9th Grade Homework:
Write a paragraph on a 'modern-day' hero. The hero can be someone you know, or whom you have heard of via the news or the Internet. When all else fails you can Google "Modern Day Heroes"
Here is my hero, Amy Hawkins.
Getting to the theme for today, there are strong differences between Greek heroes and what 'we' consider to be 'real-life' heroes. As my classes pointed out, sacrifice is a key quality for the 'modern day' hero. In Amy's case, she sacrificed her safety to protect her children from the house falling on top of them. When a F4 tornado hit their home, Amy rushed her children to the basement and used her body to shield them from the falling rubble of her house.
Greek heroes are almost always on a quest that will solve a problem they are dealing with. More often than not, these problems revolve around displeasing the Gods in some way. Hence, the Greek hero is on a mission that is self-motivated rather than a mission to help someone else.
Now the story of Hercules, If you did not get an opportunity to see it in class please watch it and take notice of the 12 deeds and the symbolism of them. This movie is 44 minutes long.