Singing The Praises Of The Unsung Hero - 1309 Words

Singing the Praises of the Unsung Hero Ever since the earliest traces of literature, heroes have enriched stories and captivated audiences. Heroes are a direct reflection of everything that we wish to be and embody the best values of our culture and because of that we hold them up as objects of admiration. Coverage of the civil rights movement follows this same pattern, emphasizing the most commonly known protagonists such as Martin Luther King Jr. and too often fails to highlight the ordinary people who also participated in the movement on local scales. These people regularly do not receive credit for their daily efforts because individually their actions did not ensue large-scale results but as a collective population they served a major role in the civil rights movement. Anne Moody’s narrative, Coming of Age in Mississippi, details the life of one of these ‘ordinary’ people who, as an African American, experienced daily suppression and despite being neglected o f praise, fought to change they way people of color were treated in the south. The hero figure dates all the way back to Greek mythology where gods like Heracles and Achilles defeated forces of evil and saved those in danger. Their actions had consequences that affected many people and were very memorable and that is they remain two of the most commonly known individuals of the time. This trend had remained popular through time with characters both fictional and real, such as Odysseus in 8th century B.C., George