TOPIC:ISSUE203 -"The best way to understand the character of a society is toexamine thecharacter of the men and women that the society chooses asits heroes or itsheroines." WORDS: 477
TIME: 00:58:00
DATE: 2009-8-4 21:54:12 Every era has itsown heroes orheroines. Nowadays, we are bombarded with the information ofheroes bymedia. But can we comprehend a social character only throughstudyingits heroes or heroines? In my opinion, although heroes orheroines canrepresent the value of our society to some extent, it ishard to achieve a fullunderstanding of society only by examining thecharacter of heroes andheroines. To begin with,heroes or heroinesare preeminent people respected by citizens owing totheircharacteristic or contribution. Their behavior influence andrecognized by otherpeople, or even propel the advance of our society.For example, Martin LutherKing, who fought for the freedom for blackperson, was reviewed a great democracyhero. His action waked the blackpeople to fight for their intrinsic right; hisaction renders allcitizen in United States realize the importance of humanbeing’sequality. Through studying the character and behavior of King,we can wellunderstand the spiritual of democracy and equality ofAmerica. However, it isimpossible to geta full understanding of a society only examining the heroesor heroines.Many people may view Michael Jordon as a national hero as he wonso manyprides for American. In fact, I am also a fan of Jordon. But Jordonismore like a sport super star rather than a national hero, since mostof peopleare actually impressed with his professional basketball skillother than hiscontribution to society. In this way, it is difficult forpeople who want tounderstand American value only by studying Jordon. Furthermore, Inorder tounderstand the feature of a society, researching the commonpeopleliving is indispensable. One reason is that common people are themajor partyof a society. it is impossible for one to claim he catch thewhole picture of asociety when he fail to examine the common people ina society. For instance,there are many elite, such as millionaires,superstars or government officials whoviewed as heroes or heroines inChina.Admittedly, through these people, we perceive a vigorous andhigh-developing China. But ifone only see this fact and conclude thatChina is a powerful and richnation, it will be totally wrong. There arestill billion of people living inrural area of China,and living a veryneedy life. There are still million of workers who hard workall lifebut can not afford to buy a house. There are still thousand ofparentswho lack of money and can not send their children to highschool. Therefore, itis imperative to study the common people life inorder to understand thecharacter of a society. To conclusion, heroesor heroinesare an important mirror of our society. By studying their characterwecan understand the mainstream character and value of a society. Butwithoutthe scrutiny of common people, it is never for us to perceive acompletesociety.