Permanence

Over the summer, I went to Poland to visit my family. As usual, my mother and I stopped at my grandmother’s grave; but this time we also stopped at my grandfather’s grave who died a few months ago. His death had seemed fake. Even when I saw his grave I was not convinced that he was truly gone. Even now, months later, I feel like he is still alive, going about his everyday business. I am not sure if my mind is playing tricks with me, or if in fact he is still alive just not physically. Is that immortality that I feel that my grandfather is around, even though I know where he is buried? The answer lies in humanity’s inability to cope with the concept of mortality.

Humanity has known for millennia that we cannot avoid our deaths. We know that eventually life will move on without us in it. However, most people feel rushed in life, that they cannot fit everything into one lifetime. So it should not be shocking that the “Fountain of Youth” or the “Resurrecting Stone” have found their way into literature and society. Most of this anxiety comes from an inability to predict the future. “When the Anunnaki, the judges, come together, and Mammetun the mother of destines, together they decree the fates of men. Life and death they allot but the day of death they do not disclose” (107). Not knowing when we will die is probably the single factor that keeps us going everyday. Instinctively, a human’s primary goal is survival. But if we all know we will die, why fight to remain alive? Why not simply jump off a bridge? The answer is quite simple. We want to leave a lasting impression on those around us. We want families and friends who will remember us and carry on our ideas for generations.

Utnapishtim told Gilgamesh, “There is no permanence” (106). Certainly life is constantly changing; however, to some degree, I must disagree with Utnapishtim. There is some everlasting characteristic to every life. Throughout the misery and the hate on the earth, humans still have love and hope which are traits that have been passed down for centuries and will continue to be passed down. These ideas are permanent. We find this similar concept in the myth of Pandora’s Box. When Pandora opened the box evils and plagues were released upon the humans; however hope remained in the box comforting humans in their misery.

I asked my grandmother once if she was afraid to die. I expected her to talk about heaven and how she will have eternal life with God. I had become so used to the church’s teachings that I should do good on Earth while I am alive so that I can go to heaven. In response to these teachings, humans have developed natural laws, which condemn killing and lying. But my grandmother responded differently. She told me that she will die but not in the hearts of those around her. Cliche, I thought. Then she continued by saying, “I am influenced by my mother, who was influenced by her parents; I have had the wonderful opportunity to raise two daughters who I have influenced, and my daughters influenced their own daughters. The chain is everlasting. I am not afraid to die, because I have done everything that I wanted to do in my life and know that the future generations after me will have a little bit of my life in them .” And it made sense; my grandmother’s meaning of life is to influence her family by means of her love. Generally, in the end, we simply want to be remembered for what we did. And only that individual can decide how they will be remembered when they die.

Humans find eternal life in the lives of the new generation, somewhat like a chain reaction. One person has an idea which influences a person and that idea branches out causing an eternal chain reaction. “The destiny was fulfilled which the father of the gods…had decreed for Gilgamesh: ‘…None will leave a monument for generations to come to compare with his (118).’”Gilgamesh, illustrates this idea that a life can be immortal not physically but conceptually due to his actions. Gilgamesh has eternal life; millennia after the story was written down, humans are still reading about his adventures and quests.

Thinking About the Hero

Epic works consist of a series of events in which there are adventures and struggles. Usually the struggle involves an evil. Whether that evil is Darth Vadar or racism, the protagonist in epic works usually thwarts this evil. Thus many people would make the assumption that a protagonist is a savior, a hero. When classifying a hero, one must take into considerations the intentions of the protagonist. When Huckleberry Finn lied to the bounty hunters, was that a heroic action? Did he protect Jim because he wanted a father figure, or did he see the humanitarian cause? As in most situations there are grey areas. It is up to the reader to decide who she wants to consider a hero based on her own values.

Still, most people will agree that Superman, Spiderman and Wonder Woman are all heroes because they dedicate their lives to fighting crime and villains. Most people will agree that 9/11 firefighters are heroes because they risked their lives trying to save people. But do most people consider a doctor who works in the Emergency Room a hero, or is he simply doing his job? Some may think that he is an average person. That he did not do anything extraordinary he just decided to earn his living by curing and helping others. But to those who were saved by that doctor he meets all standards as a hero. There must be different definitions of heroes. But all heroes share a common trait they put others before themselves and have a willingness to sacrifice their life or time for a better cause. In essence, anybody can be a hero. However, everybody cannot be a hero because then the definition of a hero would change to “an ordinary person”.

Becoming a hero requires a mixture of fate and fortune also known as “the right place at the right time.” Superman could not be considered a hero if he was not put in dangerous situations where he could help others. In addition, a hero has to first know the risks involved in helping that person, and then act accordinbly to help that person. But the presence of the media affects the average person’s interpretation of who deserves to be hero. The media defines what actions are heroic, often neglecting the people behind the scenes who produced the hero. In such a way, women, as heroines, have been forgotten throughout history. In the earliest literature, stories of war were the most common. In these stories, men often shouted, “save the women and the children” whenever men were attacked by an enemy. And rightly so, women were the link to maintaining the population and children were the future generation. In such a battle, the men courageously fought other men. By the end of the battle, a few men were considered heroes for killing the most enemy men and helping keep their families safe. Under old definitoins of a hero as a warrior, women had no chance to obtain such a title. Instead women would be home raising her children, educating them, and passing down traditions, while their husbands were away. Because of their absense from battle, they could never considered as heroines. One exception is Joan of Arc, who rode into battle disguised as a man. She was considered a heroine and was later deemed a Saint by the Roman Catholic Church, but she needed to alter her appearance to be considered on the same level as men. Traced back since the beginning of warfare, the belief that men are heroes has been engraved in modern society.

The definition of a “hero” has changed since World War Two. Up until that war heroes who courageously fought and died for their country disappeared with the emergence of technical warfare. If the idea that a hero had to kill the most amount of enemy people for the security of his country, then the nuclear physicist who developed the atomic bomb or the person with the most powerful machine gun would be a hero. However those people are not necessarily heroes. In their place a new line of heroes emerged. Now people who save the most amount of lives, such as the firefighters on 9/11 and the doctor in the Emergency Room are considered heroes.

The perception of a hero has changed relatively recently, as more people are beginning to consider peace-keepers and teachers in Third World countires as heroes. The new type of heroes are a product of the current environment. In a society full of injustice and struggle over material goods, heroes conduct themselves in ways to be just and caring. Whether that hero is Spiderman or Al Gore, everybody needs a hero to keep in check their virtues and to aspire to become a better person. Heroes encourage others to overcome their obstacles and persevere. Without heroes, there would be little incentive to do good in the world. Most people would stop and stare in a crisis; they would not take the initiative to take action. But there will never be a world without heroes, because humans will always need to have somebody to look up to. As Bertold Brecht said, “Unhappy the land that needs heroes,” humans will find a hero in all the crevices of the earth. To some people a dictator who brought order to a country can be considered a hero, while to others that dictator limited freedoms; therefore, he is a tyrant. The debate between the definition of a terrorist and a martyr perfectly parallels a villain and a hero.