Life is too short

Death is a part of life. Even at a very young age children at exposed to death. they are taught about life's impermanence through the death of a pet or a relative, but no matter the way, everyone learns about it. When we are young we don't really understand death, it is just the reason why our grandparent or goldfish are no longer around us. Even when we are in our twenties and even thirties most people don't truly have a sense of their own immortality. At this age people are reckless and aren't as aware of the dangers they face.

Within Gilgamesh, The character Gilgamesh doesn't understand death. He goes through life without realising that he will eventually die one day. Gilgamesh does reckless things, because he doesn't think that he will die. At one point he and Enkidu go kill the Bull of Heaven for no apparent reason. When they kill the bull this results in the mortality of Enkidu. When he dies Gilgamesh learns a little bit about death and begins a search to gain immortality.

Gilgamesh's search for immortally is sort of his "mid-life crisis." With a "mid-life crisis" people begin to fear death , because their lives are about half over and they drastically change their lives in order to stop their feelings of doubt and lack of accomplishments. Gilgamesh picks up and leaves to find Utnapishtim, to give him the secrets of immortality. This is a drastic change in his life, which in today's society might be equivalent to buying a sports car. After this journey Gilgamesh becomes closer to death. When his is about to die he finally understands death. He excepts that he is going to die alone and not in battle, what he believes to be the noble way to die. This is when he truly understands the meaning of death.

Throughout most of your life you probably aren't going notice how short life really is. I dont think that you are really aware of your own moraltiy until you are about to die. Everyone realises that life cant go on forever and know the concept that you will die one day, but I don't think that you understand death truly until you have come to terms that you are ready to die. Gilgamesh doesn't fully understand death until he except his mortaily and made peace with his own death, right before he dies. When people are about to die they reflex on their lives inorder to except what they have done. With death you have to except the life you have lived to except death.

Heroes

Throughout literary history there have been heroes included into some of the most recognizable pieces of work ever created. Within the novel Beowulf, the lead character is considered to be a hero. He protects the village from dragon like beasts on numerous occasions, risking his life every time. In Beowulf, as well as many other novels the main character is faced with a problem and has to defeat an evil figure that is working against the protagonist. Sometimes the lead character has a journey that they go on in quest for something. What they are searching for is usually something to defeat the evil figure, the evil figure or something that will ultimately benefit the protagonist. Within most of these stories they seem to have a common underlying structure that the hero follows. He or she will eventually have to prove themselves going against something. Along the way they will teach the reader a moral that is usually about right and wrong.

What defines a hero? To most people a person is defined by his or her actions. It is the same when it comes to heroes. They are defined into the category of "Heroes" by their actions. What actually qualifies a person to be a hero? Some might say that it is someone who puts others before themselves and others might say that it is if you protect others from being harmed. These qualities can almost always be found in a hero, but they can also be found within a parent who does everything to help their child do great things in life. They are found within our forces that protect and serve us, such as police officers, firefighters, doctors, and many more. Essentially heroes are everywhere, they are just regular people who have done great things.

Men seem to always be depicted as the heroic figure. This doesn't mean that women can not be heroes as well. Throughout history women have played a large role in sculpting our society by their heroic acts. Harriet Tubman was one of the leader of the underground railroad, a trail that secretly brought slaves from southern states into northern states where they could be free. She risked her life in pursuit of helping others. She did not worry about the consequences for if she got caught, but put the others ahead of herself. What she did was a noble act that classifies her as a hero. Harriet is not alone, there are other heroic women that cast aside their own well being to help others and fight for what was right.

"Unhappy the land that needs heroes" is a quote from Bertolt Brecht, a German poet. This can be interpreted as that we needs heroes to shape our society. Heroes give every everyone something to aspire to and believe in. They teach people lessons and emphasise on the morals between right and wrong. The stories of heroes defeating the negative figure, it give hope that people can be the hero in their own lives and defeat whatever they are struggling with.Without heroes it leaves people without hope for better things to occur.