Many people have asked the question, what makes a hero a hero? In most scenarios the conventional hero is a person that commits an extraordinary act of bravery, shows consideration for others, and eventually finds happiness and security in a refuge of some kind. In The Whereabouts of Eneas Mcnulty, Eneas Mcnulty plays the role of an unconventional hero. Although Eneas does prevail over many tests of bravery and character, he is an outcast and an aimless wanderer. Heroes are often loved by all, while most of the people that Eneas would come in contact with probably regarded him as a Bum. That is what differentiates Eneas from the conventional hero.
In The Whereabouts of Eneas Mcnulty, Eneas is an Irishman man that experiences many of the hardships, and defining moments of the twentieth century. Although Eneas is opposed to the killing of another man he is extremely brave and not afraid to fight for what he believes in. Eneas first displays his courage at the young age of sixteen when he leaves home to join WWI. Although he spends most of his time drinking at a bar in Galveston, Texas, it would still take a tremendous amount of courage to leave your home at the young age of sixteen. Later in the story Eneas goes to France to fight in WWII. During his time in France, he experiences some of the gnarliest conditions war can produce. Describing Eneas's arrival on the beaches of France, the narrator says,.
There is only terror at the shore. Most terrifying of all,.
Inducing in all his comrades and himself a sort of madness,.
A ferocious dizziness and misery of the heart, is the heaving.
And fantastically flinging and extravagant lobbing of bombs.
And the deathly singing and whine of bullets, and when the.
Sand is reached at last, and he and his fellows are miraculously intact.
, It is a misery, a depth of horror, to witness the broil of milling men,.
And death coming suddenly amid clumps of soldiers,.
