Literary Heroes Taylor Crowley Course: Humanities Honors Seminar II Professor: John Peterman Student: Taylor Crowley Essay: Literary Heroes
Assignment: For this assignment, students were asked to discuss books they have read in the second half of this course (Portrait of the Artist, To the Lighthouse, The Trial,
Go Tell It on the Mountain, If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler) by selecting a topic of interest that includes all of these works.
Literary characters from past cultures that were once considered heroes tend to be viewed differently in accordance with contemporary values. The concept of a hero has changed over time and has since evolved to reflect changing societal views. The Ancient Greeks characterized their heroes such as Odysseus with extraordinary physical strength and combat abilities. Tackling a grand quest and overcoming dangerous obstacles were also considered heroic as demonstrated by Dante from Dante’s Inferno. As time passed, heroes such as Socrates began to embody superior intellectual abilities as well. Through the progression of literature, it appears that society’s view of heroes seems to have shifted to highlight the power of the ordinary individual. Through Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, and Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler, it is clear that the definition of a hero has evolved to reflect concepts of self-heroism in ordinary people. Additionally, through Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain and Kafka’s
The Trial, the idea of a hero has developed to reflect individuals who battle everyday struggles and societybased conflicts. Through these five books, heroes stray from their conventional forms, and worlds without traditional heroes are created. A careful analysis of the characters Stephen, James, Joseph K., John, and the Reader will demonstrate this shift and highlight how modern heroes are geared toward the ordinary person. To begin, Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man circulates around the main character of the story, Stephen Dedalus. Unlike traditional heroes such as Odysseus or Dante, Stephen’s journey throughout the novel reflects his burning desire to become an artist without being bound by restrictions imposed by the Catholic church or Irish society. His struggle to please his family and remain a devoted Christian harshly contrasts with his desire to live freely as an artist. His first name is derived from the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen, and reflects his internal struggle to remain 93
