Heroes: winners or losers?

In my French Civilization class yesterday, the professor brought up the subject of French heroes. So think along the lines of Joan of Arc, Vercingetorix, and Roland (if you don't know who the last two are don't worry; they are not well known outside France). We then discussed the character traits of these heroes. Basically, they lost. They were the losers. BUT, and here is what matters to the French, they lost with style. To use a very French word, they lost with "panache". Let me give an example.

According to legend, when Vercingetorix surrendered to Caesar (I KNOW you know who Caesar was), Caesar ordered the French king to drop his weapons. Now the way one says "drop your weapons" in the language of the time is a bit different than what it sounds like in English; a more direct translation would be "lay down your articles/things/stuff". So what did Vercingetorix do? He laid down his articles/things/stuff. He dropped his weapons, took off his hat, took off his coat, kicked off his shoes, and stripped off his trousers until he was completely naked. Thus, one of the earliest French heroes surrendered to one of the most powerful rulers in history WHILE COMPLETELY NUDE. Vercingetorix definitely lost, but he arguably had the last laugh.

That, friends, is a French idea of heroism.

So what would an American hero look like? Of course the subject is complex, but one might consider Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, maybe George Washington... ahhh help me out it's Friday and I'm tired and what other American heros do you know of? But anyway key characteristics are immediately evident: hard-working, honest, individualistic, often lower-class, emphasis on physical rather than mental prowess. An American hero nearly always wins, but he definitely does not need to be elegant or refined; in fact it almost seems as though grittier is better when it comes to being an American hero.

As a bit of a side note, someone once told me (mom? my uncle? a teacher?) that Russian heroes often commit suicide. So that means little Russian children grow up reading fairytales in which the hero of the story kills himself...I am definitely not a Russian scholar so I cannot confirm this, but how fascinatingly terrifying is that??

To get to the meat of this blog post, I am now interested in the way that cultural norms get formed. My professor told us that one can arguably still see the French idea of heroism today in the behavior of sports teams. What she meant was basically that for a French sportsman, what is important is that one plays well; winning really does not matter. For an American, on the other hand, winning is all that matters. Voila! Culture differences.

So, now that we know different ideas of heroism exist all over the world, how can we tell which one is correct....?

Till next time!