Heroism In Japanese Literary Works

Heroism

True heroism is considered remarkably undramatic, and sober. Heroism is not thecompelling desire to surpass everyone at whatever cost, but it is the urge to give service to others at whatever cost.

Who is a hero?

A hero is that individual who transforms self-virtue of compassion into heroic action (a civic virtue). They therefore put their best selves onward in service to the humanity. Then definition given by the Heroic Imagination Project states that a hero is an individual or a network of individuals that take action on behalf of other people in need, or in defense of moral cause or integrity.

Furthermore,the Oxford English dictionary gives definition of a hero as a person, typically a man, who is admired for his outstanding achievements, courage, or noble qualities. The history of mankind and the entire world literature have been rife with such personalities, with a good number of them adored, revered and admired by typically the entire human race (Raglan, 2003).

The four major attributes of heroic action include:

  • Conducted in service to the community, a group people or just even to an individual.
  • Engaged in voluntarily.
  • Initiated without any expectations of material gain.
  • Entails a risk to social stature, physical comfort, or quality of life.

Qualities of an ideal hero

The question on what are the essential qualities making a person hero may be kind of a challenging one. Different individuals have different heroes whom they look up to or kind of try to emulate. However, whoever these personalities are; film stars, sport stars, politicians, businessman or social activists, they all do possess specific qualities which distinguishes them from the commoners.

Courage

The attribute of courage becomes the number one quality a hero do possess. A hero usually overcomes his fears and then confronts the challenge head on. Not even the slightest tinge of fear should linger in the heart of a hero.

Honesty

In every endeavors a hero takes up, honesty becomes the building block of all the efforts. This earns him respect from others and helps him lead his followers to a desirable outcome.

Sacrifice

Sacrifice is among the qualities which stands to be unique from all the other virtues making a hero noble upon his deeds (Warner, 2000). He/ she is ever quite willing to cast off personal comfort and predilections whenever they become indispensable for greater cause or possibly for the welfare of others.

Virtuosity

Virtuosity becomes the key aspect of a hero’s character. A hero will never be foolishly audacious. He is always judicious and highly skilled to cease and cite the opportunities, which present themselves on the way towards where he is destined to. Such a person laden with all the essential faculties, which are highly instrumental to accomplish whatever he seeks.

Courage

The attribute of courage becomes the number one quality a hero do possess

Compassion

The attributes of empathy, benevolence and a show of great deal of tenderness and compassionis always depicted from a hero. A hero keeps aside thoughts that are self-oriented and embrace an attitude of serving others (Berndt & Steveker, 2011).

Patterns to heroism lauded by the pre-modern Japanese literal works

This section of this paper aims at achieving how the Japanese classical heroism upholds a wider frame of the world literatures on the onset of the world categorizations, like that of vernacular language and court literature. The works in the context to heroism would encompasses samurai films, impurity and law, violence and heroism and even war and manhood

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