Heroes

In fiction heroes are often portrayed as gallant figures with a strong sense of justice. They often appear to save damsels in distress of to protect a village from a ruthless villains. Often, these heroes are caught breaking the laws to carry out their ideals. The laws are there to keep order and should not be an exception to anyone. Heroes are often seen killing, stealing, and even breaking into other people's property. Is this really a heroic thing to do?

Robin is a folk hero that many people knows about. He is known for stealing money from the rich and giving it to the poor. He lives in the forest with his merry men. This sounds an awful lot like the action of brigands. They live in the wood and sometimes come out to steal. Surely they must have kept some of their stolen loot for themselves. People regard him as a hero even though he breaks into other people's property and steals money from them. His intentions may seem right but his actions are no where near ethical.

The reason why people view him as a hero is because his actions benefits him. The people that are robbed by him sees him as a villain. Robin Hood justifies his action by thinking that the rich people gets their money from the poor so him stealing it back is an okay thing to do. This reasoning is unethical, he is fighting fire with fire meaning he is no better than the rich people.

We today view Robin Hood as a hero because a majority of us are in less than satisfying conditions. We can relate to the poor people of the villages Robin Hood helped. Robin Hood's actions benefited lots of people in need so his title as hero. Robin Hood may be a hero but he is also a thief. No man should be above the law, otherwise, laws are meaningless words that can be broken with good reasons.