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The construction of the hero in literature
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Whitney Houston:Epic Heroine of the Past
What dispositions does an epic hero or heroine have? A few qualities should be taken into consideration when asking: “What makes an epic hero an epic heroine?” Whitney Houston prevailed as an epic heroine in a plethora of ways. Houston embodies the characteristics of an epic heroine because she exhibited humility, experienced different landscapes in life, and even with all her wonderful traits, battled one of the worst monsters in history.
Houston’s humility helped with her hero-like persona.She was especially devoted to children, as she founded the “Whitney Houston Foundation for Children, a nonprofit organization that funds projects to help needy children over the world” (Whitney” 36-38). The foundation
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was specifically for homeless children with cancer and AIDS(“Whitney”11). Houston’s determination to aid the struggles that raged in the real world and she did her best to try and help with the problems. Whitney Houston was a person who liked to help others out, and her foundation was proof of her humility. However, before she could aid anyone, she had to reach stardom first. Houston wasn’t always a pop-star.
Before she was the Queen of Pop, she sang gospel music in her mother’s choir at New Hope Baptist Church. She felt bona fide encouragement from the congregation of New Hope Baptist church, so much so that she later stated, ‘“... I think I knew then that [my singing ability] was an infectious thing that God had given me”’ (“Whitney.”). She was also a model for a short time being because of her “natural beauty”(“Whitney.”) Then as luck would have it, Houston is discovered by the illustrious Clive Davis in a nightclub. It was then her career truly began. Even though Houston turned out to be the Queen of Pop, she was, for a while, in the modeling business, and she was a well-liked teenage model as well. She became one of the first African-American women to appear on the cover of Seventeen. Before Whitney Houston could start her true career, she had to travel across a different landscape than what she ended up working in. Although life seemed to be going pretty well for her, soon her lifestyle started to unravel tragically. Houston was faced with one of the deadliest monsters in history. She was faced with …show more content…
drugs. Houston had married Bobby Brown and their marriage wasn’t the smoothest.
“In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Houston’s increasingly rocky marriage, struggles with drugs and health problems threatened to derail her career”(“Whitney” 66-67). Their struggle became even more evident when Brown started a reality TV show named, Being Bobby Brown. “The show aired during the worst years of the couple’s crumbling marriage; drug use, lifestyle excess and bad behavior were all caught on tape and Houston’s reputation sunk to new lows”(Whitney” 72-75). Although Houston did make some attempts to rearrange her life, she fell into multiple relapses. Houston was a heroine who had to face a deadly beast and through her struggles to win did not survive the battle. Whitney Houston was a courageous and talented person who had to face the monster known as drugs and she wasn’t able to win that battle. Unfortunately, this led to her to her
death. Whitney Houston was a wonderful person who had humility and traversed through different landscapes. However, no matter how amazing she was, she wasn’t able to survive the nasty monster known as drugs that stole her life. Houston was in many ways a wonderful heroine, but she also had the traits of a tragic heroine as well. She ultimately ended up dying a shocking and tragic death. Whatever the case may be, while she was still breathing she made many great achievements such as being discovered as a model and singer. She also had humility and donated and supported 11 charities and 12 causes. She was an incredible person who ended up being one of the countless victims to drugs. Heroes and heroines, whether we like it or not, can also suffer terrible fates. What is important is that we recognize what great people they were.
Ella was born in Newport News, Virginia on April 25, 1917. When alled “The First Lady of Song” by some fans. She was known for having beautiful tone, extended range, and great intonation, and famous for her improvisational scat singing. Ella sang during the her most famous song was “A-tiscket A-tasket”. Fitzgerald sang in the period of swing, ballads, and bebop; she made some great albums with other great jazz artists such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Louis Armstrong. She influenced countless American popular singers of the post-swing period and also international performers such as the singer Miriam Makeba. She didn’t really write any of her own songs. Instead she sang songs by other people in a new and great way. The main exception
Many RnB singers rank among the highest paid celebrities in the world. This isn’t a surprise, as RnB and its various sub-genres have been leading the popular music charts for decades. Big voices and slick dance moves often translate into successful careers and big paychecks. Here is a list of the 10 richest RnB singers in the world, who have earned extensive success through their music, tours and other various ventures.
...ng to this day, she is one of few who could compete with the men of hip-hop, but she never pretended to be anything but a woman. She not only sang about female empowerment, but she wrote about being a woman from the insecurities that we as women sometimes feel to the nirvana of being in love. Sensuality and femininity were always as important to her which was her strength, and message to get out to women especially those of color.
R&B singer and actress Aaliyah died after a small plane that was to carry her and eight others back to the United States crashed after takeoff in the Bahamas, authorities said.
Singer/actress Lena Horne's primary occupation was nightclub entertaining, a profession she pursued successfully around the world for more than 60 years, from the 1930s to the 1990s. In conjunction with her club work, she also maintained a recording career that stretched from 1936 to 2000 and brought her three Grammys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989; she appeared in 16 feature films and several shorts between 1938 and 1978; she performed occasionally on Broadway, including in her own Tony-winning one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music in 1981-1982; and she sang and acted on radio and television. Adding to the challenge of maintaining such a career was her position as an African-American facing discrimination personally and in her profession during a period of enormous social change in the U.S. Her first job in the 1930s was at the Cotton Club, where blacks could perform, but not be admitted as customers; by 1969, when she acted in the film Death of a Gunfighter, her character's marriage to a white man went unremarked in the script. Horne herself was a pivotal figure in the changing attitudes about race in the 20th century; her middle-class upbringing and musical training predisposed her to the popular music of her day, rather than the blues and jazz genres more commonly associated with African-Americans, and her photogenic looks were sufficiently close to Caucasian that frequently she was encouraged to try to "pass" for white, something she consistently refused to do. But her position in the middle of a social struggle enabled her to become a leader in that struggle, speaking out in favor of racial integration and raising money for civil rights causes. By the end of the century, she could look back at a life that was never short on conflict, but that could be seen ultimately as a triumph.
Whitney Houston is considered to be a legendary singer in the world today. Houston was not just a singer, she was an actress, producer, and model. Even though she is known for her singing voice, Whitney Houston had many ups and downs throughout her life, such as drug and health problems that almost ended her career. Throughout her singing career, she has been honored for her great singing voice. Whitney experienced many things in her personal life from being an outstanding woman, an award winning singer, and an actress and model.
Her family ties to the south, her unique talent, her ability to travel and make money are similar to the Blues women movement that preceded her. It can be said that Nina Simone goes a step further the by directly attacking inequities pertaining to race and gender in her music. However, what distinguishes her is her unique musicianship and that is what ultimately garners her massive exposure and experiences than those of her past contemporaries. Like the Blues women Simone expands ideas pertaining to self-expression, identity and beauty as they relate to black women. She does this by embracing what is definitively African American and connecting that to a historical context. By doing so she is the embodiment of a political statement. Her journey which began like many entertaine...
For a character to be an epic hero, he must possess four characteristics. These four characteristics include the following: (1) he must be high born, (2) the hero must have human weaknesses, (3) he must be brave,and 4) he must be clever. In The Odyssey, Homer’s character Odysseus was an epic hero because he possessed all four of the characteristics.
began, there were hardly any female rappers well known. She is a quite recent rapper but it did
In Liz Garbus’ documentary, What Happened, Miss Simone?, displays the life of musician and activist Nina Simone. The documentary follows different experiences of her life that were critical to the development of Nina Simone over the years. Born in Tryon, North Carolina by the name of Eunice Waymon she aspired to be a classical pianist, but as she got older and began playing in bars she changed her focus to performing and singing. The film then describes the success of her career and her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement to the very personal aspects of her life dealing with her abusive husband/manager Andrew Stroud and her continuous depression.
Two, the story of development is the story of how to handle anti-social impulses in socially acceptable ways. The environment that Whitney was exposed to at a very young age on a regular basis helped Whitney identify with what she wanted to do with her life. Whitney enjoyed accompanying her mother to shows and singing back-up which also helped influence her decision to be in the music industry. Whitney’s musical intelligence and her daily observation of how her mother Cissy, Dionne and Aretha worked their way through their musical careers also played a major role in her career excelling because she was paying very close attention to everything. I also believe that Cissy’s Houston guidance and Whitney’s passion for music and determination helped Whitney’s career excel at an early age making her a dynamic singer and
Motivation provides the driving force for direction and persistence toward a defined goal. Beyoncé has a high need for achievement that motivates her to keep working on new material. In an interview with MTV Beyoncé said, “I am a workaholic and I don’t believe in no. I don’t believe in I need to sleep” (Lepore, 2011). She has earned many awards, honors, and accolades because of her determination to be one of the greatest performers. In the last five years, Beyoncé has used empowerment as an essential motivational key to continuously progress in her craft. In 2011, Beyoncé fired her manager of fifteen years and she began to take full responsibility for her creative and financial obligations. From this experience she has become self-determined and has a high influence on her career path (Lepore,
The world was happy to see her healthy and singing again; everyone thought she had made a full recovery and was ready for her to appear back into the spotlight. Tragically, on February 11, 2012, Whitney Houston was found dead in her Beverly Hills hotel, she was 48 years old. Her mother, Cissy Houston, has written a book about her daughter's life, entitled Remembering Whitney, which depicts the rise and fall of the tragic singer's life. The purpose of my paper is to evaluate the reasons as to why Whitney Houston began to use drugs and how it played a professional and personal role in her life. I have utilized these approaches: trait approach, L-data and psychosocial development, in order to garner a better understanding as to why someone who is highly regarded could use drugs, as a form of solace and comfort at the peak of her stardom....
On the 11th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Mariah Carey was given the chance to induct Gladys Knight and the Pips who were a soul and R&B family group into this Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She gave a heartwarming speech on how Ms. Knight was a huge impact. Some words she said were, “ thank you so much for being a constant influence on me.” Mariah Carey was also inspired by different genres of music like Jazz, Gospel, R&B, Soul, Pop, Dance, soft rock, hip hop, and country. To add on, Mariah Carey was blessed with the opportunity to perform with the queen of soul, Aretha Franklin. They performed on live television singing Aretha Franklin’s hit song, “Chain of Fools.” Aretha and her met at the Grammy’s and became good friends. Mariah Carey is often referred to as our generation Aretha Franklin and is often compared to Whitney Houston and Celine
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/10/06/good-girl-gone-bad-has-ri_n_997861.html. http://www.examiner.com/article/rihanna-s-bad-behavior-may-be-her-undoing-chris-brown-being-her-worst-offense. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rihanna