Not A Hero Essay

Not a Hero Everyone might be familiar with heroes, no matter the imaginary or the real heroes, such as Batman and Martin Luther King. At the end of most stories, heroes would achieve their missions and become successful. I think that is what most people will remember about the stories or myths. However, people would barely mention or pay attention to the sidekicks in the stories. I guess the title “sidekicks” already sounds less important. On the other hand, sidekicks mostly just assist heroes and they are not the ones who achieve the mission at the end. Try to imagine, if Batman didn’t have such a great steward assist him, if Martin Luther King didn’t have the support from his people, would they be successful at the end? Even though many people seem to have the potential to be a hero, there is always only one hero who exists at the end. The famous ancient Chinese myth “Journey to the West” will be a good example. The story is about four monks who travelled all the way from China to India and overcame many difficulties in order to ask for the Buddha’s scriptures. One special thing about this group is there was only one human being among them, whose name was Xuanzang. Monkey King was his first disciple, Zhu Bajie was the second one (who originally was a pig) and Sha Wujing was his third disciple (who originally was a monster that lived in the river). Another similar example but from the modern society is the movie Inception. Inception is about a group of people who need to get into a person’s dream in order to change his business idea; they tried to plant a new idea in his mind. Similarly with “Journey to the West”, the master – Dom Cobb (Leonardo) started forming the group by himself. He started recruiting talented people to join him and help him to finish the mission. He has three sidekicks as well (since there would be only one hero exists in the stories, other people would automatically become sidekicks or we might call them disciples as well). His team included Ariadne who helped him to build the dream (the architect), Arthur who helped with the timing, and Eames who was a pretender. The biggest similarity between these two stories was the missions were achieved by a group of people instead of one person. Also, the characters have many similarities; no matter the central persons or the sidekicks. The central persons Xuanzang and Cobb have a lot in common for sure since they were considered as the heroes in the stories. Let’s compare Ariadne and Monkey King first. Both of them were talented and have great passion about what they were doing. However, they were both arrogant and too impulsive. Xuangzang punished Monkey King many times because he always acts before he thinks. On the other hand, Ariadne almost got killed because she entered Cobb’s dream without his permission and she didn’t know anything about Cobb’s dreams. Now let’s take a look at Arthur and Sha Wujing. They shared the same characteristics which are composure and improvisation. However, they might not be willing to take the risks because of they were too calm about the situations. Both Zhu Bajie and Eames have the optimistic attitude and always seem to enjoy their lives. I think their disadvantages included blind optimistism sometimes so that they might feel shocked by the unexpected outcomes or underestimated the risks which may have put them in dangerous. We probably still have the question of why a person can become a hero. Besides what Campbell said, heroes always have the “supernatural aid” to help them get through the hardships (69). I think what made some persons become heroes in the story is they have the same good qualities as the sidekicks have while they have other good qualities that the sidekicks don’t have. Xuanzang and Cobb definitely have talents. Xuanzang became a monk during his early age. He learned how to read and write Sanskrit much faster than his peers. On the other hand, Cobb was

Show More

Was George Washington A Hero Or Hero?

Hero Emerges

Is Odysseus A Hero

Is Ponyboy A Hero

Is Batman A Hero

Hero Essay

Hero In The Odyssey

heros essay

Odysseus A Hero

Odysseus Hero