Hero Essay Example for Free

Hero Essay Heroes are often stereotyped as fairytale characters who are endowed with supernatural powers that make them strong and buff. In reality, a hero can be an ordinary human being who strives to do extraordinary things to help others and make a difference in the world. A true hero not only possesses the qualities of strength and bravery, but also embody selflessness, morality and perseverance, essentially becoming a role model for all of those around him or her. Oprah Winfrey is just one example of an average person in our society who fits the characteristics and role of being a hero. She has devoted her time, skills, attention, and resources towards making the world a more prosperous place for others by educating, motivating, inspiring and rescuing people all over the world. Through the great generosity of Oprahs Angel Network and the construction of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, Oprah Winfrey has proven herself to be a true role model and inspiration to all by her selfless deeds that make her a true hero of our times. To begin with, Oprah Winfrey was born into poverty to a single mother in Mississippi and faced many difficulties and grievances throughout her childhood years. She was sexually abused by her uncle, cousin, and family friend and became pregnant at the age of fourteen; her son died a short while after. Oprah then moved to Tennessee with her father where she began her career in the entertainment business. Her career began with a job on the radio at the age of nineteen and eventually led to the creation of the Emmy-winning talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show. According to Forbes Magazine, in 2003, Oprah became the first African-American woman to reach billionaire status, breaking through cultural, geographical and gender barriers, letting the world know it’s not your circumstances, but your heart that determines how far you go in this world. As Oprahs name became more widespread, so did her generosity. The Oprah Angel Network began to donate one hundred thousand dollars for the Use Your Life Award to all of those who dedicated their lives to helping others and had numerous achievements regarding humanitarian issues. Furthermore, she regularly gives charity to organizations such as AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Childrens Memorial Hospital and the Chicago Academy of the Arts. In addition to those organizations, Oprah has also gave out her sincere wishes and help to those poor souls who have been affected by the Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. She donated over one million dollars to the Tsunami relief fund and ten million to those who were gravely affected by the disaster of Katrina. Growing up with a childhood full of hardships and being able to overcome them truly makes Oprah Winfrey an inspiration to everyone. Her selflessness, generosity, and general love and compassion for human kind has brought so many changes to our society that cannot be overlooked. Her immense perseverance and selflessness are just two contributing factors that make her the person she is today; a hero. Most importantly, Oprahs dedication to helping under privileged students obtain their education makes her a role model and symbol of hope for children all around the world. She created the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, where girls learn to use their full capacity to become excellent decision makers and the next leaders of our generation. The best African American teachers and administrators will be appointed in this school to help the girls excel in their knowledge and education. Not only is she the founder of the school, but the Oprah Winfrey Foundation contributed ten million dollars to maintain it as well. Oprah is helping to fight the battle against illiteracy one step at a time, and through her actions against it, she creates a foundation that many other people can follow. By giving so much importance to education, she becomes an inspiration and motivation that encourages girls all around the world to pursue their education further. By providing education, Oprah is empowering girls everywhere and giving them more options in their life than they ever imagined. As Oprah once stated, â€Å"Education is the path to the future. I believe that education is indeed freedom. With Gods help, these girls will be the future leaders on the path to peace in South Africa and the world. Once again, Oprah proved herself to be selfless and moral woman who persevered in becoming a role model for all of those around her. Her generosity is now the reason that girls in South Africa actually have a chance to make something of themselves and to receive an education. With one simple donation, she changed the lives of thousands of girls and created a brighter, much better future for them than they could imagine. By doing such deeds open-handedly and without anything in return, Oprah Winfrey is a genuine hero of our society. In conclusion, heroes are not people like Superman or Batman, but rather those who do everything in their ability to make the world a better place and Oprah Winfrey is just one of many who fit the criteria of being a true hero. She is engulfed around being selfless, moral, brave, perseverant, and a role model and inspiration to everyone around her. The generosity of Oprahs Angel Network has helped many impoverished people and even led to the construction of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. With donations like these, Oprah has literally changed the future for African American girls in South Africa and helped them become more independent. She is now looked upon as a symbol for hope and a prosperous future because of all of her charity work concerning humanitarian issues. Heroes like Oprah Winfrey inspire everyone with their openness and compassion, essentially becoming a symbol for hope with their vision for a brighter and better future.

The Writing Style Of Mark Twain English Literature Essay

The Writing Style Of Mark Twain English Literature Essay Mark Twain once said when asked how to write, Write what you know about. His work of Life on the Mississippi is a great representation of his advice to aspiring writers. It is written in true realistic style, providing the reader with many elements. Likewise, The Lost Phoebe is written in true naturalistic style, showing elements of mans struggle with society and himself. Both works are true to the form they are written in and have many stark contrasts in comparison. Twains writing style not only brings great descriptions of the world he presents to the reader, but he adds elements of humor to make his points. The focus of both works is on two poor characters. Twains character is fixated on the adventure and romanticism he believes that life on the Mississippi River will offer him. Twain incorporates truthful treatment of life surrounding his character. In describing the daily life in the town, he writes, Once a day cheap, gaudy packet arrived upward from St. Louis, and another downward from Keokuk. Before these events, the day was glorious with expectancy; after them, the day was a dead and empty thing. Twain continues to breathe life into his story by describing the town and some of its inhabitants, leaving the reader a well-shaped image of life in the town. In reading the text it seems that most people in the town trudge on in their daily lives and have lost hope or sight of what they once dreamed. They seemed to fall into a quasi-catatonic st ate in which their entertainment hinged on a steamboat berthing at the dock. Once gone, the town returned to regular humdrum. Even Twains character abandons most of his dreams: These ambitions faded out, each in its turn; but the ambition to be a steamboatman always remained. Dimmed hope, to be certain, but not gone, Twains character backs his ears and chases down what he considers the American Dream: freedom and adventure. Twain makes it clear throughout his work that even though one may have a love for something, and romanticize it to the point of exhaustion, doesnt mean it will be easy by any stretch of the imagination. Finding that he was treated poorly by those who didnt consider him one of them, Twain points out, Months afterward the hope within me struggled to a reluctant death, and I found myself without an ambition. Ashamed to return back home because of failure in chasing his dream, he makes an even more bold decision to travel to the Amazon. As the chapters unfold, Twain points out what life on the Mississippi is like and maybe not as romantic as once thought. I believe he was making a point that all dreams can be this way, so be prepared for what you ask for. After all his ambitions of life on the Mighty Mississippi, the prestige of friends and family envying his position as a steamboat pilot, Twains character can not even remember simple navigation lessons taught to him. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦my memory was never loaded with anything but blank cartridges. In the end, it appeared that Twains character simply wanted the status of being a glorious steamboatman without having to learn the true nature of it. Twain shows the follies of chasing dreams without true desire to learn, because by doing so, romanticism of the dream is replaced by the reality of it. Twain also points out how society reacts to those with aspiring dreams. Twains character was mostly rejected by those he was attempting to emulate. There was little help and forgiveness for him. He ties the se realistic elements together by inserting humor at optimal points. In stark contrast to using humor to make a point, The Lost Phoebe is a dark representation of man versus himself, nature, and society. It begins, depressingly, describing the poor conditions of the setting. There is not one bright element in the description of the house or land around it. Indeed, the only happy element is when Dresier writes, Old Henry Reifsneider and his wife Phoebe were a loving couple. Even with this happy element, Dresier even later takes a dump all over that, too, when he writes, Old Henry and his wife Phoebe were as fond of each other as it is possible for two old people to be who have nothing else in this life to be fond of. This work is concerned more with the description of how dismal the surrounding is rather than the true nature of Henry or his wife. Any good qualities either may have possessed are void and irrelevant in this naturalistic style of writing. Whatever Dresiers intent was in writing this work, it is clear that the circumstances involving the p eople Henry Reifsneider encounters, and nature, and even the nature of man, are the antagonists here. As for this reader, this piece of literature throws cold water on any ambition to marry for fear of losing my spouse and wandering around seeing apparitions of them until one day all hope is lost and his life is ended by falling off of a cliff. Every aspect of this work is dark and dismal. Reifsneider encounters the first antagonist with the death of Phoebe: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦in a fog of sorrow and uncertainty, followed her body to the nearest graveyard, an unattractive space with a few pines growing in it. The second encounter followed immediately thereafter with Reifsneider struggling against people suggesting he come to live with them. But he wanted to stay near his dead wife. Soon he found himself seeing apparitions of Phoebe that would eventually lead him to his own demise, but not before his struggles with people he encountered. Hes clean outn his head. That poor old fellers bee n livin down there till hes gone outen his mind. Ill have to notify the authorities. one man remarked as he observed Henry. Dreiser amplifies the Naturalism style in that impact of Henrys environment is clear, and is vividly motivated by this, in animalistic fashion, to find his wife. This story is a classic example of Naturalism style in that it is dark, lonely, and full of descriptors about a working-class environment. Arguably, the ending to this story could be construed as a happy one. Henry does find his wife through his own death, and was seemingly happy to leap. But from the first line to the last, this story is a dark tunnel that continually spirals downward. It is full of true Naturalism style and there is absolutely no real humor contained within. From the way the characters talk, to the way they are dressed, and how they interact is a snapshot of this dark theme Dresier attempts to convey. Both works provide great descriptions of the environment of which they are trying to convey aspects of their works. However, where Dresier chooses to gain some type of sympathy for his characters by describing the outward circumstances, Twain conveys his ideas by examining some real aspects of the character as well as the real life around him. Twain makes his points more subtle than those of Dresier, but both are equally true to their form of styles.

Who Has Seen The Wind - The Godlessness Of Formal Religions :: essays research papers

The essence of God isn't found in today's formal religions. It is evident throughout the novel Who Has Seen the Wind that author W.O. Mitchell intrinsically believes and wishes to convey this message. He states that the prairie is nature in it's simplest form, complete onto itself, and that the religious structure of today's "God" is simply made up by people to ease their pain and fears. Underlying everything is the sense that we as human beings don't really know where we're going, or for that matter, where we're coming from, in our search for God and the truth. W.O. Mitchell sees the prairies as the basic fundamental unit of nature. "Here was the least common denominator of nature, the skeleton requirements simply, of land and sky- Saskatchewan prairie" (WHSTW, p3) One might assume that this implies that God doesn't exist; That somehow, since the prairie is already complete, God is effectively out of the picture. Not the case! Rather, this implies, perhaps subtly, that God exists incorporated into nature itself, living with it, and not as the heavenly arbitrator he is supposed, by modern religion, to be. This is perhaps the most important message we are shown in the book. God is real, lives in real things, and, as we will see, is not bound by the finicky limitations and expectations of human beings. It is apparent that there is a definite message we are willed to decipher when we come across Brian creating his own "gods" on paper. This act is symbolic of the childish way in which we've created our own religious conventions and beliefs. Brian feels sad and lonely, so he solves the problem by copying what he sees as religion's solution: Brian was wishing that Forbsie didn't have the mumps†¦ He didn't want to draw men, he wanted to ride a vacuum cleaner up into the sky where it was blue†¦ on the paper he made blue with his crayon. And God was there. (WHSTW, p31) Brian, being a child, is impervious to the horrible sin of blaspheme. This, in conjunction with his natural curiosity, allows him to take religion at face value exposing it to the readers for the hollow shell it is: Not as a means to God, but a means to solving personal problems of loneliness and fulfilling dreams. This "confusion" on Brian's part is used by W.O. Mitchell to show insight into the falseness of religion as a means to God.

The Ghost of Christmas Present :: Essays Papers

The Ghost of Christmas Present Christmas has consumed itself. At its conception, it was a fine idea, and I imagine that at one point its execution worked very much as it was intended to. These days, however, its meaning has been perverted; its true purpose ignored and replaced with a purpose imagined by those who merely go through the motions, without actually knowing why they do so. Christmas was originally supposed to be a celebration of the birthday of Jesus Christ. Modern historians suggest that Christ was actually born sometime in April, but that is hardly the point; the point is that a day on which to celebrate his birth and life was needed, and so one was chosen. During the season surrounding this holiday -- especially since it coincided with that of other, similar holidays -- it was thought right to honor Jesus by acting as he did, i.e., in a kind, generous, and forgiving manner. Out of this sprung the custom of giving gifts to loved ones on this holiday. However, as may be expected from our modern society, the custom of giving gifts quickly turned into the practice of exchanging them. If one gives gifts to loved ones at Christmas, the reasoning goes, then those who do not receive gifts from a person are obviously not loved by him/her. So each individual now is required to give a gift to all of his/her friends, or risk communicating to them that s/he no longer loves them -- or perhaps never did! Also, there arises another problem when someone gets a gift from a person to whom they did not give one. The logic here is that the one who gave the gift obviously has a greater love for or places a greater value on the friendship than the one who did not. A decidedly awkward situation arises from this, one can imagine. Gift-giving nowadays is no longer an act of kindness, but rather a political measure, taken to ensure one’s status with one’s acquaintances. While the general feeling of "goodwill towards men" still pervades the season, albeit filtered through television and municipal decorating projects, there is a great tension that precedes the actual Christmas holiday itself. I remember Christmases of my youth as enjoyable times, to be sure, but also as times when it was best to stay clear of my mother, who was inevitably in

The Power of Interior Monologues in War and Peace Essay -- War and Pea

     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   War and Peace probed into the human essence and its search for the truths of life. Tolstoy focused on two men to represent and carry the burden of finding those ethereal values. Throughout the novel, he utilized numerous images, symbols, dialogue, and foreshadowing to advance the progress of his characters. Yet, his most effective use of technical device can be found in describing the psychological thoughts and interior monologues of the characters. Most notably, the thoughts of Pierre and Andrei served to portray their spiritual changes better than by what they did, and also helped to foretell and build suspense to upcoming actions. By doing so, Tolstoy furthered the plot and created a realistic world from which to study characters who acted, talked, and most importantly, thought as real human beings do in the same situations.    The magnanimity of Tolstoy's use of internal actions rather than external actions has far reaching effects to this day. Pierre and Andrei underwent a drastic change, and because of this critics compare them to Tolstoy himself. Tolstoy grew up in an aristocratic household, but because he wanted to live life as it should be lived, he also searched for the answers to the problem of life. Like Pierre and Andrei, he faced many difficulties in his journey, but eventually found salvation in the basic values of simplicity, understanding of life and death, and love of all creatures. Thus, Tolstoy, Pierre, and Andrei transformed themselves through pain and suffering to attain a higher level of spirituality, notably mimicking the legendary change of St. Paul the Apostle. In addition to his connections with the Christian St. Paul, Tolstoy also laid down the foundations for Buddhist Zen in the wester... ...rn, The Rise of the Russian Novel, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973. John Fennel, Nineteenth Century Russian Literature, London, Faber and Faber, 1973. Ed. Malcolm Jones, New Essays on Tolstoy, Bristol: Cambridge University Press, 1978. Ed. Harold Bloom, Modern Critical Interpretations - War and Peace, New York, Chelsea House Publishers, 1988 Daniel Rancour - Laferriere, Tolstoy's Pierre Bezukhov - A Psychoanalytical Study, Melksham: Bristol Classical Press, 1993. Helen Edna Davis, Tolstoy and Nietzsche, New York: Haskell House Publishers Ltd., 1929. I Cannot be Silent - Writings on Politics, Art and Religion by Leo Tolstoy, Chippenham: The Bristol Press, 1989. E. H. Carr, What is History?, St Ives: Penguin Books, 1987. Pauline Marie Rosenau, Post-Modernism and the Social Sciences, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992.

Comment on the poetic devices Essay

I am going to study two poems based on conflict. The first poem is â€Å"Belfast Confetti† by Ciarà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½n Carson and the second poem is â€Å"Slough† written by John Betjeman.  Ã¢â‚¬ËœBelfast Confetti’  From what I understand, Carson comes from an Irish background and possibly used to be a local reporter. His attitude to conflict is that he feels war and conflict is confusing, so by associating with something he understands he can relate to, for example: ‘journalism’, he uses punctuation to explain the confusion in the riot. Belfast Confetti is a poem, which is from when Carson was a journalist in Belfast. It is a bleak picture of modern society and it’s about when he became stuck in the middle of a riot – It describes how Carson runs down alleys to escape but is always trapped. He compares the riot, an unknown experience, to journalism a familiar experience. This is done by metaphorically describing the explosions, gunfire, and thrown missiles, linking them to punctuation and he describes it and his feelings to the reader.  Carson also experiences an explosion while in the riot and is unfortunately deeply affected by the explosion-he loses his sense of identity because of what happens and he feels confused and disorientated. The poet doesn’t actually mention whether he thinks the bombing is right or wrong, which is refreshing in a time when everyone has an opinion about the freedom of Ireland from England. However, the title is confusing, making the reader think that this is going to be about celebrations, but it in fact, turns out to be about a bomb.  The first stanza describes the riot as Carson remembers the events, and the sheer violence comes tumbling out.  As soon as the poem begins, the reader is hit in an urgent, dynamic fashion.  Ã¢â‚¬ Suddenly, as the riot started†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . This creates a sense of panic and causes the reader to explore the possibilities about why the riot squad has been involved in action. It also sets the tone for the rest of the poem. In the second line, we see an exhaustive rush of words, which is describing about a car exploding. The poet finds it impossible to shape the sentence together. This may possibly be because he is distressed on recalling the event.  Ã¢â‚¬ Nuts, bolts, nails, car-keys.†Ã‚  We see some use of onomatopoeia in the poem between ‘fire’ and ‘stuttering’.  Ã¢â‚¬ This hyphenated line, a burst of rapid fire†¦I was trying to complete a sentence in  my head, but it kept stuttering.† The letters ‘t’ and ‘f’ are onomatopoeic. Here, he (the poet) shows confusion and difficulty in expressing himself. The use of punctuation words means that there is a running theme through out the poem.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"raining exclamation marks†¦an asterisk on the map†¦hyphenated line†¦punctuated†¦with stops and colons†¦a fusillade of question marks†.  A meaning that could be taken from this is that sentences are one of a few things that differ us from animals. The fact that he was â€Å"trying to complete a sentence in his head† speaks volumes about his state of mind at the time.  Also, the actual use of punctuation in the poem slows the poem down so that the reader can reflect on what has happened but the full stops also represent gunfire and a dead end to for-fill his achievement -unable to escape anywhere. †Every move is punctuated. Crimea Street. Dead end again†Ã‚  In the second stanza, in the second last line, the poet inserts an empty line. He has done this to emphasise his disorientation and confusion from the bomb/explosion.  It is also rather odd that the poet has used question marks in the poem, as a good poem shouldn’t need to have unanswered questions at the end. These specific question marks are used for effect and also mean that he doesn’t have to formulate an opinion about what’s happening, an opinion that could upset those around him. They also allow the reader to make up their own opinion. †My name? Where am I coming from? Where am I going?†Ã‚  By saying â€Å"Saracen, Kremlin-2 mesh. Makrolon face-shields. Walkie-talkies†, he gives the reader an inhuman picture of the army by depicting it as a collection of military equipment, intimidating in its coldness. The actual sound of the line too with the predominant consonant â€Å"k† and heavily fragmented lines contribute to this effect.  Also, I think that when Carson says â€Å"Balaclava, Raglan, Inkerman, Odessa Street- why can’t I escape?† he is unsure of an area that he knows because of everything that is happening. This maybe because the memories of the incident haunt the writer as he struggles to explain the events. He is also, maybe unintentionally, dropping names as freely as confetti.

Bred In South Auckland Essay

The poems â€Å"Bred in South Auckland, The trick of standing upright here, and The Indigenous Pakeha† is related to our theme study of ‘the importance of culture and cultural differences’ because Glenn Colquhoun shows how elements of their culture are important to him. This is shown when he explains how everyone belongs somewhere. That each culture is different yet unique and connected to other cultures; â€Å"The trick of standing upright here is the trick of using both feet.† An important message explained and shown through the poems is cultural and multi/sub-cultures, their lifestyles and how culture’s are stereotyped; â€Å"†¦I listen to talkback radio. I use EFPTOS. Some people think I am a typical pakeha.† This is related to how Glenn Colquhoun’s culture was different, and how he grew up looking over the fence; â€Å"Meeting is the grip inside a hand. It is the sound of met lips.† The text made me see how he uses stereotism and multi-cultural differences, making what I read interesting. Also how he used Paradox in places of the poems that may have seemed stranged but contained meaning and truth if you were reading it between the lines. We also both let go of the negative aspects of a culture. What I have learnt is that each culture is different, yet connected. That you use different parts of another culture in your own; â€Å"The art of walking upright here is the art of using both feet.† And another thing is to be proud of being different or multi-cultural; â€Å"I think I am the luckiest mongrel I know.† Bred in South Auckland, The trick of standing perpendicular here and The Indigenous Pakeha. Glenn Colquhoun. Poems. The poems Bred in South Auckland, The trick of standing upright here, and The Indigenous Pakeha is related to our theme study of the importance of subtlety and pagan differences because Glenn Colquhoun shows how elements of their finish are important to him. This is shown when he explains how everyone belongs somewhere. That individually culture is different yet unique and connected to otherwise cultures; The trick of standing upright here is the trick of utilize some(prenominal) feet. An important message explained and shown through the poems is cultural and multi/sub-cultures, their lifestyles and how cultures are stereotyped; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦I listen to talkback radio. I use EFPTOS. Some people think I am a typical pakeha. This is related to how Glenn Colquhouns culture was different, and how he grew up looking over the fence; Meeting is the bewitch inside a hand. It is the sound of met lips. The text made me detect how he uses stereotism and multi-cultural differences, making what I read interesting. Also how he used Paradox in places of the poems that may break seemed stranged further contained meaning and truth if you were reading it between the lines. We also both let go of the negative aspects of a culture. What I have learnt is that each culture is different, yet connected. That you use different part of some other culture in your own; The art of walk of life upright here is the art of using both feet. And another thing is to be proud of being different or multi-cultural; I think I am the luckiest mongrel I: