Essay Analysis: The Song of Hiawatha

   I really enjoyed The Song of Hiawatha for this week’s reading, especially Hiawatha himself as a heroic character.  While I covered the topic of heroes before when I read the Iliad, I believe that enough time has passed for me to revisit the topic.  Hiawatha possessed the many different aspects that a hero requires in addition to accomplishing many different heroic feats.  Hiawatha has somewhat of a divine birth since his father is essentially a god and his mother was once a celestial being.  Hiawatha also possesses superhuman strength, speed, and endurance, as seen when he fights his father for several days without rest.  He also fights for other people, such as ridding the land of The Pearl Feather whose magic was hurting people and the land.  Altogether these different characteristics make up what many believe to be necessary for a hero to possess.

Little Hiawatha.  Web Source:  Disney

   One thing that I liked about Hiawatha specifically was that he was not too overpowered.  What I mean by that is sometimes a superhero character is too strong and has no real enemies.  For example, Superman oftentimes gets complaints because he has so many different powers, has very few weaknesses, and is too strong of a character.  Another example would be Goku from the Dragonball Z series, who eventually becomes so strong that all of the other characters from the show are essentially useless.  In my opinion a hero that is so much stronger than his enemies or does not require help from other characters is too much of a hero.  Why I went on that long spiel is because I believe that Hiawatha is a pretty rounded character.  When fighting, he possesses superhuman strength but he also requires help from the other characters, such as when he needed the help of the woodpecker to defeat Pearl Feather.  In my opinion, Hiawatha is a very solid hero who could be included with the list of greats such as Achilles and Hercules.