Claim: 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.Reason: Heroes and role models reveal a society's highest ideals.

Based on the reason that heroes and role models reveal the highest ideals, the author of the statement above claims that by examining the character of a society’s heroes, we can understand the society’s own character. Besides some truths, the author’s statement cannot be embraced as valid.

To begin with, heroes and role models characteristic only reveal the heroic characteristic of a society when such individuals advocate a social or a moral cause. In this sense, the characteristics of the heroes and role models are what have made them unique in the crucible of time. These luminaries are introduced as the source of moral inspirations to members of the society to imitate. Character of heroes and role models who are mostly among great leaders like Gandhi or Martin Luther King, stands for my argument. The inspired society of such heroes is characterized by the perseverance and uncompromising toils in order to get their inalienable rights, which was the exact character of their leader.

However, in other fields, the role models and heroes are not recognized for their characteristics as far as they are symbolized for what they have contributed to the society. The character of such heroes is in some respect even below the normal standards of their society. Albert Einstein was a great scientist, and scientific societies know him as a great role model. However, in his marital life, he was disloyal to his wife and his family. Now, can we recognize the character of the society _which knows him as a hero_ as the one comprising disloyal members to their marital life? Hence, we see that the characters of the heroes are not necessarily categorized in the “ideas” of the society, and they are known chiefly because of their ideal contributions.

Now, as far as reason is concerned, even if heroes are emanations of ideals _who are not, for they all have their own shortcomings_ this is the very reason why the study of heroes is an incomplete method to characterize a society; the characteristic of a society comprises positive, negative, and neutral forms. To find out about a desperate, hunger-plagued, or a poverty-plagued society, staring at the heroes’ features does not give a clue.

Finally, there are many other ways that can, help us to characterize a society. Disordered societies can be recognized by observing the behavior of people during driving time; a patriarchal society can be found where the woman has little influence in their society and so on. As there are many direct and indirect efficient methods to characterize a society, the author's claim does not hold true.

In short, as discussed, aside heroes who championed moral causes, characteristics of the heroes of other fields are not related to the characteristics of societies recognizing them as heroes. Furthermore, to understand the complexion of a society there still better ways.