Thursday, September 22, 2011

The Great and the Lowly

   For years many people have argued that there are two completely separate and independent justice systems.  There is the justice system for the average person and another system for those who have money and influence.  One of the mottos of the legal system is that justice in blind, meaning that it does not treat people differently based upon whatever influence they may have; however, is this really true?  
   In regard to the issue of capital punishment there seem to be some discrepancies in this theory.  When was the last time you read about someone with money or influence being put to death by the state after being convicted of first degree murder?  Then again, how often do we read about a person with money or influence ever been convicted of first degree murder?

   One major ethical and legal issue is the tremendous disparity between black and white criminals. Statistically, African Americans who commit capital crimes are much more likely to be sentenced to death than white defendants.  A major factor is the level of legal representation that African American defendants can afford. Unless they are fortunate enough to be able to retain a prominent criminal defense attorney pro-bono, most African American defendants will be represented by a public defender.1

    Are there two completely different systems of justice based upon a person’s social standing or level of education?  This issue was addressed in the novel Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881).  The main character, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, has developed a theory that people are divided into two “camps” namely the ordinary and the extraordinary.  Rodion Raskolnikov believes that the “ordinary” person must pay the consequences for their actions, but this is not true for the “extraordinary” person. 

    An impoverished former law student, Raskolnikov considers himself to be one of the “extraordinary” people. He decides to test his “theory” by robbing and murdering Alyona Ivanovna, a local unpleasant and elderly pawnbroker, with an ax which he stole and theorizes that this robbery is justified because the money will be used for a “higher purpose”.  While attempting to flee from this woman’s apartment he is confronted by her half-sister, Lizaveta Ivanovna, whom he also kills.  He manages to steal a few items, but the majority of the old woman’s wealth and possessions are left untouched.

    Following the murder of these two women, Raskolnikov begins to descend into madness.  Prior to the murder he had begun losing his grip on reality, but the double murder has only made him worse.  His suspicious behavior points to him as the primary suspect of this crime, but there is no proof of his guilt. 

    Based upon the available evidence, Raskolnikov could “get away with murder”, if it were not for the fact that his conscience is tearing him apart emotionally. He does not want to confess to this double murder and have to pay the penalty for his actions, but he is finally confesses his actions to Sonia, a prostitute who has very strong Christian values and only becomes a prostitute because of her family’s financial state.  

    While he is confessing his crime to Sonya, this confession is overheard by Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigaïlov, a former employer of Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikova, Rodion’s sister.  Arkady Svidrigailov, who was considered a suspect in the death of his own wife,  attempts to seduce and rape Rodion’s sister, who convinces him not to.  He spends the night in confusion and despair and in the morning he shoots himself.

    The only person besides Sonya who knows what Raskolnikov did has committed suicide.  He could simply leave St. Petersburg and begin a new life somewhere else, but Raskolnikov goes to the police station and confesses his crimes. 

    The epilogue tells of how Raskolnikov is sentenced to penal servitude in Siberia, where Sonya follows him. Avdotya and Dmitri Prokofich Razumikhin, Raskolnikov’s friend, marry and are left in a happy position by the end of the novel, while Pulkheria Alexandrovna Raskolnikova, Raskolnikov's mother, falls ill and dies, unable to cope with her son's situation. Raskolnikov himself struggles in Siberia. It is only after some time in prison that his redemption and moral regeneration begin under Sonya's loving influence. 2

     While Raskolnikov considers himself to be one of the “extraordinary” people (equal to someone such as Napoleon Bonaparte); however, by the end of the novel he is sentenced to serve a prison term in Siberia where he pays for his crime like any “ordinary” person would.  Raskolnikov could not ignore his guilty conscience.  Is Dostoevsky saying that one of the things which separate “ordinary” from “extraordinary” people is that “extraordinary people” have no conscience?   

                                                            End Notes


1)    “The Case Regarding Capital Punishment” http://heideggerm1.blogspot.com/2011/02/case-regarding-capital-punishment.html

2)    “Crime and Punishment” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_and_Punishment

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Being Outside of the Norm

   Historically the medical field has had a variety of ways of dealing with what is commonly called mental illness.  Early on, there was a belief that such illness was caused by an imbalance in the humours 1 within the body, which could be dealt with by bleeding patients with knives or leeches. They also believed that organs like the stomach, spleen, and tonsils were the cause of mental issues, so these organs would be removed. Later it was determined that surgical procedures such as lobotomy would be successful in helping to deal with such problems; however, it was later discovered that such surgery did not work the way it was intended. 
   It is very difficult to watch a friend or a loved one slowly lose their mind.  For many years the idea that someone in a given family may have “mental issues” was something which that particular family would often try to keep hidden from their neighbors and co-workers.  People who were not consider “normal”, according to societal standards, were often locked away in a sanitarium or an insane asylum for the rest of their natural lives. 

   As a culture we do not know what to do with people who are outside the “normal range”.  A young child is enrolled in school and this child is subjected to standardized tests in order to determine their “ability to cope in a particular academic environment”.  If this child has difficulties, such as attention problems, emotional development issues, or other things, which need to dealt with it is the parents’ responsibility to see that the school district is doing what it is supposed to be doing in order to provide this child with the help that he or she needs. Regardless of the fact that the school district may have a policy in place or a given state might mandate that such assistance be offered, in most cases the parents have to fight on behalf of the children to guarantee that their children’s rights are upheld. 

   This is also true with students who do not show any sign of emotional development issues, but are simply highly intelligent.  The school districts are not designed to meet the needs of these children either.  Quite often these children become extremely bored in school and therefore a source of distraction for other students.  The average school district operates on what can best be described as a “bell curve” (a statistical analysis where the results are shown on a curve which is literally in the shape of a bell).  If a given student’s performance is somewhere in the middle of this bell curve the school has no trouble dealing with this particular student.  However, if a given student’s test results are on either end of this curve he or she could be in serious trouble unless someone intervenes on their behalf.

    Another issue which children suffer from, but often goes unnoticed is depression.  There are ways of helping young children with depression which do not necessarily involve medication. The California Department of Mental Health Medical Evaluation Field Manual states: “Mental health professionals working within a mental health system have a professional and a legal obligation to recognize the presence of physical disease in their patients...physical diseases may cause a patient’s mental disorder [or] may worsen a mental disorder.…” 2 The Swedish Social Board cited several cases of disciplinary actions against psychiatrists, including one in which a patient was complaining of headaches, dizziness and staggering when he walked. The patient had complained of these symptoms to psychiatric personnel for five years before a medical check-up revealed that he had a brain tumor.  Thomas Dorman, M.D. says, “…please remember that the majority of people suffer from organic disease. Clinicians should first of all remember that emotional stress associated with a chronic illness or a painful condition can alter the patient’s temperament. In my practice I have run across countless people with chronic back pain who were labeled neurotic. A typical statement from these poor patients is ‘I thought I really was going crazy.’” Often, he said, the problem may have been “simply an undiagnosed ligament problem in the back.”
  Paul Runge, M.D., a German psychiatrist, says he’s helped more than 100 children without using psychiatric drugs. He has also helped reduce the dosages of drugs prescribed by other physicians. L.M.J. Pelsser, M.D. of the Research Center for Hyperactivity and ADHD in Middelburg, The Netherlands, found that 62% of children diagnosed with “ADHD” showed significant improvements in behavior as a result of a change in diet over a period of three weeks. Many medical studies show the following could be causing the child’s symptoms:
High levels of lead from the environment place children at risk of both school failure and delinquent behavior.
High mercury (chemical) levels in the body
Pesticide exposure causes nervousness, poor concentration, irritability, memory problems and depression
Too much sugar
Allergies, environmental toxins
Gases, cleaning fluids, scents and other chemicals can make a child irritable, inattentive or hyperactive
Malnutrition
Eye or ear trouble
Worms
  Educational problems can be the result of a lack of or no phonics (understanding the sounds of letters and their combinations) in school. Creative and/or intelligent children become bored, fidget, wiggle, scratch, stretch, will not focus and start looking for ways to get into trouble.  There may be an unchallenging curriculum. Goal-oriented children have a rough time focusing unless a specific challenging goal is given to them.  A simple lack of discipline may also be the cause of behavioral issues.
  Psychiatrists commonly claim today that depression is an “illness, just like heart disease or asthma” but physicians who conduct thorough physical exams say this simply is not true.
  The late Carl C. Pheiffer, Ph.D., a researcher with a doctorate in chemistry, discovered that depression, as well as many mental and behavioral disturbances often result from either vitamin or mineral deficiencies, or possibly mineral imbalances, something prescription drugs are known to contribute to.
David W. Tanton, Ph.D., author, as well as founder and research director for the Soaring Heights Longevity Research Center, states that eating foods that create allergies or sensitivities can easily affect moods. Hypoglycemia (abnormally low level of blood sugar), hypothyroid (insufficient thyroid gland), or adrenal fatigue, as well as the use of many prescription and over-the-counter medications could easily contribute to feelings of depression.
One patient wrote: “When I was 18, I spent three weeks in a mental hospital for what I was told was ‘depression.’ I was on psychiatric drugs for ten months after that. The drugs made me feel lethargic, impatient and irritable. They also clouded my thinking [but] I was so convinced by the ‘experts’ that I had some fundamental
brain chemistry problem and that their drugs were my only hope. Years later I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome as well as debilitating food allergies! This was the cause of my so-called depression.”
Antidepressants and other psychotropic drugs create feelings of “depression.”
Abnormal thyroid (gland that produces hormones that influences every organ, tissue, or cell in the body) function may dramatically effect mood and cause severe depression, fatigue and memory loss. Adrenal gland exhaustion may also be a contributing factor.
Long-term use of antibiotics alters the immune system, causing exhaustion and anxiety.
Lyme Disease (a serious bacterial infection from a tick bite that attacks the nervous system) can cause symptoms of depression and psychosis.
  Psychiatry makes “unproven claims that depression, bipolar illness, anxiety, alcoholism and a host of other disorders are in fact primarily biological and probably genetic in origin….This kind of faith in science and progress is staggering, not to mention naïve and perhaps delusional,” says psychiatrist David Kaiser, M.D..
Following years of publicity exposing the fraud of ADHD, psychiatrists suddenly claimed the diagnosis was wrong and the child really suffered from bipolar disorder. This is more fabrication. Ty Colbert, Ph.D., warns parents about psychiatrists who label children: “Children labeled ADHD, who are put on Ritalin, begin demonstrating [so-called] obsessive-compulsive and depressive symptoms (side effects of Ritalin). Then they are put on [antidepressants] and the parents are told that the real problem was the obsessive-compulsive behavior from the depression. Then due to the side effects of the [antidepressants], the child may be labeled bipolar….”
The FDA now warns that stimulants such as Ritalin, Adderall and Celexa actually cause “bipolar” symptoms.
Orthomolecular (mega doses of vitamins and minerals) research has shown that B complex deficiencies commonly occur in 80 percent of individuals diagnosed with “bipolar disorder.” According to Joan Matthews Larson, Ph.D., founder of the esteemed Minnesota Health Recovery Center, anemia is also a major factor in the cause of “bipolar” symptoms.
Dr. Carl Pfeiffer discovered through scientific studies that blood histamine levels were elevated in lab tests of individuals diagnosed with the symptoms of so-called obsessive-compulsive disorders. As these patients improved, their histamine levels dropped and their symptoms disappeared.
Several recent studies point out that these symptoms were typically triggered by throat infections at a very early age. One study in particular showed that among 50 children, 45 (31%) had suffered documented throat infection, 60 (42%) showed symptoms of pharyngitis (throat infection) or upper respiratory infection. The studies suggest that in some susceptible individuals, obsessive-compulsive disorder may be caused by an autoimmune response to streptococcal infections.
  “Charlie” was a 10-year-old who suffered violent mood swings, yelled obscenities, kicked his sister and could not control his temper. His mother was told, “You have two choices: give him Ritalin, or let him suffer.” Charlie was put on Ritalin, but a second medical opinion—based on physical examination and thorough testing—discovered he had high blood sugar and low insulin. “Either condition, if uncontrolled, can lead to mood swings, erratic behavior, and violent outbursts—the very symptoms ‘hyperactive’ Charlie had exhibited,” Dr. Sydney Walker III stated. After proper medical treatment, his “behaviors cleared, his aggression and tantrums stopped….”
  In September 2005, the British National Health Service Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence released a clinical guideline for treatment of “Depression in Children and Young People.” It advised that because “all antidepressant drugs have significant risks when given to children and young people,” children should be “offered advice on the benefits of regular exercise,” “sleep hygiene,” “nutrition and the benefits of a balanced diet.”
  The December 2005 issue of The Journal of Medicine and Science in Sport & Exercise reported that exercising rather than antidepressants relieves symptoms of “depression.” The subjects who exercised also experienced positive effects such as “vigor” and “wellbeing.” Citing a 2000 study published in Psychosomatic Medicine, Dr. John B. Bartholomew, an associate professor at the University of Texas, at Austin, said, “[R]egular exercise has been shown to protect against relapse” in “depressed” patients.
  Overall, medical facilities must be established to replace coercive psychiatric institutions. These must have medical doctors on staff, medical diagnostic equipment, which non-psychiatric medical doctors can use to thoroughly examine and test for all underlying physical problems that may be manifesting as disturbed behavior.  Government and private funds should be channeled into such programs and cut from abusive psychiatric institutions and programs that have proven not to work.
   There is no denying the fact that certain people do suffer from one or more mental health issues either at one point in their life or throughout their entire life. However, there are alternatives to psychotropic medications even for those who have suffered their entire lives with mental illness.  Putting highly toxic chemicals into your body in order to “manage” your condition when the method of action listed in the information provided by the manufacturer is “unknown” is, at the very least, dangerous.       
   There is no reason to have to fall into the trap of taking psychotropic drugs, if you do not have to.  As I have shown, these medications are highly addictive and are much more difficult to withdraw from than cocaine or heroin.  It is essential when you speak to your doctor about the possibility of taking one of these medications that you receive all of the facts, including all of the adverse side effects and the risk of dependency and addiction.  This is your right as a patient and it is the physician’s obligation to provide this information to you.
    How a society deals with those who need their help the most is a good indication of the future of that society.  What should be done with someone whose mind has slowly “drifted away”.  This person is not a threat to themselves or others, but they are delusional.  
    One of the challenges with all these psychiatric medications and idea that people should exist within the center of the “bell curve” is that it gives the impression that everyone must be the same.  Individuality and uniqueness are considered to be “problems” which must be dealt with.  This does not mean that certain people do not genuinely suffer from some form of mental illness, but what it does not mean is that anyone who is unique or different is automatically mentally ill.
    In 1835, Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) wrote a short story entitled “Diary of a Madman” which deals with this issue.  This story deals with the life of Poprishchin, a low-ranking civil servant who yearns to be noticed by a beautiful woman, the daughter of a senior official, with whom he has fallen in love. His diary records his gradual slide into insanity. As his madness deepens, he begins to suspect two dogs of having a love affair and believes he has discovered letters sent between them. Finally, he begins to believe himself to be the heir to the throne of Spain. When he is hauled off and maltreated in the asylum, the madman believes he is taking part in a strange coronation to the Spanish throne. Only in his madness does this lowly anti-hero attain greatness. As he said in his first sight of her, just after being a beast of a civil servant himself, “A footman opened the carriage door and out she fluttered, just like a little bird.” 3
    The 1830s was a very difficult period of history in the lives of the average person in Russia.  The idea of maintaining a sense of individuality in an increasingly cold and impersonal urban environment was very important.  This is still true, even today.  
    Being unique is not an illness.  While it is true that not everyone believes he is the new King of Spain, expressing one’s individuality is extremely important. There is no shame in this.  How do you express your own uniqueness?

                                                        End Notes

1)    The theory of the four humours is quite ancient.  It is based upon the belief that the body has four states (phlegmatic, sanguine, choleric, and melancholy) which need to be in balance in order to function properly.  These states are related to the blood and one way that they were kept in balance was through the use of various herbs which we meant to impact each humour individually.

2)    “The Truth about Mental Illness”  http://heideggerm1.blogspot.com/2011/03/truth-about-mental-illness.html

3)    “The Diary of a Madman” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diary_of_a_Madman_(story)

























Saturday, September 3, 2011

The Makings of a Hero

   Throughout history there have been heroes and heroines.  These people are traditionally endowed with some super human power or ability and serve as a role model for members of a particular culture.  The ancient Greeks, for example, had Hercules as a hero.  Hercules was half god and half man and was known as the strongest man who ever lived. 
   The hero is an ancient archetype of human culture. He provides the physical and moral courage which sets the standard for leadership in a society. His experience often illustrates the spiritual life of a culture. His life path establishes the most important rituals of a civilization and serves as a great motivator for others. King Arthur is a familiar prototype of the hero, and Luke Skywalker is a derivative of King Arthur. The hero exists in every culture in every country in every time of humanity. He follows an easily identifiable pattern with definite characteristics. He may not always have all of the characteristics, but he or she will have most of them.



The life pattern of the hero



1.   The hero is usually a foster child, separated from his natural parents.

2.   The hero experiences an early restlessness in this environment, long before he learns of his true parentage.

3.   The hero must undergo a separation from his foster parents and the familiar environment he knew as a child.

4.   The hero finds a wise man (mentor) who will teach him secret skills and knowledge and usually reveals his true parentage to him. The mentor often presents the hero with special gifts or weapons.

5.   The hero must set out on a quest, a journey of danger and adventure, with a definite goal in mind.

6.   As he sets out on the journey, he must pass by a threshold guardian and defeat its obstacles or difficulties by wit, strength, or the special gifts or weapons provided by the mentor.

7.   The hero must undergo an initiation process to prove himself worthy and/or to enter manhood. The initiation often includes many trials and tests, battles with monsters, rescuing of damsels, and seizure of treasure. Often he must endure an ordeal of blood and confront death, danger, and/or self-knowledge (tribulations). Sometimes these dangers are psychological or spiritual; in such situations he must withstand temptations and develop self-discipline and courage. Even love can be an adventure for him.

8.   The hero usually must undergo a descent into a netherworld or hellish place. Typically his visit will last three or seven days.

9.   The quest of the hero is for a gift such as the Holy Grail which promised healing to an ailing king and country or self-knowledge in the form of a vision or words which reveal deep mysteries of life or the self. The hero brings the boon back to his people, who may or may not receive and understand the boon. The benefits of the gift are available to the people, but their lack of the hero's journey prevents them from having enough wisdom to receive the blessing.

10. The hero's journey causes a transformation in him; he is never the same again. He feels separated from his people. Although he may be honored or made ruler over his people, he will always be psychologically marked by his experience and distant from ordinary men. He will always have wisdom of the heart that belongs to him alone.1

   This model of the hero was present even throughout the twentieth century. Characters such as Superman or Captain America would qualify as heroes based upon the definition given above.  These heroes were considered positive role models for children.  They would defend the weak and powerless against “the forces of evil”.  It was always clear to those who followed the adventures of these action heroes who the good guys were and who were the villains. 

   However, beginning in the early nineteenth century the “anti-hero” was created. This concept begin with George Gordon Byron, commonly known as Lord Byron, (1788-1824), an English poet.  In 1812, Lord Byron was involved in a scandalous affair with Lady Caroline Lamb, who was married, and subsequently ended the affair while having a relationship with another woman at the same time. Lady Caroline referred to Lord Byron as someone who was, “mad, bad, and dangerous to know” 2 and this became definition of the anti-hero, also known as the Byronic hero.  The Byronic hero first appears in Byron's semi-autobiographical epic narrative poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818).

   Scholars have also drawn parallels between the Byronic hero and the solipsist heroes of Russian literature. In particular, Alexander Pushkin's famed character Eugene Onegin echoes many of the attributes seen in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, particularly, Onegin's solitary brooding and disrespect for traditional privilege. The first stages of Pushkin's poetic novel Eugene Onegin appeared twelve years after Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, and Byron was of obvious influence (Vladimir Nabokov argued in his Commentary to Eugene Onegin that Pushkin had read Byron during his years in exile just prior to composing Eugene Onegin). The same character themes continued to influence Russian literature, particularly after Mikhail Lermontov (1814-1841) invigorated the Byronic hero through the character Grigoriy Aleksandrovich Pechorin in his 1839 novel A Hero of Our Time.  This novel is considered to be the first Russian novel and Lermontov had a profound impact on the lives of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekov (1860-1904), and others.

      Pechorin is the embodiment of the Byronic hero. Byron’s works were of international repute and Lermontov mentions his name several times throughout the novel. According to the Byronic tradition, Pechorin is a character of contradiction. He is both sensitive and cynical. He is possessed of extreme arrogance, yet has a deep insight into his own character and epitomizes the melancholy of the romantic hero who broods on the futility of existence and the certainty of death. Pechorin’s whole philosophy concerning existence is oriented towards the nihilistic, creating in him somewhat of a distanced, alienated personality.* The name Pechorin is drawn from the Pechora River, in the far north, as a homage to Alexander Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, named after the Onega River.3

    Pechorin treats women as an incentive for endless conquests and does not consider them worthy of any particular respect. He considers women such as Princess Mary to be little more than pawns in his games of romantic conquest, which, in effect, holds no meaning in his listless pursuit of pleasure. This is shown in his comment on Princess Mary: “I often wonder why I’m trying so hard to win the love of a girl I have no desire to seduce and whom I’d never marry.”

   The only contradiction in Pechorin’s attitude to women is his genuine feelings for Vera, who loves him despite, and perhaps due to, all his faults. At the end of “Princess Mary” one is presented with a moment of hope as Pechorin gallops after Vera. The reader almost assumes that a meaning to his existence may be attained and that Pechorin can finally realize that true feelings are possible. Yet a lifetime of superficiality and cynicism cannot be so easily eradicated and when fate intervenes and Pechorin’s horse collapses, he undertakes no further effort to reach his one hope of redemption: “I saw how futile and senseless it was to pursue lost happiness. What more did I want? To see her again? For what reason?”

    Pechorin's last adventure shows the events that explain his upcoming fall into depression and retreat from society, resulting in his self-predicted death. The narrator is Maxim Maximytch who is telling the story of a beautiful Circassian princess 'Bela', whom Pechorin abducted from her family and claimed as his own. Maxim describes Pechorin's exemplary persistence to convince Bela to sexually give herself to him, in which she, in time, reciprocates. After living with Bela for some time, Pechorin starts explicating his need for freedom, which Bela starts noticing, fearing he might leave her. Though Bela is completely devoted to Pechorin, she says she's not his slave, rather the daughter of a prince, also showing the intention of leaving if he 'doesn't love her'. Maxim's sympathy for Bela makes him question Pechorin's intentions. Pechorin admits he loves her and is ready to die for her, but 'he has a restless fancy and insatiable heart, and that his life is emptier day by day'. He thinks his only remedy is to travel, to keep his spirit alive.

   However, Pechorin's behavior soon changes after Bela is kidnapped by his enemy Kazbich and is mortally wounded. After two days of suffering in delirium, Bela spoke of her inner fears and her feelings for Pechorin, who listened without once leaving her side. After her death, Pechorin becomes physically ill, loses weight and becomes unsociable. After meeting with Maxim again, he acts coldly and antisocial, exhibiting signs of a deep depression and disinterest in interaction. He soon dies on his way back from Persia, admitting beforehand that he is sure to never return.

    Pechorin described his own personality as self-destructive, admitting he does not understand his own purpose in the world of men. His boredom with life and feelings of emptiness forces him to indulge in all possible pleasures and experiences, which soon cause the downfall of those who are closest to him. He starts to realize this with Vera and Grushnitsky, while the tragedy with Bela soon leads to his complete emotional collapse.

    His crushed spirit after this and his duel with Grushnitsky can be interpreted that he is not the detached character that he makes himself out to be. Rather, it shows that he suffers from his actions. Yet many of his actions are described by Pechorin himself and appear to the reader to be arbitrary. Yet this is strange as Pechorin's intelligence is very high (typical of a Byronic hero). Pechorin's explanation as to why his actions are arbitrary can be found in the last chapter where he speculates about fate. He sees his arbitrary behavior not as being a subconscious reflex to past moments in his life but rather as fate. Pechorin grows dissatisfied with his life as each of his arbitrary actions lead him through more emotional suffering which he represses from the view of others.3

      It has been very common in Western culture that the hero would always wear a white hat and the villain would wear a black hat in films so that the audience was able to determine immediate which person was the hero.  It is very easy to tell the hero from the villain when one is wearing a white hat; however, what about someone like Grigoriy Pechorin? 

      He seems to fit the profile of the Byronic hero.  He is a man who is finding his way in life and chose a path for himself which made it difficult for him to get close to others.  He would not have qualified as the ideal husband figure, but, in his own way, he truly did love Bela.  This became obvious when he stayed with us up until the moment of her death and underwent a major transformation following her death. 

     The Byronic hero exhibits most, if not all, of the following traits: arrogant, cunning and able to adapt, cynical, disrespectful of rank and privilege, emotionally conflicted or moody, has a distaste for social institutions and norms, has a troubled past or suffering from an unnamed crime, intelligent and perceptive, jaded, world-weary, mysterious, magnetic and charismatic, seductive and sexually attractive, self-critical and introspective, self-destructive, socially and sexually dominant, sophisticated and educated, struggling with integrity, and treated as an exile, outcast, or outlaw.4

      Based upon this description, Pechorin would be a classic Byronic hero.  He was not “the man in the white hat” or the superhero, but he was a hero in his own way.  Struggling with the inner demons that tormented him and not giving up, but continuing to live his life as best he could was a sign of heroic virtue.  The truth is that the heroic figures we encounter in our lives are more like Grigoriy Pechorin than Captain America.

                                                  End Notes

1)    Robert C. Covel “Heroes: A Humanities Approach” www.doe.k12.ga.us/DMGetDocument.aspx/Hero%20Project.doc?p...D (accessed 9/1/11)

2)    Jonathan David Gross Byron: The Erotic Liberal (MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001),  p. 148

3)    Murray, Christopher (2004). Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760-1850 (NY: Taylor & Francis, 2004), p. 498