Culture and the Heroic Code.

Essay by pauldud85High School, 12th gradeA+, September 2003

download word file, 2 pages 3.0

Downloaded 30 times

Culture and the Heroic Code

His heart sunk to his stomach as he pulled up to the horrific site. Officer Daniels was the first to arrive on the crash scene. He could hear the children's cries coming out of the mangled school bus. Daniels, without hesitation, raced into the fiery bus and started pulling out the kids in the front. As he was pulling out the children, he noticed that this was his son's bus. His son was in the back. Daniels knew he could save more lives if he kept on getting the kids out that were the closest to the front. He saved many lives that day, except for his own child's.

Daniels perfectly fit my ideal hero. He was brave, selfless, courageous, and willing to help others at any cost. These characteristics are the basics traits a hero must have in the culture I was raised in.

Ideals that my parents admired in others and shared with us helped shape my culture. The stories of the struggles my ancestors experienced, their religious beliefs and their strength of character have been handed down generation after generation. Our family has strived to keep these ideals by building and maintaining strong family ties, continuing practice of our Catholic faith and striving to maintain high expectations of character. These have helped create a special culture for me with high ideals.

I think many times heroes in the "American" culture as a whole do not always contain many of the traits that I just described. Many times Americans make heroes out of star athletes and movie stars. But when it comes down to it, not many people know the real athlete or the real movie star. They only know the image that publicists and tabloids have created. This often...