How do we define the personality traits of a hero?

1. How do we define the personality traits of a hero? Everyone may characterize a hero differently. Psychologist Frank Farley defines a hero’s personality traits through what he calls his “5-D model of greatness”. “These five “D’s” help explain what makes a hero, where they come from, and why they’re so important.” (How to be great! | Psychology Today) The first D in the list of five stands for determinants. These are six traits which Farley believes define the heroic essence. However, not every hero has all of these traits. The determinants are courage and strength, honesty, being kind, loving, and generous, having skill, expertise, and intelligence, risk-taking, and objects of affection. (How to be great! | Psychology Today) Even in the personality of a political leader certain heroic traits are needed, such as rationality, authoritativeness, adventurousness, and inspiration. “Inspiration is possible to define as set of actions directed on achievement of the overall objective having, in opinion of the leader, especially important value for the well-being of people.” (Political Leaders)

2. How do the setting, conflicts, and antagonists influence the development of literary heroes? • A way to explain the influence of all these things would be to look at the hero’s journey. “The Hero’s Journey is a pattern of narrative identified by the American scholar Joseph Campbell that appears in drama, storytelling, myth, religious ritual, and psychological development.  It describes the typical adventure of the archetype known as The Hero, the person who goes out and achieves great deeds on behalf of the group, tribe, or civilization. • Its stages are: • 1.        THE ORDINARY WORLD.  The hero, uneasy, uncomfortable or unaware, is introduced sympathetically so the audience can identify with the situation or dilemma.  The hero is shown against a background of environment, heredity, and personal history.  Some kind of polarity in the hero’s life is pulling in different directions and causing stress. • 2.        THE CALL TO ADVENTURE.  Something shakes up the situation, either from external pressures or from something rising up from deep within, so the hero must face the beginnings of change.  • 3.        REFUSAL OF THE CALL.  The hero feels the fear of the unknown and tries to turn away from the adventure, however briefly.  Alternately, another character may express the uncertainty and danger ahead. • 4.        MEETING WITH THE MENTOR.  The hero comes across a seasoned traveler of the worlds who gives him or her training, equipment, or advice that will help on the journey.  Or the hero reaches within to a source of courage and wisdom. • 5.        CROSSING THE THRESHOLD.  At the end of Act One, the hero commits to leaving the Ordinary World and entering a new region or condition with unfamiliar rules and values.  • 6.        TESTS, ALLIES AND ENEMIES.  The hero is tested and sorts out allegiances in the Special World. • 7.        APPROACH.  The hero and newfound allies prepare for the major challenge in the Special world. • 8.        THE ORDEAL.  Near the middle of the story, the hero enters a central space in the Special World and confronts death or faces his or her greatest fear.  Out of the moment of death comes a new life.  • 9.        THE REWARD.  The hero takes possession of the treasure won by facing death.  There may be celebration, but there is also danger of losing the treasure again. • 10.      THE ROAD BACK.  About three-fourths of the way through the story, the hero is driven to complete the adventure, leaving the Special World to be sure the treasure is brought home.  Often a chase scene signals the urgency and danger of the mission. • 11.     THE RESURRECTION.  At the climax, the hero is severely tested once more on the threshold of home.  He or she is purified by a last sacrifice, another moment of death and rebirth, but on a higher and more complete level.  By the hero’s action, the polarities that were in conflict at the beginning are finally resolved. • 12.       RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR.  The hero returns home or continues the journey, bearing some element of the treasure that has the power to transform the world as the hero has been transformed.” (hero's journey)

3. Cont. A past hero can also potentially influence a hero, for instance, Martin Luther King jr. was heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi after hearing a lecture about him and his methods, and then reading several books on his ideas. He used these ideas in his protests for racial equality. (Martin Luther King : Biography)

4. How does a hero reflect his/her particular culture and society? • “In works of literature, a hero is a man to be admired and emulated. For this reason, the hero always demonstrates the embodiment of the ideals of the creating culture. Historical events and social conditions of different cultures cause different attributes to become valued in leaders. These cultural values are reflected in both the actions of a hero and in the heroic motivations.” (Belen Lowrey) • Elie Wiesel specifically reflected the strength of his culture when he not only survived the camps, but when “During an interview with the distinguished French writer, Francois Mauriac, he was persuaded to write about his experiences in the death camps. The result was his internationally acclaimed memoir, Night (La Nuit), which has since been translated into more than thirty languages.” (The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity)

5. How does a hero represent his/her time period and geographical area? • “When the Boer War exploded in 1899, Gandhi's sympathy lay with the Boers, but he remained loyal to the British. He felt that since he demanded rights as a British subject he was obliged to participate in the war on behalf of the Empire.” (Biography of Gandhi) • “The idea of nonviolent protest, for example, must seem quaint --if not downright irrelevant--to today's kids, who turn on the TV and see the world being changed through violence. ‘If you talk about nonviolent protest being a viable alternative, they're not going to understand it,’ Farley explains. ‘But if you embed it in the life of Gandhi, all of a sudden you see the lights coming on: This little man brought the British empire to its knees.’” (How to be great! | Psychology Today)

6. How do various cultures reward or recognize their heroes? • Sometimes, a non-profit organization may be set up to recognize or reward a hero/heroes. “The First Responder Institute is a non-profit company that has created complimentary awards to honor the service and heroism of first responders.” (Honoring Heroes) • Some cultures build statues or monuments of their heroes as a memorial, like the holocaust memorial in Florida. (Holocaust Memorial)

7. Elie would eventually meet with a man known as the "angel of death" in one of the camps he was sent to. Who was this man, what did he do specifically in the Nazi Regime, and what was his impact on Elie? • The Angel of death was a nickname given to one Josef Mengele. Josef was an SS physician that became famous for his inhumane medical experiments that he performed on the prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Mengele was one of the 30 physicians that served at Auschwitz starting in 1943. He was originally assigned to the gypsy camp, but then that camp was liquefied. Mengele would be known most for his duty during the selection process, in which the Nazi’s would decide who lived, and who died in the chamber. However, Mengele would also search for twins during this selection in order to perform medical experiments to discover the origin of some diseases. (Josef Mengele) • In his book “Night”, which told what he went through in the camps, Elie was absolutely terrified of Mengele, and was terrified of what he was going to do to him, and when he thought he was going to the crematorium he almost killed himself. “ ‘father’ I said ‘if that is true, then I don’t want to wait. I’ll run into the electrified barbed wire. That would be easier than a slow death in the flames.’” (Wiesel)

8. What was the significance of the cattle cars, and what specifically happened in them when Elie was inside one? How did this change Elie's thoughts? • The cattle cars were used to transport prisoners to the various camps. These cars were over filled with people, and many died from diseases, or even being trampled or killed for food. (PHI_DEPORTATIONS_JOURNEY_UU) • On his journey to Birkenau, a woman names Mrs. Schachter began to yell each night about the flames she saw, and would be beaten for it until she stopped talking. It was once they arrived at camp that they realized that she wasn’t crazy. “’Look at the fire! Look at the flames! Flames everywhere…’ once again the young men bound and gagged her. When they actually struck her people shouted their approval…she received several blows to the head, blows that could have been lethal.” (Wiesel)

9. At the beginning of the book,Elie is very religious. How does this change over the course of the novel in relation to the events that happen around him? What events specifically seem to impact him and his thoughts on god? • Throughout his time in the camps, Elie begins to question god and even begins to despise him. “Blessed be God’s name? why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled. Because He caused thousands of children to burn in his mass graves? …how could I say to Him: blessed be thou, almighty, master of the universe” (Wiesel) • “In the hospital at Auschwitz, Wiesel met a man consumed with this kind of despair. He said, ``I've got more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He's the only one who's kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.'' All around Wiesel, the number of faithful were dropping. As hard as they tried to hold on, Wiesel's people were finding it hard to believe in God and what He was allowing to happen.” (Elie Wiesel's Relationship with God)

10. Elie's only real tie to his family is his father. What relationship do the two of them share, and how do they affect one another's choices? • They are all they have left of the family inside their camps. “His mother and younger sister perished, his two older sisters survived. Elie and his father were later transported to Buchenwald” (The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity) • Elie wanted to spare his father any pain, so he gave what he needed to in order to spare him. “…my father did not make sufficient progress, and the blows continued to rain on him…it was untenable. We had to give in…” (Wiesel)

11. When Elie first arrives in the camp, a number is tattooed on his arm. What does this number represent to those who were branded with it, and what is the psychological impact of this brand? • Tattoos were given to prisoners that came to the Auschwitz camp, and were used as a means of identification. Prisoners no longer had names aside from these numbers, unless the prisoner was sentenced to the gas chamber, in which case they received no tattoo. (Tattoos and Numbers:The System of Identifying Prisoners at Auschwitz) • Elie received the tattoo and deemed that was his identity . “The three veteran prisoners, needles in hand, tattooed numbers on our left arms. I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name.” (Wiesel)

12. Works Cited • Hartman, Laura Gabel. "Elie Wiesel." Research Guide To Biography & Criticism 6.(1991): 820-825. Book Collection: Nonfiction. Web. 10 Feb. 2012. • Gottfried, Ted. "The Death Camps." Nazi Germany (2000): 94. Book Collection: Nonfiction. Web. 10 Feb. 2012 • "Elie(Zer) Wiesel." Hutchinson's Biography Database (2011): 1. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 10 Feb. 2012. • "Mengele, Josef." Britannica Biographies (2011): 1. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 10 Feb. 2012 • "The AUSCHWITZ ALBUM; STORY OF A DEATH FACTORY." USA Today Magazine 134.2730 (2006): 28. MAS Ultra - School Edition. Web. 10 Feb. 2012. • " The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity." The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2012. <http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org/>. • "Bibliographies." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2012. <http://www.ushmm.org/research/library/bibliography/?lang=en&content=psychological>. • "Josef Mengele." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2012. <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007060>. • "Nazi Camps." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2012. <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005144>. • "Tattoos and Numbers: The System of Identifying Prisoners at Auschwitz." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2012. <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007056>. • "How to be great! | Psychology Today." Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness + Find a Therapist. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2012. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199511/how-be-great>. • assistants, ministers, those, and in turn. "Political Leaders." HumanMetrics - online relationships, personality and entrepreneur tests, personal solution center. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2012. <http://www.humanmetrics.com/rot/politicalsuccess/politicalleaders.htm>. • stories, this time many. "hero's journey." Storytech Literary Consulting. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2012. <http://www.thewritersjourney.com/hero's_journey.htm>. • Lowrey, Belen. "The Hero as a Reflection of Culture." www.palmbeachstate.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2012. <www.palmbeachstate.edu/Documents/Honors/BelenLowrey.pdf>.

13. cont • "PHI_DEPORTATIONS_JOURNEY_UU." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2012. <http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/phistories/phi_deportations_journey_uu.htm>. • Wiesel, Elie. Night. Bantam ed. New York: Bantam Books, 1982. Print. • Lawson, acting under the orders from J. Edgar Hoover”. Whereas James. "Martin Luther King : Biography." Spartacus Educational. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Feb. 2012. <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAkingML.htm>. • " The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity." The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2012. <http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org/el • " Honoring Heroes." Honoring Heroes. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2012. <http://www.honoringheroes.com/>. • Douglas, Robert E., and Jr.. "Elie Wiesel's Relationship with God." Space Telescope Science Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2012. <http://www.stsci.edu/~rdouglas/publications • "Holocaust Memorial." Holocaust Memorial. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2012. <http://www.holocaustmmb.org/>. • "Biography of Gandhi." The Progress Report -- Independent Daily News. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Mar. 2012. <http://www.progress.org/gandhi/gandhi05.htm>.  • MLA formatting by BibMe.org.