The Way of the Hero

This essay explores two questions: (i) what is a hero, and (ii) what does it take to be a hero?

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At the end of HBO miniseries, Band of Brothers, is an interview with Dick Winters, whose courage and skill saw him emerge as a respected leader during World War II. In the interview, Winters recalls a grandchild asking him if he was a hero in the war. His lower lip quivers, and he chokes out the striking response he gave to the child: “No . . . but I served in a company of heroes.” That was enough to put tears in my eyes after all the heroism I had just seen from him. In fact, his humility to deny himself the “hero” title was a poignant example of what made him so heroic. It reminded me of Aslan’s remark to Prince Caspian in The Chronicles of Narnia: “If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been proof that you were not.”

Winters stands as a great example of just how compelling a hero can be. Some of my earliest memories involve tying a blanket around my neck and climbing to the top of some high place to stand with my hands on the hips and my makeshift cape billowing with the breeze—the stance I had come to associate with superheroes. I grew up watching Batman pummel bad guys in the streets of Gotham City, and as I watched him fight injustice, I came to believe that I could someday do the same. In elementary school, I burned through Brian Jacques’s Redwall series and J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, which made me believe that even the seemingly smallest and most insignificant people can make a big difference.

In my teens and twenties, I rushed to the theaters for every installment of the Dark Knight trilogy and became engrossed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, featuring a diverse cast of superheroes. To this day, fire runs in my veins when I remember Batman fighting inch by inch back to a rematch with his brutal antagonist in The Dark Knight Rises or when I remember Captain America picking himself up from the dust, bruised and bloody, in Avengers: Endgame to face down an entire army before learning that backup has arrived.

It isn’t only “superheroes” that are compelling. The Rocky movies have been thriving since 1976, and their greatness is in their inspiring portrayal of underdogs showing grit and courage to unexpectedly challenge and defeat opponents that seem unbeatable. Indeed, our fascination with heroes goes back as far as history can remember. Joseph Campbell famously identified what has come to be called “the hero’s journey” in his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, and the title alone speaks volumes: over and over again, far more than a thousand times, we see heroes with similar characteristics show up in our myths and stories. Over and over again, we engage those myths and stories with rapt attention.

In the Iliad, written in the 8th century BC, we read of Achilles “lifting his spirits” by “singing the famous deeds of fighting heroes.” Some 1,600 years later, Beowulf captured numerous imaginations with the tale of a warrior king who lost his life killing the dragon that was threatening his people. Around the same time, the Vikings were circulating what has come to be called Norse Mythology, their bloody conquests fueled by tales of the mighty conquests of Thor and others. In the 1950s, The Lord of the Rings swept across the globe, heavily influenced by the classical heroic literature already mentioned, and its movie adaptations in the early 2000s remain some of the most celebrated and award-winning movies in the history of television. A glittering cast of heroes populates The Lord of the Rings, and at the center of it are Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee, whose endurance, teamwork, and courage against all odds have inspired millions.

And let’s not forget real-life heroes. We began with Dick Winters, one of World War II’s best-known heroes, but there are numerous others to choose from. In the Bible, David, a shepherd boy, put the Israelite soldiers to shame by stepping up to face the opposing army’s champion and killing the monstrous warrior with no armor and only a slingshot as a weapon. David went on to become a warrior king and one of the most celebrated leaders in the history of the world. Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, and numerous others opposed slavery and racial oppression, often being imprisoned if not killed for opposing the powerful factions they opposed. Soldiers, police officers, firefighters, and rescue workers are all regularly characterized as heroes, as are missionaries and martyrs.

It seems we live in a world brimming with heroes, both real and imagined—so, here’s my question. Why are they heroes? What is it that connects Dick Winters to Beowulf and both to Samwise Gamgee? What defines this person we call a hero?

I recently asked my social media friends to tell me about their heroes, and their answers brought me a little closer to understanding. They spoke of people who inspired and encouraged them, people who loved them when no one else did, people who did good for others even when they thought no one was looking. As I considered my friends’ heroes, history’s heroes, and my own heroes, a list of traits began to take shape.

(1) Heroes Work

This principle is perhaps best illustrated with a counter-example, so I present to you a young man who grew up with an abundance of wealth and has never had a job. He sleeps for 12 hours a day, spends his waking hours lounging around watching movies, and he eats only the finest delicacies, all prepared for and delivered to him by the house chef. He’s not particularly mean-spirited or oppressive; he just doesn’t do anything. He’s never had to.

Do I even need to ask if this young man is a hero? We don’t hate him; we aren’t angry with him; we understand why he’s being lazy—but does he inspire us? Do we want to be like him? Does he look anything like the other heroes I’ve mentioned? Not at all. He might as well be a different species.

When we imagine our hero’s daily routine, we imagine him working deep into the night or dragging himself out of bed before the sun to begin his work. What we don’t imagine is our hero lounging around doing nothing. Whether a soldier, political figure, boxer, or superhero, we imagine our hero doing serious work to achieve his goals. It’s the classic hero montage in so many movies—Tony Stark working around the clock to build the armored suit that would help him go to battle with war criminals; Rocky Balboa’s famous training scenes where he runs, lifts, spars, and climbs in preparation for his fights; Frodo and Samwise traversing one landscape after another, enduring cold, hunger, danger, and exhaustion on the way to their difficult destination (that one does not simply walk into).

When we imagine a hero, we do not imagine someone lounging around in ease and comfort. We imagine someone working.

(2) Heroes Have Courage

Yet again, counter-examples will bring this principle alive, so let’s consider a soldier who is known to run and hide at the first hint of battle. Or let’s consider the all-too-common political figure shying away from upholding justice for the poor and oppressed, fearing that his wealthy donors would turn against him if he did. Are we describing heroes here? Of course not.

Again, we need not be angry with them. I, who have never been under fire, am in no position to judge a soldier for shrinking away from conflict. Similarly, I’ve never had heaps of wealth at my disposal that I could lose with one courageous political stance. That being acknowledged, we must remember that the present inquiry concerns heroes. The question is not whether our timid examples are despicable people; the question is whether they are heroes—and to that question, the answer is clearly “no.”

Far from shying away from danger, we imagine our hero running directly toward it. It’s why soldiers, police officers, and firefighters are so often called heroes. It’s why social justice advocates like Martin Luther King Jr. or Nelson Mandela are deemed heroes—men who endured scorn, beatings, imprisonment, and even death in their pursuit of justice for the oppressed.

Our hero does what he must regardless of the danger. He may feel afraid, but that doesn’t stop him. He is courageous.

(3) Heroes Serve Others

If we combine the prior two points, we have a hardworking person with the courage to accept great risks in pursuit of his goals; but these two points alone are insufficient to make a hero. I’ve met all sorts of folks who work tirelessly and even courageously to obtain money for themselves, even if it means being a conniving cutthroat to get it. In their view, each person has to look out for himself, and there is simply no room in the “real” world for the cotton candy sweet and harmless behavior found in those they view as naïve. These industrious egoists are reflections of your archetypal villain—gritty, hardworking, bold, and perfectly willing to hurt others, even the innocent, if it will get them what they want.

Thus, our final hero trait is certainly not to be seen as inferior. When we see one who is hardworking and courageous, we don’t know whether he’s a hero until we know why he is doing it. Concern for the well-being of others is central to the hero ethos.

That’s not to say our hero won’t challenge and even harm others. The training of a soldier or police officer includes training in how to kill someone. Again, we must ask why, and when we do, we discover that heroes challenge or hurt others only when it is necessary to protect or dignify someone else. We praise the heroic soldier who puts himself at great risk to protect our rights and freedoms. We praise the police officer who puts himself at great risk to protect us and our fellow citizens. We praise the social justice advocate for challenging the social and political powers who rise by standing on the throats of the oppressed.

It is indeed the most central feature of a hero that his courageous work is driven by a desire to benefit others.

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With the traits of a hero defined, we can drill deeper and ask the question beneath the definition: why would anyone act this way? Why live a strenuous, courageous life in service to others? What’s the point?

As a Christian, the answer for me lies in the definition of my faith. The word Christian literally means “little Christ,” and when I look at Christ, I see a man whose mission, wisdom, and heart were flawlessly heroic. He journeyed from one town to the next to heal people, body and soul. He faced poverty, hunger, exhaustion, ridicule, and a brutal death in pursuit of his mission—a mission to rescue the world from its misery and eventually from death itself. He did all that, then told his students, “Take up your cross and follow me.” To be a “little Christ” is therefore to be a “little hero,” to pursue the welfare of others, even at great cost to yourself.

I certainly don’t mean to imply that only Christians can be heroes. Heroes come out of many worldviews. From a Christian perspective, this innate heroism stems from being made in God’s image and having his love for the poor and powerless imprinted on our hearts. To explore alternative bases for heroism would require an inquiry into the philosophical foundations of morality, a rigorous inquiry that deserves its own article if not entire book. (See, e.g., “Religion and Morality” in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.)

So, for now, I’ll leave it at this. Decide for yourself whether heroism is a worthwhile pursuit. But if you take an honest look around, you’ll see that we need more heroes doing the hard, courageous work required to make the world a better place. Perhaps you feel insufficient to consider yourself such a grand thing as a “hero,” and if so, you’re in good company. The fact remains, there is more than enough work that needs to be done, and I can only hope and indeed pray that if you haven’t already, you will join the ranks of those who are doing it.