By: Michael Preciutti
Edward Bloom is a hero. He is a man driven with optimism, cares for others and makes their lives better, and he is a man that wants only to be remembered when he passes away. It is his charming good looks and his ability to create a friendship with whomever he becomes acquainted with, which enables Edward to stay a remembered hero. But what keeps him most separated from the usual person is his astounding ways in which he tells his stories. Blooms stories tell of a man filled with courage, honor, leadership, and great strength, all of which are characteristics of an epic hero. As a child he began to show signs of such characteristics when he was pressured by his friends to sneak into an old witches house to steal her glass eye. Of course, the witch took a liking to him and he found himself a new friend. Such an act most vividly displays an immense sense of courage and honor towards his word. In another scene, the young man is asked by his town to ward off of an evil creature that has destroyed several buildings. Bloom realizes thought that the creature was only a man… a very large man living in a very small town. The man’s name was Karl and he found it hard to fit in as Edward points out, “Most things considered evil are just lonely.” Such leadership as Edward Bloom creates in the scene is also found throughout the rest of the film. Edward Bloom is a hero not only because he helps people like Karl, or journey’s through scary woods barefoot, or even because he was hit by a carnival ride that sent him flying three hundred feet in the air and survived without a single injury, but also because he is remembered for more than a lifetime. His stories live forever, as well as his life’s adventures. Edward Blood exemplifies what it means to be a hero. A hero is supposed to be courageous, strong, loyal, and most importantly, remembered. Edwards’s stories had been told so many times that they had allowed him to become