Modern Hercules: Are We Hercules?!

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Modern Hercules

A Reflection Paper

Aquino, Irish Grace I.

III-2 BEE

Are We Hercules?!


Background

Disney's Hercules is an action-adventure, comedy and musical all wrapped up into one (Disney Wiki, nd.), a fantasy tale that is loosely based on the mythology, where Heracles or Hercules' life and adventures were highlighted. In this version, a lot of supposedly gore scenes were downplayed. This was said to appease the movie's target audience which is the children, and as well as to fit to its PG rating (Duncan, 2014). Hence, the portrayal of Hercules in the movie as a young man. This has resulted to some changes between the myth and the movie; for instance, in the movie he loses his super strength, Hades is his main opposition, and lastly, there's no 12 labors unless the actions that he has done to become God again. Despite those differences that anyone would expect knowing that the mythology was loosely used as a basis, there are still things that remain the same with the myth. And those are when: he was raised by a mortal parents, he battles the Hydra, aids the Olympians in ending the life of the Titans, died and was made immortal.


Monomyth: Universal Hero Story Structure

Oftentimes, majority of the heroes' lives follow the very same pattern, and it's called monomyth (Scott, n. d.). This happens when a story uses a template where the heroes' character develops through a sequence of stages. Starting from exerting all the hero's efforts to breakfree from the situation that he's in and decide to discover himself more. The same thing happenend to Hercules, all his life he tried to fit in to the society where he thought he belong but failed because he is different, and this difference sets him apart from other children. He then went on to satisfy his call for adventure, believing that he will finally find his place in the world by looking for his birth parents—which are the gods of olympus, and take a series of tribulations to become immortal.


Hercules' Life Journey: Archetype of Our Lives

Ironically, the structure of a Hercules' life does not make him any different to people's lives in general. Where the concept of self-sacrifice, ideals, dreams, and roles in the society can also be seen in our everyday lives. Just like Hercules, a lot of people also go through the same process, hence the claim that everyone could be a modern Hercules. It will start with deciding to get out of your comfort zone, explore your limits, and then eventually will face a series of trials and tribulations in life—which by the way, seemed to be the default process every individual in order for them to have the so called internal growth. And once an individual overcome all of his or her adversities in life, they will come back stronger than they were before—a better version of themselves, as they say. These observations brought me to the conclusion that the of themes that emerged from Disney's Hercules are pretty much applicable to the real world. And we need not to be a god, goddess, nor a demigod to relate with the themes that will be discussed further.


Self-sacrificing, Dreams, and Roles

Dying a glorious death for people that they love has become one of common thing that happens to a Hero, and although the movie does not contain death scenes, it still shows a lot of self-sacrificing scenes from different characters (Duncan, 2014). One is when Meg sacrifices her life for Hercules, which has resulted to her soul being sent to the underworld. Hercules then decided to save Meg in the underworld, thus sacrifices his life. This become the turning point of his life because he finally became immortal and was welcomed to the Olympus. But unfortunately, he got to realize that he will be truly happy with Meg, living the normal life he once had, so he sacrificed his immortality (Duncan, 2014). This scene is not new to us ordinary people, we tend to sacrifice things because we think it's for the best, and oftentimes we do it for the benefit of our loved ones. But unlike Hercules, there's no need for us to die a glorious death to be considered as a hero, because performing actions without any expectation of reward or external gain is more than enough.

Moreover, when it comes to the concept of achieving one's dreams, the movie Hercules never falter to show it to the viewers. In which, it was clearly implied that when an individual works hard and persevere, he or she will succeed in fulfilling their dreams. And just like Hercules, we can't help but lived by the expectations of other people of us. Notice how children were often asked what do they want to be when they grew up, it's as if people who surrounds them are giving them an idea that they need find their purpose right away, or else they will not fit in the society that they're in. Furthermore, it was relevant in the story that Hercules tries his best to find his role in their town, despite being labeled as "destruct boy" and have been treated differently by a lot of people (Scott, n. d.). This is a reflection of people's desire to belong, which drive us to find a place that we can call our own, and strive hard to do the things where we will be truly happy.

In a nutshell, the concepts that were discussed above are just some of the themes that are present in the movie and its characters, where ordinary people like us can relate to. If there are things that this piece could give us, I think that is the importance of perseverance, contentment, and love. Hercules' character and his journey clearly tell its readers that we don't need to sacrifice things for others to be a hero, neither do we need to achieve a lot of things and get validation from everyone in order to find our place, happiness, and purpose in life.


References:
Disney Wiki, nd. Hercules. Retrieved from:https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Hercules_(film)

Duncan, M. (2014). Hercules Themes. Retrieved from:https://mduncan6.wixsite.com/hercules/themes

Scott, J. (n. d.) How to Use the Hero’s Journey for Personal Development. Retrieved from: https://scottjeffrey.com/heros-journey-steps/?fbclid=IwAR3qgisdz17AqgQBmtoOTnZ3S4sEAH1TegOKIWsPDKSg-BrfHpmvRhcQ-B0


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