The hero will always transcend time, altering its appearance and nature perhaps, but a hero none the less. A hero is not a being who fights to uphold and protect the law. Or is he? It depends really – the hero is who the people need them to be, and nothing else. The hero is the person that world requires who will strive for the well being of fellow man, despite any hardships – enlightened beyond the law. If the law would stand in the hero’s way is it even a just law? Emerson asserts in his essay “The Conservative” that the hero’s “greatness” can survive and outlast petty things like man-made laws and those who would be led like puppets. While a “Conservative” hero of enlightenment may sound contradictory, a hero must be steadfast and dedicated to the cause his embodiment glorifies and therefore cannot be changed or manipulated.

In the past many heroes were geniuses of their time – enlightened beyond the status quo and ready to “save the world” at all costs. These people were also thought insane by many, but of course the hero is insane – they have to be. Someone who conforms to like Gandhi and Martin Luther King arose in a time when the world needed saviors from problems such as racism, discrimination, and segregation. These problems could not be solved by upholding to the laws, which in themselves were the source of the problems in the first place. Times change, along with the world and its people – a hero is able to see this and act as a catalyst for change and progress. MLK and Gandhi knew they were needed and fought for a cause that put them in jail, that had them “boo”ed and taunted, and eventually killed them. None of these things; however, could stop what was taking place due to the movement they set forth. Years later Gandhi and MLK are known worldwide as great heroes of the earth who brought people a little closer together.

The story of true heroes is one that is well known and told throughout history. Whether it be the Watchmen of a popular comic book, or the new Batman hitting theaters, or even a simple solider on the field in “The Things They Carried” – down to the poor, hard working mother on the news; a hero is hope, beyond the law and its mortalities. Emerson knew as he wrote “The Conservative” that people would disagree with him, criticize him, but years later his voice still exists and people want to hear it. The voice of a hero is never vanquished by time, or the ill things it might bring. A hero is forever, that is why he was born in the first place – outliving and ever-changing law and those who abide it, and struggling to become the existence of what humanity not only needs, but deserves.