Heroism In Oliver Stone's Where I Find My Heroes

Joseph Campbell once said, “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” Being a hero doesn’t mean being “super”, it means having the courage to run towards danger when everybody else is running away from it. Heroism is the courage, the bravery to risk his/her life in order to save somebody else’s.

In the article, Where I Find My Heroes, Oliver Stone states, “Who is heroic? Scientists who spend years of their lives trying to find cures for diseases. The teenager who says no to crack. The inner-city who works at McDonald’s instead of selling drugs. The kid who stands alone instead of joining a gang, which would give him an instant identity…. People who take risks despite fears. People in wheelchairs who don’t give up…” (Stone 64). Heroes are all around us, even if you don't notice them. Those people mentioned had enough courage to never give up and to not give in. Those are qualities of real heroism.

Sacrificing his life save other people’s lives made him a true hero. In addition, in White House Funeral Sermon for Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Phineas D. Gurley states, “Though our beloved President is slain, our beloved country is saved.” (Gurley 68). This quote means that even though the President was dead, he saved the country. Even though Lincoln was dead, his country was alive. Also, in Frederick Douglass, Robert Hayden writes, “this man, this Douglass, this former slave, this Negro beaten to his knees, exiled, visioning a world where none is lonely, none hunted, alien, this man superb in love and logic, this man shall be remembered.” (Hayden 70). Hayden is trying to say that even though he was a slave in the past, it didn’t stop him from visioning a world without slavery. Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln were revolutionary at the