The hero always dies

Many fiction stories have lucky heroes. They survive incredible odds and go on to accomplish an important mission. People learn behavior and human psychology and social norms from stories. Heroes are supposed to inspire us to greatness–they are unrealistic ideals that we can never fully achieve but to which we can constantly aspire.

However, I think we would do well if more stories were not unrealistic how-to-cheat-death guides, but guides on how to live well enough to die admirably.

We are all the heroes of our own stories, and we all die eventually. This part is conspicuously absent from many fictional heroes’ journeys. If we were privy to their last moments, or if their journeys ended them, perhaps we would take the lessons they teach us more seriously. Perhaps we would follow their ideals more closely. If they meet their ends by their own hands, perhaps we could learn to recognize and avoid such behavior. If they weren’t so lucky, perhaps we could learn how to more closely follow their ideals in the real world.

I believe that if we believe that we can be heroes, it gives us the strength to actually be heroes, but in order to retain the humility and perspective to actually live heroically, we have to remember that the hero always dies.