Epic Hero Cycle

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What comes to mind when thinking of heroes? Capes? Onesies? When analyzing heroes in literature, common themes are present in all heroes. Those common themes are bravery and courage. When looking at epic heroes in literature, the themes present are that of a hero, but with additional themes such as the hero being affected throughout the story by great events, or the hero being admired for their achievements. An epic hero also will usually follow most of the stages of the epic hero cycle. An example of an epic hero in literature is Tris Prior of Divergent. In Divergent, Tris is born into a utopian faction system, which divides the people into 5 different factions based on personality traits. In this system, people are supposed to exhibit one …show more content…
Just like Beowulf but unlike Tris, Ralph is not introduced into an ordinary world. He just survived a plane crash and is now alone on a deserted island with other boys his age. "’When we was coming down I looked through one of them windows. I saw the other part of the plane. There were flames coming out of it’" (Golding 8). Even though Ralph doesn’t follow some of the stages later on in the epic hero cycle due to him being defeated by Jack and his tribe, he still shows many of the traits of an epic hero, like Tris. One similarity between Ralph and Tris is how Ralph was called to action when he was called to be the leader of the tribe, and Tris was called to adventure when she had to choose a faction, as described earlier when comparing her to Beowulf. Another similarity is how they were both “resurrected” in a sense. They were resurrected in very different ways though. Ralph was resurrected by pure luck on the brink of death by Jack’s tribe. This is still a resurrection since he emerged from the “special world” transformed by his experience. Tris was resurrected after ending the dauntless-controlling program when she fled to another faction on a train with Four. The reason Ralph is an obscure epic hero is because he is the reason the majority of the boys survived as long as they did. Even though the story kept getting more and more tragic, they survived long enough to be saved, all because of
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