In their posts, almost everyone referenced an aspect of heroism we had not yet talked about: isolation and the loneliness that comes with it. Rachel said this isolation is heroic, while Emily saw isolation as the absence of love. I agree most with Chetna, who said a hero needs to be isolated to realize his “higher cause.” I think the way in which a hero is “isolated” is different than simply being apart from people, different from trying not to love or rely on others.

Heroes must isolate themselves from selfishness

I think a hero has to isolate himself from typical human desires, such as selfishness. Carlye says “Love not Pleasure; love God. This is the EVERLASTING YEA wherein all contradiction is solved” (175). This again reflects what Chetna calls a “higher power.” On page 174, Carlyle says “the first preliminary moral Act,” is “annihilation of Self,” showing that in order to become a hero, one must destroy the ego. Personal desires and motives are irrelevant to the heroic task; they only distract. Buckley says the ego must be destroyed for the soul to be reborn to “‘higher things.’” (162)

Are all heroes lonely? Perhaps. But they are all fulfilled through their works, their quests, and the people whom they seek to protect or help.

Heroes seek to protect others.