Member-only story
The Allure Of The Hero
How we compensate for the smallness of our own lives by taking refuge in tales of those who walk alone.
From Gilgamesh to Hercules and from David to King Arthur, our tales are rarely short of heroes. Today we’ve largely abandoned John Wayne and Arnold Schwarzenegger to revel in the stories of CGI-enhanced characters who wear lurid costumes and perform stunts that defy the laws of physics.
As befits our supposedly egalitarian age, women have been co-opted and no action movie is now complete without its stock Feisty Girl character who is nothing more than Arnold or Jean-Claude wrapped in an alluring female body.
Our tales are very often compensation mechanisms we use to escape from the claustrophobia and predictability of our own lives. Because we rely absolutely on groups for our survival, we idolize the lone individual. Because we’re generally fat, flabby, and helpless, we idolize the strong and seemingly invulnerable hero who can absorb any amount of punishment (on-screen, at least….) and come out on top after breaking arms, smashing jaws, and shooting everyone around.
This much is obvious. What’s less obvious however is the other appeal of heroes: they know who they are.
A great many of us wander through life fundamentally unsure of ourselves. We adapt to the situation we find ourselves in, we…
