Essay #9

Quiet Hero's; 

Being A Hero In A Silent Way

An Essay By Hanna Kronholm 

1.24.11

Quiet heroes are all around us, people who are just simply doing their jobs. They impact our lives in huge ways and without them things would be a lot different. One of my quiet heroes in my life is my dad, and one in TKAM is Atticus and they are both fathers. I think that in most cases parents are silent heroes because they do things everyday, like drive you to school, make you lunch and a lot more that you couldn't live without.

TS In my eyes Atticus Finch is one of the quiet heroes in To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee. SD "In one shot he killed the dog." CM Atticus was a hero because he saved the town from the mad dog. CM With only one shot, a man with incredible skill, a person with great accuracy, only shoots "when he needs to."  SD Atticus was definitely not discreet while fighting for Tom Robinson. CM He was very brave because it was a big risk to defend a black person in that time. CM What Atticus did gave everyone a look at a white person and black person working together to achieve a common goal, and even though this goal wasn't reached, they worked together and tried their best. SD If I were Atticus, I don't know if I could do that, do something my family didn't agree with, something that people looked down on you for. CM It would be a challenge for a lot of people. CM It's hard to do things when people are judging you for it.CS That's why I think Atticus is a silent hero.

 SDTo me my dad is a silent hero just like Atticus. CM A couple of years ago, my dad saved a mans' life out at sea, a man who had been in the water for hours, a person who had no strength left, a sailor whose boat had capsized. CM My Dad and his crew were very modest, they didn't ask for any recognition.  SD They were very brave because they didn't know what was going to happen and it took them a long time to get the enormous catamaran in position to throw a life ring. CM He is also a quiet hero because my mom has just recently fought breast cancer and she had to be driven to Yale Hospital in New Haven, CT. 3 times a week.  CM He had to rearrange his work schedule and work extra and long hours to make sure my mom would be taken care of.  SD My Dad also work  tremendously long hours and he never complains.  CM He works from 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM and I think that's pretty remarkable.  CM Especially because he never complains.  CS My Dad is a quiet hero to me because he's always there when one of us needs help.

I appreciate all the silent heroes in my life. Mostly because they're unboastful and just do it because they know it's the right thing to do. Maybe we can all try to be quiet heroes. We can try to do things on a day to day basis and not worry about getting any recognition. We might even find peace in being a quiet hero.