Heroism

Blog # 9

Tuesday, May 8th, 2012

                                                 Google

According to Fowler, endurance and sacrifice are in fact, the characteristics of the hero. Sarah, Alice, and Dana are forced to endure constant exploitation and degradation to survive and to allow others to survive. 

In the novel Sarah works in Tom Weylin’s house as a cook, who endures all the humiliation to survive. Tom Weylin took away her three children out of four. The only one left with her is Carrie, who is unable to talk. Sarah is like a mother to other slaves. She is the one they come for advice when they needed it. She also gives them the left over food that the Weylin family didn't eat. 

Alice is also a hero in the book. She could not stay with her beloved husband because of Rufus. Rufus is obsessed with her. He wants Alice anyhow. Finally he bought her with all his money. Rufus rapes her so many times and made her pregnant with two kids. She wants to run away from him but could not do it thinking of her children's safety. When Rufus takes her kids away, she could not tolerate that and eventually hangs herself. Dana also a hero in the book. Even though she is a smart and educated young girl, she had to put up all the bad things that Weylin and his wife did to her.

According to the Rogets 21^st Century Thesaurus, hero means a person who redeems,aids in time of difficulty. To me Dana is the most heroic character in the book, who saves Rufus's life so many times when he is about to die. The first time when she had her dizzy spell, found herself in a green place. She has no clue what was going on. When she sees a boy in trouble. “Before me was a wide tranquil river, and near the middle of that river was a child splashing, screaming….Drowning! I reached to the child in trouble. Later I could ask questions, try to find out where I was, what had happened. Now I went to help the child.” (Butler 13) Without thinking of the consequences of the unknown place she saves the little boy from drowning. The second time when Dana had her dizzy spell she found herself in Rufus's house. When Rufus put up the fire in drapery. She put out the fire as quickly as possible. She saves Rufus as well as his family. As they were talking, Rufus called her nigger and Dana does not like that. “I helped you, I put the fire out, Didn’t I ?” “ yeah.” All right then, you do me the courtesy of calling me what I want to be called.” (Butler 25) Dana expects him to treat her with more respect.