Role Model vs Hero: Two Articles

Heroes and role models are alike in many ways, but differ in that heroes are fictional characters and role models are everyday real people. The articles “Larger than Life,” by Jenny Lyn Bader and “What Makes Superman so Darned American,” by Gary Engle discuss what it is to be a role model and what it is to be a hero. Bader emphasis’s that role models are more realistic and relatable compared to heroes, while Engle focus’s on Superman, as an American hero with two identities However, both Bader and Engle believe that heroes sacrifice themselves for others, are strong and courageous, and are inspirational.

In the first place, “Larger than Life,” by Jenny Lyn Bader, Bader emphasis’s that we should focus on role models instead because heroes are old fashioned and require to much investment and energy while role models are easier to understand and are aware of what they do Bader defines a hero as a childhood idol, someone “who we can rely on, who will not desert us when the winds change, and whom we will not desert”.

Bader’s example of role models are stars of Beverly Hills 90210, who act accordingly, but also understand that there are consequences for their actions. Heroes are unlike role models in that they can’t interact with the public, have flexible lives, “Be free for lunch”. On one hand, heroes can be Greek gods, explorers, and queens while on the other hand, role models can by any typical person such as tv stars, ministers, or your boss.

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Heroes self sacrifice and do courageous acts whereas role models live regular lives working or accomplishments. Role models are real people who may make mistakes as they go through life, they do not risk their lives for others like heroes, According to Bader, people “have replaced impersonal heroes with the most personal role models of all”; replaced Santa Clause with family members. Bader describes her grandmother as a role model because she saved her family in the great war and lived to see an emperor; which Bader is amazed by, because back then, there was a time where it was natural for an emperor to take an evening stroll as a regular pedestrian, today it‘s not natural for that to happen.

Role models can be anybody; someone who did something important with their life, who made an impact on others, who started at the bottom and made there way up to become very successful, or someone who kept on getting pushed down, but always fought to get right back up. Additionally, Gary Engle, in his article, “What Makes Superman so Darned American,” discusses heroes and describes them as self—sacrificing, mobile, strong, two identities, and are messianic»likei Specifically, Engle talks about “the great American hero,” Superman; an orphan, he grew up on planet Krypton, landed in Smallville after the planet exploded, and was raised a middle-class American family. The aspects of an American hero that reflect Superman is the immigrant experience, individual mobility, physical dislocation, and cultural assimilation. Throughout history, America has been known to be a nation of people that have their origins elsewhere, like superman, who is an immigrant with his origins in Krypton, Superman wears a costume, which covers his real identity and has powers, which corresponds to ethnic characteristics.

Dislocation is another factor involved in American culture and superman; “searching for the American dream… are symptomatic of a national sense of rootlessness stemming from an identity founded on the experience of immigration,” For an individual [0 be mobile, is part of the American dream, similar to Superman flying “The American identity is ordered around the psychological experience of forsaking or closing the past for the opportunity of reinventing oneself in the future,” so Superman, being an orphan, must reinvent himselfi Supermen is an immigrant with two identities; Superman and Clark Kent or “where he comes from in life journey and where he is going”. The two identities are necessary for the myth of balance in the assimilation process to complete Superman is mobile and strong while Clark Kent is immobile and weak. The last factor of American Superman is cultural assimilation is when the two identities, the old and new, combine into one, resulting in some ethnic roots lost. To explain further, Kal-el, Superman‘s krypton name, has two meanings of el, the root and affix, gd and “of god” and kal means, “all that god is“.

Also, Engle makes a comparison between Superman and messiah, in that they both protect, defend, and sacrifice. “Superman achieves truly achieves truly mythic stature, interweaving a pattern of beliefs, literary conventions, and cultural traditions of the American people“ To sum up, both articles, ”Larger than Life,” by Jenny Lyn Bader and “What Makes Superman so Darned American,” by Gary Engle illustrate that heroes and role models are inspirational and admirable characters or people that anyone can look up to. I think that heroes are unrealistic fictional characters that sacrifice their lives for others, whereas role models are relatable, everyday people who accomplish and achieve any task Heroes have two identities, one real and one an illusion; and role models have just one identity. On one hand, Bader believes that heroes are old fashioned, hard to understand, and require so much effort to imagine, On the other hand, Engle argues that heroes are messianic-like and grow through cultural assimilation to become a mythical fantasy who protects and defends the universe.