Anyone who conforms to the ideals of his particular society is a hero. If I was a beautiful busty blond who loved puppies and saved people from imminent death, in today's society, I would generally be considered a hero. Huck, is a modern hero, and although he wasn't an ideal person in his particular environment, the reader finds him to be near his or her own moral ideal, so the reader recognizes Huck as a hero. Odysseus is a classical hero, for he conforms to the very different social standards of ancient Greece but, since modern society shares so many ideals with Greek culture, the modern reader can still appreciate him as a heroic figure.
             The classical hero and the modern hero are near opposite, but both are often identified as heroes in today's society, even though the stories themselves are quite similar. Since the cultures were so varied, the heroes were too. The entire epic of the Odyssey was based upon the need for Odysseus to gain hubris, the Greek social ideal, and Odysseus himself was brave, fought external conflicts, and restored order. Huck rejected community values for the greater moral good. The modern hero being an underdog of sorts, he needed to battle internal conflicts, face less monsters and more people. The stories, as far as plot go, were very alike, as far as use of water, and traveling adventures. In both, the hero wandered from place to place by a water vehicle, in both, that water vehicle was destroyed at some point, in both, the hero restores some order to the place he goes (with the classical example it is external, with the modern, internal).
             While Odysseus battles monsters, Huck battles his own inner conflict. The Greek myth was so simplistic a monster represented everything that may have been an inner conflict, while modern struggles are openly inner. As Odysseus battled the Cyclops, and conquered it, (even with a large sacrifice to his pride when he lost his crew), Huck battled h
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