In Which Christopher Columbus is Concerned

I was reading an article on Christopher Columbus, or, more accurately, Columbus Day and the representation of Columbus throughout different schools. Some schools are still teaching the wonderful, romanticized

"Columbus discovered America in 1492
With three small ships and a very brave crew,
He found this land for me and you!

Columbus discovered America in 1492
With the Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria
He found this land for me and you!"

(What I was taught in kindergarten). But other schools are teaching the definitely darker side of Columbus. The diseases. The stealing of gold. The marauding of resources. The like. In fact, one school even held Columbus on "trial," and he was condemned to life in prison.

I found it interesting. The last line of the article, a quote from Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, sums it up justly:

"Heroism and villainy are just two sides of the same coin."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33266425/ns/us_news-education//

In Which Sheroes are Concerned

I have been reading an anthology on Girls in myths around the world and will probably add various other posts related to this:

I noticed that many of the girls (sheroes) prevail not in physically awesome deeds like Hercules (although some do), most are instead heroic due to their persistence and wit and ability to learn.

Many of us became aware of the "original" version of Little Red Riding Hood in American Literature (The cute little fairy tale became a story to keep girls from sleeping with strange men). Yet, even that version is not the most original. The oldest the editor could find had what we were told, but more. In the end, Little Red Riding Hood is traveling yet again to her Grandmother's when a wolf attempts to stop her. She keeps going to her Grandmother's house, where she tells her Grandmother about the wolf. They prepare themselves with an axe and other weapons. When the Wolf arrives, they kill him themselves. The girls learn from their first experience and save themselves the second time.

There are many stories of the sheroe finding herself in an unenviable position and using her brain and wit to get out of the situation, and often finds herself in a better place than when she started.

Thus, it leaves one to wonder...are the qualities of a HERO different from a SHEROE? Are they different because of perceived differences? or do they hold true in life. That due to actual differences between men and women, they use what comes naturally to them to do what must be done?

In Which a Free Reading Book Shall be Attempted to be Analyzed

I recently read Impossible by Nancy Werlin. In short (hopefully) it is about a girl who lives with a foster family due to her crazy/mad mother. Lucy Scarborough goes to prom for the first time and is date raped (very out of character of her boyfriend who promptly commits suicide). Her best friend from childhood, Zach, comes to live with her and her family for the summer. They find out through her mother's (the mad one) diaries that it is a family curse for the girl to become pregnant at 18 (or 17), and upon the birth of her child (always a daughter), they go mad. The only way to stop this cycle is to perform the tasks in the "Scarborough Fair" song, including making a seamless shirt, finding an acre of land between the salt and the sea, plowing it with a goats horn and sowing it with a single grain of sand. The curse was implemented due to unrequited love by the "Elfin Knight" who also constantly thwarts any attempt to break it. Throughout the book Lucy and Zach (who fall in love and end up getting married half way through) and her family attempt to figure out how to break the curse before her daughter is born.

There appears to be many different types of heroes/sheroes within Impossible. There are the failed sheroes, the previous generations of Scarborough Girls. Lucy's foster parents are strong and end up helping to make a seamless shirt (home made felt on a dummy). There is also Lucy, the main sheroe, and Zach, the main hero.

Werlin emphasizes the importance of working together-the us rather than me. The previous girls did not have the support Lucy had and tended to be on their own attempting the "impossible" tasks, beginning the theory of madness and weak minds, which carried through the generations. However, Lucy is able to succeed with the help of her family, friends, and Zach.

Thus, there appears to be no one, individual hero, but rather a group that together creates and embodies the hero.

Does this imply then, that our society values the team rather than the individual accomplishment? We prefer to honor many rather than one? Or is it that we do not have confidence in the individual?

Ohh! Is it that when we do have confidence in the individual, we ask too much of them, and they fail, like the Scarborough girls did. That modern hero-requiring-acts-of-awesomeness actually require many to be completed?

Hmm...