelina Jolie is well known for her Humanitarian work. In August of 2002, she was awarded the inaugural Humanitarian Award from the Church World Service’s Immigration and Refugee Program. In October of 2003 she was the first person to get the Citizen Of The World Award by the United Nations Correspondents Association. Angelina was given the Global Humanitarian Award by the UNA-USA in October 2005.