HEROES, IMAGINATION OR EXISTENCE?

	Heroes are a product of a society’s perception of someone to be praised and 
adored.  The definition of a hero is dependent on that society’s beliefs, laws and taboos.  
There are heroes for all ages, and for both men and women.  Heroes have had changing 
roles since man wrote his story, and all have been the embodiment of each society, each 
civilization’s ideals.  The 1990's child sick with visions of hoop dreams, is largely affected 
by basketball superstar, Michael Jordan.  He inspires the young depraved ghetto child to 
rise up against his unfortunate circumstances.  Nevertheless their many noteworthy 
qualities, all heroes possess faults because they are human and all humans possess failings, 
because heroes begin to fold and make mistakes as they are suddenly thrust into the awe 
inspired limelight, and because their pedestals are broken and disgarded as the public 
craves to see the dirt underneath the man.

	Failings in heroes are only natural, they are human and all humans possess faults.  
All human beings are born and die with character traits, which can be, at the most basic 
level, perceived as being helpful or as being harmful, depending on the character’s 
viewpoint.  People are regularly regarded as having traits ranging from the most trivial as 
being a perfectionist, to the most weighty, such as being a coward.  These traits form the 
basis of human personality and define the individual’s personal nature.  Montreal teen 
gangs beat, rape and steal all the while embracing courage, bravery and wisdom as they 
remarkably shun cowardice and stupidity.  Ideal heroes are perceived differently in 
different periods of history.  In Chaucer’s Prologue of the Canterbury Tales a worthy man 
is described.  He is a chivalrous knight who prided himself on his own personal truth, 
honor, freedom, and courtesy.  Chaucer’s view of a hero is one who is without fault, truly 
the epitome of goodness.

	Heroes are under severe stress and live a life of duress and begin to commit errors 
as the level of pressure begins to catapult.  Heroes are continuously placed under pressure 
by all who surround them, convinced that the object of their attention can not fail under 
any circumstances.  They grow self-centered and absolute followers of themselves and 
except the same undeserved treatment from others.  As Beowulf often takes pride in his 
work, proclaiming that he slew Grendel, that he rescued the damsel in distress, without the 
help needed, or offered from any persons.  It is this need to see their idols, their heroes 
unmasked that leaves the public to destroy their own heroes.

	Public figures, heroes and idols are living a life of bitter pain as the masses greedily 
pleasure their body and mind while tearing them down off their rightful pedestals.  All 
heroes and idols from across the globe have to contend with it, from the Dali Lama to 
Pricess Di.  In Chaucer’s world, with the post of clergyman comes the unimaginable 
pressure to do good deeds and to never become corrupted.  This is quite difficult as best 
as Chaucer describes the corruption of the priesthood.  It was wrong then and it is wrong 
now.  It is extremely comparable to our present-day corruption in the state as power 
hungry materialistic politicians perform deals under the table for their own selfish 
individual goals.

	Heroes become more and more the personal perception of an individual.  In 
Chaucer’s Prologue, the knight is the common definition of a hero, but he is not the only 
one.  Every individual in our known world has a different definition of a hero, and it is 
only through that personal realization that a true personal hero may emerge.  Young 
children mature in a world where they are placed in front of the idiot box and begin to 
view the world from a perverted and very different perspective to the generation before 
them, rendering them to view people with perverted ideals.  They have different methods 
of reasoning that lead to the changing roles of heroes within the human race.  The masses, 
the majority, are perversions of individual flaws and exponentially multiply the hateful, 
perverted sentiments that all humanity possesses in varying degrees.  Heroes and idols are 
thrown on the marble floor, smashed and broken like pieces of a jade buddah.