Myths and heroes : is Christopher Columbus still a national heroe ?
Dissertation : Myths and heroes : is Christopher Columbus still a national heroe ?. Recherche parmi 300 000+ dissertationsPar nospik • 22 Avril 2019 • Dissertation • 792 Mots (4 Pages) • 795 Vues
Myths and Heroes
CC= Christopher Columbus
I’m going to talk about the notion of myths and heroes.
And as example we will take Cristopher Columbus
First of all, I’m going to give a definition about this notion.
A myth is a symbolic and fabled story from a community, a social practice generally orally given which proposes an explanation on the foundations of a world, and a society. It is also a cultural identity in which a society recognizes itself. Therefore, it answers questions and allows a society to feel at peace with itself. A hero transmits the myth through their acts or speeches. They can be real or completely fictional.
Christopher Columbus an Italian navigator was the first men to discover in 1492 the new world also knowed as America. He became a national hero in the united states for sailing the ocean blue, a national day was attributed to his person it’s called Christopher Columbus day celebrated on every second Monday of October
But Christopher Columbus may be a national hero, he becomes more and more contoversial thought the years
Is Christopher Columbus still a national héro ?
I will first talk about the myth about Christopher Columbus and the symbols derived from his person then we will talk about the historical reality of Christopher Columbus and to finish it all we will talk about the controversy about Christopher Columbus day
Christopher Columbus arrived on october the 12 with his crew composed of ninety sailors, on the Bahamas shores. His trip took aver 5 weeks. But he wasn’t really the first men on this new teritory some indians were already there although the discovery of the new world was attribuated to him
His crew was so happy. The natives were so happy they gave Christopher Columbus food and spices. Christopher Columbus and his crew made the trip again and again from spain to the Bahamas for exchanges
Christopher Columbus was attribuated the honor to be the first men to discover the new world and being nice with the native population by bringing them european knowledge and food
But récent historian discovered that Christopher Columbus and his crew never did that. The day Christopher Columbus arrived he killed natives, raped women and stole all exotic spices from the natives living in the Bahamas he enslaved most of the native population to sell them to spain. He also became governor of this new teritory, during that time he was the most cruel person you coukd think of. Even though they didn’t know at that time by giving natives european food, plants and objects he brought a lot of diseases that killed most of the population at that time more than 3 hundred thousand of Dead people representing 90 pourcent of the population back then . He also forced christianity in the Bahamas as a governor
We also know that Christopher Columbus never set a foot on the teritory thats now called the united states so he only discovered the island of Hispaniola. And above everything Vikings from the XVII century discovered america first, the viking who did that trip is called leif heriksson and has also an non official day in the US
With these facts we see that the myth. And the historical reality aren’t the same
Thats why Christopher Columbus becomes more and more controversial he can’t really be considered as a hero anymore because a hero is someone who is a great and kind person and thats the total opposite of Christopher Columbus
...