Short Paper #2: A Hero of Our Time

The influence of a vital person vitalizes, there’s no doubt about it. The world without spirit is a wasteland. People have the notion of saving the world by shifting things around, changing the rules, who’s on top, and so forth. No, no! Any world is a valid world if it’s alive. The thing to do is to bring life to it, and the only way to do that is to find in your own case where the life is and become alive yourself” (Campbell, The Power of Myth)

For your Short Paper #2, I want you to step out of the ‘non-Western’ bubble and examine a hero or heroine you think is relevant to 21st century American culture. This figure should be fictional so we can read how his or her character, action, and origin represents values and ideas central to our culture. Remember, even the most universal hero comes from a specific time and place, and the more we peer into his or her origins, the more we can understand what this culture believed in. For example, Rama is literally a god, so his actions must represent the basic principles of Hinduism in a way that the average reader of the book could understand (and learn from). And don’t forget the “anti-hero/heroine”! Most of Akutagawa’s ‘heroes’ are of the anti-hero variety, especially someone like the painter Yoshihide, who represents specific cultural values through the ‘heroic’ creation of the Hell Screen.

PRESENTATION: Instead of writing a typical paper, I want you to prepare a handout for the entire class that addresses some or all of the following ideas:

• The hero/heroine’s origin
• The hero/heroine’s virtues or powers
• The hero/heroine’s symbolism (what he/she represents)
• The hero/heroine’s actions (what they do that can inspire us—or we can learn from)
• The hero/heroine’s universality: can anyone understand them, or is it more limited to a specific culture/time?
• The hero/heroine’s connection to our class: how does he/she relate to some of the characters we’ve met in this class?

You will then present this hero/heroine to the class using the ideas in your handout and at least some visual aid. This could be another handout, a powerpoint or Prezi slide or two, a video clip, You Tube, etc. Just make sure we can see some aspect of this hero to complement your discussion. Your presentation only has to take 5-10 minutes, though you can go a bit longer. The goal of this paper is simply to share your ideas with the class and generate a discussion about modern-day ‘heroes’ and their importance to our society.

DUE THE WEEK OF MARCH 7^th: We’ll sign up next week to see who presents on which day, but we will present on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.