True Heroes In The Hunger Games

“...to be a hero means you step across the line and make a sacrifice…” (Philip Zimbardo). It is not easy to give up things. True heroes understand that sometimes they have to give things up, sometimes their lives. It’s not to ‘get what they want’, it’s to make things better for everyone. Heroes are willing to sacrifice themselves and break rules to do what is right; that is how they leave their legacy. Heroes are willing to trade their lives for the well being of others. They know that the motive they might die for is more important than living to see the change. In the Hunger Games, when Katniss Everdeen volunteers to compete in the Games in the place of her sister, Prim, she accepts the fact that she might die. She knows that if she dies, it won’t be in vain, it will be to protect her sister Prim. She is not self centered, and she sees the world as it is. She doesn’t stand there wondering whether she should die for her sister or not. Katniss is the first volunteer in District Twelve, demonstrating how she isn’t going to back down because of what other people have done.

They stand for a cause that is more critical than the punishment or the judgement afterwards. For example, Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was not phased by the boundaries that society kept around women. She went ahead and became an abolitionist. She knew that she might be ridiculed, or threatened. She was “The little woman who started a big war,” (Lincoln). Heroes do not back out of their cause because of rules and stereotypes that other people create. They do not worry about what will happen to them if they must break those rules, because they are selfless. When others are selfless, we naturally admire them. Sometimes we even try to copy their