Heroes and Anti-Heroes

A detailed Summary of Heroes and Anti-Heroes

"Within hours of the terror attacks, they heard comparisons to that other deadly sneak attack, Pearl Harbor. The president grimly informed the nation we were at war. The nation had not seen a bloodier day on American soil, the commentators said, since the Civil War."

Were the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001, fate? To invoke the concept of fate or to have a fatalistic vision of experience is, simply put, to claim that the most important forces which create, shape, guide, reward, and afflict human life are out of human control. Is this true?

In most of the readings thus far fate has played an integral part. Do we, as humans, living on this earth really have control of our lives or the lives of those around us?

In Sophocles' play, as in other works we have read thus far, we encounter an obviously important notion, the role played by fate or the fates. The emphasis placed on these words (and personalities) gives the stories a vision of life which one could call a fatalistic quality. Another interesting factor is that these works also allude to the fact that something or someone is in control and because of this the universe does not operate by chance. In othe

We, in the United States, almost have adopted the mind set that we can control our own fate. We have tried to control the ecological balance, bacterial infections, weather, and because in some cases we have succeeded, we believe we are in control of our own fate or lives. It takes severe natural disasters or new outbreaks of lethal epidemics or the terror of the New York World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, to really begin to question ourselves, "Are we really in control of our own fate?"

The vision of fate in Oedipus is very mysterious and cruel. It seems to state that even the best of men and one who strives to live the best possible life, and finds out the truth of who he really is and what his life really amounts to will be horrified to learn the truth. Fate did not establish a reasonable promise with clear rules and a happy future as in Exodus, nor does fate offer a secure and valued life in the community as in Gilgamesh, nor is there any sense that Oedipus' fate is linked to some sin he has committed. Here fate punishes arbitrarily and mercilessly those who choose to confront the mystery.

The visions portrayed in Gilgamesh and in the Old Testament are controlled by non-human forces and personalities, albeit very different forces. In the Old Testament there is only one fatal figure, God, but in Gilgamesh, as in many of the Greek epics, there are numerous controlling figures. Gilgamesh had to realize that the gods live forever and humans must die. Although he was part god and part human, he was a mortal which meant he must die. From the story the following was taken:

God promises to reward his people or their descendants if they believe, He gives them all sorts of demonstrations of His power. He punishes those who break faith, but He does not determine their belief; they are free not to believe. Similarly in Gilgamesh, the hero goes through extensive hardships, etc., before he chooses to acc

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Approximate Word count = 1303
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English