OF HEROES AND SUPERHEROS

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language gives three basic definitions for the word “hero”:

(1) In mythology and legend, a man often of divine ancestry, who is endowed with great courage and strength, celebrated in his bold exploits and favored by the gods.
(2) A person noted for courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life.
(3) A person noted for special achievements in a particular field.

As a student of American pop culture, I have constantly wondered why individuals like OJ Simpson, Joe DiMaggio and Michael Jordan, who, technically, have never risked their lives or performed any “heroic” deeds, held the seemingly undeserving status of “hero”. The answer, obviously, is that they fall under definition number 3. Still, what amazes me is that some people, especially the media, seem to have given them attributes from all three definitions, thus turning them into “larger than life” and sometimes elevating them to what London & Weeks (1981) would describe as “Superheroes”. That is, “charismatic outsiders who succeed because of their moral and technological power, oftentimes by violence”.

I have always been fascinated by the concept and definition of “Superhero”. According to film director and comic book connoisseur Kevin Smith, if you take a man or a woman with power or abilities that could enslave the world but who has decided to use them for good, give them a secret identity to protect loved ones or to assure a normal life beyond their work and wrap them in clothes “worthy of a Halloween parade”, you get yourself a superhero. However, I do not think that the idea of being able to fly, having X-ray vision or incredible strength appeals to me as much as the notion of leading a double life. In fact, certain superheroes, such as Batman, Spiderman or Captain America, who are not nearly as strong or powerful as Superman, but have a more mysterious and intriguing double life, usually do a better job at capturing my imagination than the Man of Steel.

Whichever the case, as a Costa Rican, I have always perceived superheroes to be foreign to my culture. As I had never heard of any British, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, or Costa Rican superheroes, I always truly believed that all superheroes lived somewhere in the US. You can imagine my total disillusionment when, as a kid, I can could not find Metropolis nor Gotham City in any map of the United States – no matter how hard I looked. Furthermore, wasn’t it true that superheroes, or at least Superman, were supposed to struggle for “truth, justice and the American way”? In this light, we could say that superheroes are nothing but idealistic and often extreme representations of many deeply-rooted American values, such as the overcoming of adversity and the control over nature.

In literature, a great hero, such as Hercules, must always defeat horrible obstacles to perform exceptional deeds that ordinary people can not. In American history, however, a hero has to fight his way through hardship to forge his own destiny. Indeed, from the Mayflower to Paul Revere, and from the wild west to Rosa Parks, heroes from all walks of life have helped shape the American culture into what it is today. If you “pull yourself by your bootstraps”, then “the sky is the limit”… and if you “just do it” and you “be all that you can be”, the ordinary Joe will find that “when there is a will, there is a way”.

So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
And you’ll finally see the truth – that a hero lies in you
(1995). “Hero” by Mariah Carey.

Still, Stewart (1972) tells us that “the man who performs visible deeds” is the cultural hero of the Americans. In other words, overcoming adversity is not nearly enough, a real American hero must also do something that is either measurable or quantifiable. Climbing to the top of Mt. Everest means nothing if you can not account for it. Sandy Hill Pittman knew this well when she went on-line daily to tell the world every single detail of the fateful expedition before she found her grave as she made it to the top.

Going back to literature, a handsome, noble, honest, self-reliant and overall perfect hero is always expected to fall due to the sin of hubris… that is, arrogance, pride, presumption. The problem is that heroes – at the end of the day – are still human, and people do not usually remember this. In fact, some ordinary people who excel in their fields, especially sport figures, politicians, astronauts, rock musicians, actors and public figures, are often endowed with classic heroic attributes. Nevertheless, they are real people, and as real people, they are flawed. Pete Rose, Richard Nixon and OJ Simpson all fell from grace by doing deeds that, although totally unrelated to their respective “heroic” performances, were unworthy of a true all-American hero.

Gerzon (1982) argues that “heroes today are not born. They are packaged. They are thrust upon us by marketing strategies. In place of gods, we manufacture superstars”. A wonderful example of this is, of course, the movie “Hero” (1992) starring Dustin Hoffmann and Andy Garcia, where the world chooses to believe that the hero is the handsome and noble guy instead of the foul-mouthed, ill-tempered and odd-looking guy who actually did the heroic deed.

In Costa Rican history, we do not have a George Washington nor an Abraham Lincoln. The one and only Costa Rican hero is Juan Santamaria, who reportedly burned down an adobe house in a small Nicaraguan town where an American gun-for-hire had stationed his garrison as he, after having taken control of the Nicaraguan government, was planning on advancing across the border into Costa Rica. The irony is that some people in Costa Rica would tell you that Santamaria was either “pushed” into heroism because he was the dumbest of his army or that he was a total fabrication. Definitely not the same treatment that an American hero receives.

There are no heroes or superheroes in Costa Rican culture. There is no overcoming of adversity. There are no people who are larger that life and become role models to the children. Therefore, when a Soccer star, or a politician, is found to be a drug addict, a rapist or a murderer, it is not a great tragedy. Sincerely, I doubt that Americans would ever elect a President who had been a murder suspect whose name was never actually cleared. Well, we once did.

Note: This paper, originally written in 1996 by yours truly, was actually once chosen for publication.