In 8^th grade, the first theme presented to us in English class what that of the hero. We discussed common examples of the hero—Jesus, Ghandi, Mother Teresa, Hercules. Finally our teacher asked us if there were heroes in our present day society, or did they simply cease to exist? Was it possible the idea of the hero figure had lost its magic, that these figures could not be found in our society? As Nietzche said, “Dead are all the gods,” (Campbell, 43). These discussions occurred both before and after 9/11 that year. After the tragedy, we all realized that yes, heroes exist. Heroes exist every day, everywhere; at the time of a national emergency, these heroes were more apparent than ever.

Campbell examines the cycle of a literary hero—his characteristics, the nature of his quest, and his eventual triumph (except in the case of the tragic hero). Some of the characteristics Campbell examines are the virgin birth, discrimination, battle his past, be “reborn,” moral, and have a relationship with God. I also think Campbell believes the hero to be a perfected symbol of mankind when he says “…if we could dredge up something forgotten not only by ourselves by our whole generation or our entire civilization, we should become indeed the boon bringer, the hero of the day—a personage of not only local but world historical moment” (5). While Rachel questioned rather this “ideal” human could or has ever existed, I think heroes that come close to fitting this description are Theseus and Moses—not figures that we as modern people can relate to. Raglan even says “there is no justification for believing that any of these heroes were real persons, or that any of the stories of their exploits had any historical foundation,” (47). For this reason, I understand why people question if heroes exist in our modern cultures—we don’t have any major role models or see people regularly doing good for the world.

In contrast, contemporary heroes don’t seem to be born into hero-dom, but rather rise to the occasion as needed, for example, the firemen and policemen that ended up saving lives on 9/11. I think heroism has a lot to do with personal morals and the way we choose to act in certain situations.