Narrow road leads to life
All humans have once dreamed of becoming a hero and living a heroic life in the paradise they establish. Why do these heroes struggle and suffer on the troubled path with many hardships instead of doing something easily on a simple and plain path? Because in order to reach the heroic life, they must first learn to purge a few of their negative qualities. The heroes in Homer's Iliad and The Mission by Roland Joffe share similarities in their heroism and in their process of becoming established as a hero. In the Iliad, Achilles is a strong warrior who has ability to cope single-handedly with an infinite army of enemies; he values pride, honor, glory, and fame very highly. As his king Agamemnon takes Achilles' war prize Briseis away, Achilles develops a wrath and decides not to help the king with advice or action in the war, for he feels that Agamemnon has wholly deceived and beguiled [him]±(109). Briseis is not the reason for Achilles' ate, blindness; the feeling of disgrace and the insult to his pride, which torments his heart, is the true cause of his ate. Similar to Achilles, Rodrigo Mendoza in The Mission goes through the experience of his mistress leaving him for his brother. In a rush of anger, shame, dishonor, and jealousy,
The real heroism is not simply about death-defying feats but inspiring themselves to transform from old, selfish, immature, and merciless to become renewed, compassionate, and understanding to make a difference in the world. In order to rise up high, these two characters, who descended first and through the struggles, battles, and moral developments, came to become true heroes and establish to live a heroic life. Achilles, who used to fight for personal, selfish, and vengeful reasons, starts to see the bigger pictures and notices the significance of fighting for the better future. The Jesuit priest Father Gabriel, who is a different type of hero from Achilles or Mendoza, helps Mendoza all along through his journey of attaining forgiveness and rebirth. In The Mission, Mendoza drags a sack filled with his armor, breastplate, and sword, which are the symbols of his life as a mercenary, on the difficult route to the mission above the falls. Achilles now accepts King Agamemnon's offers to reconcile their alliance and prepares to join the battle. He still does not see that if others suffer, then he will also suffer. These two men are blinded by their wrath and hubris, unable to look beyond and seek the true definition of being a hero and unable to live a glorious life. Achilles serves Priam well with a nicely prepared supper and shows respect with his admiration of his noble face and speech±(294) and lastly returns the body of Hector, which symbolizes the old selfish, blind, wrathful Achilles--washed clean and covered with fragrant clothes back to Priam. In the Iliad, the transformation of Achilles becomes apparent when he receives his new shield from Hephaistos. Both characters, Achilles in the Iliad and Rodrigo Mendoza from The Mission, come to establish the real heroism. His new shield represents the earth, and the sky, and the sea, the untiring sun and the full moon, and all the stars that encircle the sky± (225), which all symbolize the better future and his new armor seems to lift him up in the air,±(235) but as he kills Hector and brings him to his camp, he drags him around his camp every night, which symbolizes Achilles' inability to give up his earlier immature, solitary, and merciless self in his deluded pursuit of the wrong definition of kleos, or glory. By the welcoming of the Indians, whom he has once persecuted, Mendoza is deeply and emotionally affected and takes vows to become a member of the Jesuit order. The image of Mendoza repeatedly falling, crawling, and carrying while covered in mud and sweat signify the resurrection as a new person.
Common topics in this essay:
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Acceptance Essays
