The Perception of Heroic Qualities
Stories of great heroes have come and gone, but patterns have remained. These patterns are called archetypes, that can manifest themselves in different ways. The main reason that archetypes keep occurring in a hero’s journey is through the darwinism and evolution of literature. In the beginning, not all stories were written down. For a story to be put in writing it had to be great. Now each storyteller wants to create a story that gets the best reaction from the crowd and for their stories to be remembered. To get listeners to remember their stories, they had to make the story interesting. They were able to accomplish this through experimenting to figure out what works. Once they found something they would combine it with other things that worked to create a story. Through this process they create pattern which would later be called an archetype. Throughout time the perception of heroic qualities have changed from glory driven to today’s unsung hero.
Different aspects of Beowulf and John McCall’s call to action reflect the perception of heroic qualities, during different times. When Beowulf was written a
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Something helps to prove that statement is The Supreme Ordeal. An archetype that causes a hero to cross the threshold but they each had their own way of doing it. Beowulf crosses the threshold by boasting and putting his pride on the line. By doing this he would never be able to shy away from grendel’s rath. If Beowulf did, he would lose any chance of becoming king. Robert McCall crosses the threshold when he kills the Russian Mobsters. Robert did not kill these people for his own satisfaction, he killed them to help his friend. Putting his life on, to help someone else, is a true act of selflessness. In both cases, each hero put themselves on the line and fought for something bigger than themselves, even though Beowulf did not always see it that