A New Hero: The Changing Archetypes
John Ink2Quill
www.ink2quill.com

The hero has so many facets. Sometimes heroes are not obvious. They are not out in the open like in the case of the knight setting out to kill the dragon. You can call heroes, those characters that grab our attention and even move us, interest us and pull us into a story. Courage, cleverness, intelligence, forethought and even good looks are often the ways we describe heroes. Heroes exist across all art forms and in real life. That is where most heroes exist, in my opinion, real life that is. The soldier defending his/her country, the pedestrian pulling someone away from oncoming traffic, someone sweeping the sidewalks of neighbors who are away or too old to do so themselves, the devoted teacher and firefighters of the world – they are all heroes.

There are soooo many examples of probably the most famous and prevalent hero in the galaxy. The good Samaritan. If we talk about heroes then we need to talk about the good Samaritan. That person who does a good deed because it had to be done without any thought to the price. Volunteers are a beautiful species of the good Samaritan. They show up and offer their time and skills because something needs doing. Whether it’s feeding the homeless, teaching English to adults to those newly arrived to our country, as I have done. We can all be heroes and I believe most of us are, at least once in our lives.

Anyway, I’m just rambling. Let’s take a look at the hero or more precisely the next generation of heroes because storytelling, Hollywood and such are changing. Think about it. 80 years ago the hero was a knight saving the damsel from dragons and evil lords. Nowadays the spectrum of what is a hero has broadened across all kinds of people in all kinds cultures. It can be a scientist of any skin color, a billionaire, pauper, or even someone in a far off galaxy.

That’s all well and good but what will the new hero be like? That should be the new quest for storytellers today. And I think that the result of that quest will result in some amazing stories.

Otherwise, I’m just rambling.

John Ink2Quill

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