The best way to understand the character of a society is to examine the character of the men and women that the society chooses as its heroes or its role models.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim

It is popularly believed that the best way to comprehend the character of society is to scrutinize its heroes and models of appropriate behavior. Despite the fact that this viewpoint definitely has its merits, we cannot accept is as the best one owing to the fact that examining heroes of society does not reveal the source of these preferences. Thus, studying of history of nation, its traditions and mores is better way which allows us to create more comprehensive and thoughful picture of the character of society.

First of all, throughout history of the humankind our heroes have been reflections of our dreams, fears and desires. In fact, they give a correct reflection of society, its system of values and understanding of malevolent and benevolent conduct. For instace, Homer's Iliad gives us an interesting representation of anciet society, we learn about mores, fears and dreams of our predecessors, roles of men and women in the society as a whole. Moreover, this metod has still been used by modern researchers to learn about African societies as well. The collected heroic stores of these tribes and nations indeed give scientists an opportunity to create an image of the society. However, may we say that this method create the best and more precise picture of the character of a society?

The answer is "no". Unfortunately, studying legends and heroic images of society is restricted and does not let us see the whole picture. To learn more, to create better understanding we need to understand the history behind these heroic stores. In other words, we should look deeper inside the society to see the chain of events which lead to a current situation. To illustrate this concept we may take a look at development of heroic image of a woman. Today's action movies creates a picture of strong, independent person who is able to protect herself and whose role is not limited by kitechen and children. We may study these heroes and make a conclusion that today's society motivates its females to be stronger and work harder. However, how this image was created? How has the perception of female hero changed by now? And how will this heroic image evolve? The studying of contemporary heroes is not able to give answer on these questions. However, a careful glance at the history of society, its development may give hints on them.

In conclusion, the studying of heroes and role models which are chosen by a society as desirable may give a picture of contemporary character of the nation, however, in order to create a more thoughtful understanding of the character of a society we ought to study history and traditions of it.