Essay: Heroic characteristics – Muhammad Ali and Beowulf

“What makes Superman a hero is not that he has power, but that he has the wisdom and the maturity to.” People often tend to over look the real life heroes. One particular hero in history is Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr, more known as Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Ali is a heavy weight boxing champion. Ali born January 17, 1942 and grew in Louisville, Kentucky. He first started boxing when his bike was stolen and he told a police officer he was going out to look for it so the officer told him he better learn how to fight before he goes out and looks. The officer started to teach him how to fight and he fell in love with it. Muhammad Ali encouraged others through braveness, selflessness, and persistent by using his platform to advocate human rights.
His first characteristic that he shows is his braveness. Throughout his life he has been faced with a couple difficult situations. But this particular situation showed that he was very brave. According to history.com/editor, On April 28, 1967 Muhammed Ali refused to be inducted in the U.S. Army and they took his heavyweight title away from him. “I ain’t got no quarrel with those Vietcong.” And he was convicted of draft evasion, sentenced to 5 years in prison, and fined 10,000 dollars, and banned from boxing for 3 years. He didn’t go because he was Muslim and he felt that they didn’t do anything to him. According to https://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2016/06/muhammad-ali-vietnam/485717/ “My conscience won’t let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America.” This showed that he is very brave and never gave up because he stood up against the U.S. Government. Because he believed that He didn’t back down. He didn’t have the advantage in this situation just like Beowulf when he was fighting Grendel. Both Ali and Beowulf believed In god. “I prayed everyday in when I was going through my situation with the government” Ali said. Ali basically said like he put it in God’s hands. Beowulf also put it in gods hand to because he put hisself at a disadvantage when he took off all his body armor and fought naked. And let god take over.
The next characteristic he throughout his life was selflessness. Throughout his life he as always helped people and stood up for them. Muhammad Ali and Beowulf showed this characteristic by helping other people. Ali showed this by helping people with their rights and just caring for them he was put in the same category as Rosa parks and Dr Martin Luther king. He fought for a lot of blacks and the civil rights. He believed in having equality and freedom for all people no matter the color of your skin. Beowulf says “if this combat kills me, take care of my young company, my comrades in arms, and be sure also , my beloved Hrothgar, and send hygelac the treasures I received.” This quote tells me a lot about Beowulf because it’s showing that even though his life is own the line he is still thinking about his town. This is one reason why he Is a hero cause he wasn’t just thinking about himself.
The last characteristic that they show is they are persistent. This was one of Ali’s biggest traits because he didn’t stop boxing after they told him that he couldn’t for 3 years he worked hard and trained everyday still. It also wasn’t easy being a black boxer at the time. Whites thought he wasn’t going to last and he proved them wrong. He was persistent when it came to trying to help people get treated the same and constantly going after the government to make a change. Beowulf was persistent because no matter what he always fought and if he had to fight to the end because he wouldn’t let his people down when they needed him.
In conclusion hero’s aren’t all always wearing a suit and have these crazy super powers. Most hero’s are the real life people like Muhammad Ali who show characteristics like braveness and standing up for what he believed in. Persistent he was persistent and never gave up and stood up. And Lastly Selflessness Ali being able to help a lot of people and changing a lot of people’s lives throughout the world.
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