Heroes Essay

I'd really appreciate someone reading this and offering their opinion or pointing out any flaws. This is for a grade for school and I have to read it to the class.

Devon {Last Name}

9^th Grade Honors English Teachers

9^th Grade Honors English

19 July 2012

 

What is a hero? Perhaps you think of Spider-Man hanging from a web in a darkened alleyway, ready to swing down and defend an innocent civilian from a criminal up to no good. Maybe the image of a man in uniform, proudly standing in front of his country’s flag comes to mind. You might even think of your mother or father. Dictionary.com defines a hero as, “a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal”. A hero isn’t one solitary thing. A hero is a flexible label, able to fit different types of people standing for and against different types of things " making for different kinds of heroes. In the novels Left for Dead: A Young Man’s Search for the Justice of the USS Indianapolis and Out of My Mind, I’ve discovered two very different heroes.

While reading Left for Dead: A Young Man’s Search for the Justice of the USS Indianapolis, I came upon many heroic deeds acted out by the men of the Indy. I believe that all of those men, the survivors and those who went down with the ship, are heroes that fought for our freedom and deserved to be recognized as nothing less than that. However, one man in particular’s courageous and heroic actions stood out to me more than the others. Whenever I think of a hero, I think of someone who shows courage in the face of adversity, no matter the importance or the kind of hardship they are facing. And Charles Butler McVay III did just that.

In the novel, Pete Nelson talks about a point in time when the men are in the water. Nelson says, through the view points of Harlan Twible and Jack Miner, some men were rebelling against their higher ranked officers " even threatening to violently harm them (83). McVay knew how dangerous it would be to continue to act as a leader during such a catastrophic time. He was well aware that when men are at their lowest points, they will sometimes do highly unreasonable things, but that didn’t stop him from taking charge in his relatively small cluster of ten men and four life rafts. He did little things like organize watches, counted up their few provisions, and created rations to last them a few days. It wasn’t much, but it showed a bit of control when there was nothing but pandemonium. In spite of the fact that his leadership could have ended in him losing the trust of his men or even being injured by them, he stood up and did all he could to help out.

One of the main stories Left for Dead tells is that of the injustice Captain McVay faced when he was wrongfully court-martialed and essentially blamed by families of the dead for the sinking of his ship and the loss of his crew. Throughout his whole trial, even when he was sentenced to a court-martial, he never put the blame on anyone else. He respectively tried to defend his own actions, but not once did he try to use someone else as a scapegoat, even though all 114 remaining survivors said “their captain had been made a scapegoat” himself (Scott xvi). He could have done what the Navy had done to him and tried to push all the responsibility for the losses on someone else’s shoulders, but instead he took what was wrongly given to him and tried to plead for his innocence without hurting anyone else’s image. McVay walked into a courtroom full of men waiting to accuse him to save their own skin as a man of honor, dignity, and respectfulness for others. He left that courtroom never being untrue to himself. And that, to me, shows heroic and courageous character.

I believe most, if not all, people share the same view as me that the men and women who fight or have fought for our country are heroes. Their willingness to stand for those who cannot and to protect the rights we all enjoy in spite of danger shows obvious acts of heroism. It’s as simple as that. Charles Butler McVay III was no exception to this. During his time in the navy, McVay contributed greatly to the war by participating in ten campaigns of the second World War, delivering the first atomic bomb, and training new officers and crew aboard his ship, the USS Indianapolis (Nelson 23-27, 31, 38). He was a hero just for simply serving his country.

In Sharon Draper’s novel, Out of My Mind, I found a different kind of hero in Melody’s mother, Diane. Her uniform wasn’t camouflage, nor was it ornamented with medals to honor her bravery. The only thing decorating her scrubs was the occasional food stain or two from daughters’ breakfasts. She may not have fought for her country and its people but she did fight incredibly hard for her daughter. She did everything possible to give Melody’s life great quality in spite of her cerebral palsy diagnosis.

Mrs. Brooks believed in Melody and stood up for her no matter what anyone did or said. Melody was a very intelligent girl, but nobody knew until she found a way to communicate with others. Nobody really knew except for Melody’s mother, that is. She always thought Melody was a brilliant child, even saying that Melody “...has a spark... a flame of real intelligence” (Draper 23). She always stepped up and voiced her opinion, protecting her daughter to her best ability, even if that meant butting heads with someone who was supposedly more intelligent and well learned than her. Once she told a doctor who suggested Melody was mentally impaired that he wasn’t smart, but just lucky, and that Melody had more brains in her head than he could ever ask for (Draper 26). Her courage to stand up for someone she loved that could not stand up herself was a very heroic thing in my eyes.

While reading Out of My Mind, we’re shown the difficulties of having a serious illness or a child with a serious illness. In many ways, she had to change how she lived to accommodate living with Melody’s disease. I can only imagine how tough life must have been for Mrs. Brooks. At one point in the Draper’s book, she says, “With two kids, and one of them Melody, it’s not easy”, expressing her struggles (76). There were days when she would come home and cry to her husband about how difficult things were. There was days, I’m sure, when she probably felt like giving up. But she never gave up. She went through life, kept a smile on her face at the end of the day, and managed to always surpass the challenges she faced because she loved her daughter. She found the audacity to look life in the eye and face everything it threw at with a brave face.

The word ‘hero’ is like rubber in a person’s hands. You can stretch it to fit any kind of person who does any kind of heroic thing. But at the end of the day, a hero is someone who we look up to " someone who stands tall and strong among those who fall weak to their knees. In the novels Left for Dead: A Young Man’s Search for Justice for the USS Indianapolis and Out of My Mind, I was presented with an array of characters that showed heroic actions and were courageous in their own ways. Two characters in particular stood out to me, though. I felt the word ‘hero’ did not stretch to define Charles Butler McVay III and Diane Brooks. Instead, these two characters are simply the definition of a hero. 

Author's Note

I'd really appreciate someone reading this and offering their opinion or pointing out any flaws. This is for a grade for school and I have to read it to the class.

Thanks so much!

Reviews

[Mir]

You are such a talented writer! :D It was very good!

[devon]

Thank you, Randa! So are you, babe!

[Coyote Poetry]

You did very well with this essay. You wrote on a hard subject. I like the way you described each situation and made your point. I like the complete essay. A strong conclusion to a excellent essay.
Coyote

[devon]

Thank you so much!

[Irishbabies]

It's really good better than my writing!! :)

[devon]

Thank you! I hope my teacher likes it. :P

[Irishbabies]

Your welcome I know she will