Heroism Strengths And Weaknesses

Heroism is something that has been greatly admired across numerous cultures around the world yet defining what it truly means to be a hero has been the cause of debate for centuries. The measure of a true hero and the definition of the word has evolved over time and varies among different cultures and so their concept of a hero often contradicts that of the one we know today. Many have sought out to define the meaning of the word hero and although the Raglan Hero Pattern remains amongst the most popular systems to assess these heroic individuals, it does in fact have its limitations. As the scoring system was essentially designed in an effort to discredit the historicity of Jesus Christ, there are many weaknesses within the system when interpreting
These flaws at times can even prevent a heroic individual of being deemed a hero as they do not fulfill enough of the set of criterions established. Having analyzed both historical and fictional figures using this pattern it can be understood that the scale is better suited to imaginary characters as they often obtain a higher score than their historical counterparts. It is very difficult for well-documented historical individuals with undistinguished parents to score very high on the Raglan scale. Any woman or modern individual is also in the same boat as they do not fulfill many of the criterions. These weaknesses are a result of the fact that the pattern is outdated. The scale is quite male-orientated and the criterions are at times both too tightly defined and too general. For instance, some of the criterions are strangely divided in my opinion that ultimately by fulfilling one of the criterions, you fulfill many or on the other hand, are unable to meet any of them in the first place. According to the Raglan scorecard a hero must be the product of an ‘unusual conception’ and the ‘son of a deity’, these two criterions are often interchangeable as being the son of a god, usually involves an unusual conception. Moreover, many of the common patterns Raglan has developed are based around distinguished parentage and an undocumented childhood as so this automatically disregards most modern heroes as they often do not meet the following criteria: ‘Virgin mother’; ‘Father is a king’; ‘Father is related to mother’; ‘No description of childhood’. Also, as most monarchies have died out at this present time, the criterions related to kingship and succession do not apply to modern historic figures and women are unable to fulfill a great deal of the pattern as it is intended to interpret male