One of the biggest complaints regarding the subject of history, specifically U.S. History, is that the people we consider heroes are only portrayed in a favorable way. But are our heroes simply the one-dimensional version that is popularly known? Click on the following links and then address each of the questions in your postings!
The links:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/culture/articles/050221/21lincoln.htm
http://www.berwickacademy.org/lincoln/timeline.htm
Questions:
1. How does the Lincoln presented in the US NEWS and WORLD REPORTS compare with the Lincoln presented in the timeline?
2. Why do we seem to focus on the positive traits of our heroes and de-emphasize their less than flattering characteristics?
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The Lincoln presented in the timeline was the shortened spotlight version. Each caption had something positive about Lincoln. The Lincoln presented in the US news and World Reports was a more thought out and researched approach, leaving out very little detail. The Lincoln in the timeline was brought up as a hard working, loving son who was very honest. The Lincoln in the world reports had more troubles and hardship throughout his upbringing.
I think we seem to focus on the positive traits of our heroes to justify what made them heroes in the first place. We honored Lincoln because he was anti-slavery and a good president, but we ignore the fact that he was also anti-civil rights throughout most of the Douglas vs Lincoln debates. One reason we de-emphasize the less flattering traits is because we want to believe that our leaders and heroes can do no harm.
In the Us news reports we saw a Lincoln that not many people know about, someone who was brought up as a sad poor man, and who struggled with depression and often doubted himself. The Lincoln expressed in the timeline as a great man, with nothing wrong in his life. He was happy and cheerful always smiling in the pictures. We, as a society, tend to want to hear about the good, and often try to ignore the bad. This is done even in modern history classes. Why show a man who was struggling when we can speak of a man who is always happy? We glorify our "heroes" often disregarding the facts. This is done because we want our society to believe that our heroes were great people. No one wants to hear about the Lincoln who was anti-civil rights. No one wants to hear about the Lincoln whose mother died at the age of nine, causing depression throughout his life. We try to tell history like a story. The best stories have a hero who emphasizes action and happiness, and people listen to these stories. In reality we don’t know what this person is truly like. This is where the facts can get lost, losing a piece of history altogether.
The timeline is a very short version of Lincoln's life. it looks like it was either done very fast or done by a middle schooler. it shows the happier side of his life, without showing his struggles. The World News report shows his life with a lot more detail. It shows his lack of education, lack of family, and his years thruogh multiple offices.
People seem to focus on the positives because they don't want to show us the negitives. IF people knew all of the negitives about all of our heroes they might not thinks as much of them. Especially for a president durning an election time, many things about the canidate are unotld for a reason.
The Lincoln in the US News and World Reports was extremely glorified. I really only spoke of what a great man he was, how he taught himself how to read, how he rose to the top all on his own, but the article never mentions any of his faults. Lincoln was not a god, he's made plenty of mistakes like any other person, and i think that people need to realize that. The timeline is a lot different than the report because it has alot more facts and gives more detail about his life, even though it was fast, it isn't just 'Abraham Lincoln was awesome, he is the coolest, smartest guy ever.'
I think that we focus more on the positive traits because no one wants to see the bad. Lincoln did do great things for our country, so I can see how people wouldn't want to see the down side of him. In my opinion though, I would like to hear about how Lincoln really was, because as being apart of history, that's who we should know.
US News and World Reports went into much more detail of every aspect of Lincoln's life then the timeline did. The timeline gave you a general idea of what happened. For example, Lincoln did marry Mary Todd like the timeline said. In the US News and World Reports though, they talked about how he was in love with Ann Rutledge, but when she died he went into a year depression. In that time, he went from one women to another. He finally married Mary on their second engagement. This example shows how watered down the timeline is compared to the US News and World Reports article.
I think we focus on the positive traits of our herious and de-emphasize their less then flattering characteristics because the people need someone to look up to. They don't want a leader that has bad aspects. In a way, we're trying to make ourselves look good because we're the ones that got that person into office. We try to make our presidents look good because they represent us. If they don't look good, what does that make of us?
The article in the US News and World Report seemed to focus more on Lincoln's problems and failures. It mentioned how he was not confident and how self-doubted himself a lot before he got married to Mary Todd. It also said how Lincoln was not the best politic at first and how he called himself "politically dead" because he could not get any of his bills passed. It does give a lot of information and details about his life, but compared to the timeline it seemed to be more negative. The timeline focused more on Lincoln's accomplishments. The Lincoln in the timeline was very hardworking and honest, but in the US News article we learned that he was not always the "Honest Abe" that most people are taught about.
I think we seem to focus more on the positive traits of our heroes, because we want our leaders and heroes to seem almost perfect. We don't want people to know about the negatives in Lincoln's life, because then we might think less of him. Most people want to remember Lincoln as the US president that was against slavery, not as the depressed, self-doubting person that happened to win an election to become president.
The Lincoln presented in the US News and World Reports was a hard working man who was very honest. This report on Lincoln was very detailed and full of true facts throughout Lincolns life. The Lincoln presented in the timeline had only good facts about his life. The timeline didn’t show many negative parts of his hard life. Therefore the US News and World Reports showed that Lincolns life was difficult and he had to earn everything he got out his life, but in the timeline it shows Lincoln as just a loving person and didn’t show the struggles of his life as much.
I think that we seem to focus on the positive traits of our heroes and not the negative traits in their lives in order to show people that everything our heroes did was for good and never for bad. Heroes are not suppose to do bad things therefore we make them out to be almost superhuman in the fact that they never do any harm to anyone. By saying that they are not negative shows that they are truly heroes and would only help out the world, not hurt it.
The president portrayed in the timeline was just a view of his life. Pictures are moments captured while drawings are just thoughts put down on some paper.
The president Lincoln in the US NEWS and in the WORLD REPORTS was the actual information. What that information tells us is all we have to run by. The president we are tought about was a great man indeed. He fought for what was right. He wanted a free nation and each person to be happy.
The reason we portray our heros as possitive people is simple. Would they still be our heros if we stated bad and horrible things about them. We as a nation need to be reasured at times, thats why our heros have positive things attached.
The timeline differs a lot compared with the articles in the U.S News and World reports. It seems that people got the information for the timeline from a story book for kids, it doesnt say anything about his depression or his failures that he could barely handle. The timeline portrays him a folktime hero, people dont like hearing anything bad about him, mostly because he wont seem like a hero but more like a normal person instead. People needed a rolemodel during these times and Abraham was there, so they must have looked up to him for guidence in the way he acted. This is probably why people ignored the bad things happened to him and all the bad things he did, so they could have a postitve rolemodel and not a bad one.
In the Us News and World reports Linclon's entry life is presented.It teels of his achievements and his failing. IT shows research was done to give the truth of Linclons life. That he wasn't the hardworking man with everthing going good for him as the timeline tries to perceive but that he really had toubles and obstacles to overcome.The timeline shows all of the great accomplishes of linclon disregarding anything that makes him look unrighteous.
I believe we focus on the positive traits of our heroes to give ourselves no doubt to why we look up to them. When the discussion of the person you look up to comes up. We have no interest in believeing what they say. We stick up for them because we won't tobelieve that who we look up to would do nothing to harm the innocent.
The Lincoln portrayed in the timeline was the Lincoln that most of us are used to in the respect that everything he did was positive and helpful. The way in which this information was presented was that of what a middle school student might hand in as a report on "Honest Abe". The Lincoln that we see in the US NEWS and WORLD REPORTS is more historically precise such as his difficult upbringing; with his uneducated youth and the death of his mother at only 9 years of age.
We tend to focus on the positive traits of our heros so we can justify them being heroes in our own minds. If we were to emphasize on the negative aspects of our heroes, then who would believe your argument? Focusing on the less flattering traits of our heros would make that hero seem less like a protagonist and more like an antagonist or villain.
Many who have posted blogs about lincoln are trying to approach the news report as fact.Though truthfully most of the news report is still a myth.Its just a bunch of myths from a bunch of different sources saying things that they have learned about lincoln. The timeline though seems to be a general desription of lincolns life.It also has what seems to be kids drawings that support lincolns general background of his story.The truth is that there will never be enough proof to tell the whole story of lincoln.
Some see lincoln as a hero and others dont but the truth of the matter is that he will never be known, not in our lives or the next generations lives
The US News and World Report went into depth about Lincoln's life and told us of the hardships he went through. It did glorify him in some ways but it also hit home how his life really was by telling how his sister died and how his father was never there for him. the timeline was really just a short smudge of his life and had no depth at all.
We tend to focus on the positive aspects of peoples life because it makes them seem more important and gives you a better image of this person.If you were to just tell negative traits, you wouldn't think that this person was all that great. by telling both though we gain a better understanding of how they are good and bad.
1. the difference about lincoln is that on the U.S. news they deffinetly didn't mention that before he was president he was a failure.
2.if we saw lincolns weak side before he was president i dont think anybody would have voted for him, because people dont like weaknesses when it comes to the president of the united states
The U.S News and World Reports went into much depth and detail, and maybe gave us to much information that wasn't as important as other things in Lincolns life. The timeline was more of a watered down version. It focused in on positive attributes and the pictures helped to give u kind a visual perspective on his life. (even though they were done by children)I think that since the timeline was done by these kids that they tended to focus in on the loving, generous Lincoln. While the world reports focused on everything, his bad times and good times he had in life.
I think we look at all the postive traits of our heroes because thats all we know of them. We look at their positive traits because thats what made them heroes. Know one is going to purposely go looking for negative traits in a hero, what good does that do? We like to remember people in a postive way. For Lincoln for example we remember his speeches, and how he was against slavery, although we forget that he too was also anti-civil rights before. I think we de-emphasize the less flattering traits because we don't believe in such things from our heroes. We believe they've done all good and no harm.
The US news and World had shown lincoln in detail and it has faults and troubles he went through. It seemed well thought out and researched. It was also longer then the time line. In the time line it showed lincolns life as a wonderful life with no hardships or faults. It was lacking in detail and short. it gave almost no detail at all, names and dates with no facts basically.
I think we glorify heros because we want to see the great things they did and how they achieved there hero status without fault. almost making them perfect role models.
The Lincoln presented in the timeline was a much simpler and happier version of Lincoln. It shows Lincoln in the happy times of his life. It doesn't show his struggles and bad times. In the US news and World Reports Lincoln had much more problems and struggles. It was a lot more detailed than the timeline.
I think we seem to focus on the positive traits of our heroes to make it seem like they're more worthy of a hero instead of seeing that some of the things they do we don't agree with. Like when we got that hand out in class of all of the quotes said by Lincoln. Most of them were shocking to me that Lincoln said that because he has always come off as such a great man and someone who would be totally against saying that.
If you just read the timeline version. You would think that Lincoln lived the best like possible, that is until he got shot. Everything said about lincoln in the timeline was happy and good. There wasn't any hints of hardship or bad up bringing throughout his childhood or adulthood. Even though it does go into greater detail. The US news version didn't go into as much detail but it showed hardships that lincoln had gone through throughout his lifetime. It tells about his parents not being schooled and lincoln not having proper schooling. it also tells about him having to work when he was 8.
We seem to focus ourselves on the positive traits of our heros mostly because we don't want to think about bad times they went through. We trick our minds into thinking that they were the best people and that they couldn't have turned out any better then they did. In reality everyone has hardships throughout life but we want to think that our "heros" had a perfect life. All the positive things we think about are the details that make our heros, heros. If we just thought of their hardships we wouldn't think of them as heros, just people who had hard lives.
In the timeline, Lincolns life seemed a lot lighter and with less struggle than it actually was. The US News and World Reports focused more on absolute facts and didn't bother adding much detail into them. Since it looks like the drawings in the timeline were done by children it would make sense that they focused on the lighter, happier parts of Lincolns life.
We usually focus more optimistically when we think of our heroes and try to let their flaws go unnoticed. I think it's because we've already decided how we feel about them, that they're a good person, we're able to look past their flaws as insignificant. We'd rather have a hero than a villain.
Lincoln is shown in the timeline only at his most heroic times, hes played out to be almost superhero like. The lincoln talked about in the US news is far less super-human, in those writings there is much more detail about his life and how he went about his decisions that have shaped our country today.
People truly exaggerate things as they travel from word of mouth over the centuries. The man we grow up beleiving lincoln to be has plenty of flaws just like us today, but it is only now in our age that we learn what truly went on.
The Lincoln presented in the US news is somebody who seems to not be honest or even a hard worker, he doesn't seem to be as dedicated as who he'll be honored for. It shows that he was somebody who grew up as being poor and throughout his entire life suffered from sefere depression. The Lincoln presented in the time line is someone who seems much mroe honest and dedicated/focused on being president and ways to overcome slavery.
We focus on positive traits of our heroes more because it makes us aware of why and how they became heroes and why they are important.
Abraham Lincoln is depicted almost in two entirely different ways in the article and in the timeline. The article focused on Abraham Lincoln's early life leading to his presidency, and was written in great detail. The article included accounts of his ups, and his downs, not really biased to either. The timeline focused on the very basic facts to know about Lincoln, and seems like it is intended for small children.
I think that the reason we tend to portray our heroes in a positive light is because we don't want to believe that our heroes had problems in their lives, or that they had any negative traits. I think that because the majority of literature on our heroes is biased to the positive side, that our heroes traits may become buried, and lost in history. I think that it would be beneficial to know our heroes accomplishments AND faults if we are to make a fair assessment on their true character.
The Abe in the time line was made to look good. For example one of the pictures was him infront of the sun. Abe with the sun in the background and happy little drawings around him just looks good (heroic). In the US news and World Reports they went more into detail. They also took a big look into his early childhood and time before presidency. They pictures in the timeline were drawn as highlights of his life will the essay was every little detail about Abe's life.
People focus on the good things when they look at heroes because they don't want to know the bad things. If your hero has bad qualities or events that happened in their life you don't want to hear about them or other people to hear about them. Overall we don't want to know about our heroes flaws.
Abraham lincoln was shown as a farm raised boy in the timeline link. all pictures and notes next to the picture showed the happy momnets of his life. first they described him as a farm boy that used to build log cabins with his father. then they told us about early family tragedies like his mother dying when he was 9. they mentioned that in the world/us news section. also, both links explain his early childhood. like his father. and last, both links contain info on Gettysburg and his assassination.
the only reason we focus on the positive traits is because we learned about their heroism instead of what made them "less flattering." with lincoln, we see him as the hero of the battle at Gettysburg, his Gettysburg Address, and the assassination at fords theatre. the battle was a heroic moment for lincoln. it proved that he was a true president and could be a helpful asset to the USA. we didn't know about his fued with former slave Fredrick Douglas or of his anti-civil right days because we only learned about the more appealing history.
In US News and The World Reports, They gave a discriptive story of Lincolns life. They didnt really talk much about his flaws, but more of accomplishments. In the World Report they spoke more of his hard times through his childhood into his adult life.
I personally think that we focus more on the positive traits of our past leaders and heros because of what they did for our country. Everyone makes mistakes by as human beings i think we try to see the best in people. We honored Lincoln for various reasons, even though he made mistakes and failed multiple times. Since we look up to our leaders and heros to guide us through tough times we like to think that they are inferiour and can do no wrong.
In the website that gives the timeline of Lincoln’s life, you don't get presented with a whole lot of information, it's just basically a summary of the good things that had happened. This timeline makes Lincoln seem like a very happy person who had a pretty decent life and doesn't give details about anything bad that happened or any mistakes that he had made along the way. On the other hand, the US news article gives a lot more details about his life and doesn't only talk about the good things that happened, it talks about basically everything that happened in his life whether it was good or bad.
I feel that people seem to focus on the positive traits of our heroes because we are scared to think that they had things that were bad about them or that they did certain things that aren’t satisfactory to everyone. I think this because when I think of a hero I think of someone who always makes the right decisions, but obviously that doesn’t happen because we're all human and everyone does things that aren't always going to be accepted. Also something that you have to remember is that the timeline (which was all positive) was made by kids, so of course it’s only going to show the good things that happened to him because their teachers aren’t going to go and give a lesson on all the bad things that he did.
The Abe Lincoln shown in the timeline was all positive and was just a basic overview of the stages his life. In the US News and World Report, they go into more detail and show the hardships of Lincoln's life, and the struggles he went through and they go deeper in his past. It's more of his weakness-like moments and negative things that had happened to him.
We focus on the positive traits of our heroes because heroes are suppose to be positive influences and they do good things. If we looked at the negative, they wouldn't be as heroic in our eyes. We usually turn our heads when told bad things about our heroes because we only want to see them as good.
I think that the president in the timeline was a very positvily viewed one with not much detail and only the good parts about him. Where as the usnews one was a very detailed (good and bad details) which seemed to obviously the less flattering of the two.
I think we try to only see the positvie things about heros because we know inside they that are not perfect... no one is but if we think that they are only amazing heros then we can just give them our full faith and trust that they will come through.
The lincoln presented in the world news was protrayed as a great guy with no problems in his life (besides the assassination). But in actuality he was a "failure" at most of the things he did.
We focus on positive traits because we want to know a hero who had nothing wrong with him, we want someone that's important and strong to be a hero, not someone who has downfalls (even though we know everyone does).
I believe that Lincoln in the timeline was represented how he was known best by the common person. The Wolrd Report really showed some of his characteristical flaws. Most people don't seem to care about his younger years of life and the hardships he went through.
I know that I always focus on the traits of Lincoln and heroes in general that I view as positive. This is what makes the person a hero. Also, not many people want to hear about the bad things people do, especially if they have done really great things in their life.
The world news article portrays lincoln in a different light because it was more focused on being factual.
The timeline portrayed lincoln with little detail because it was more focused on making lincoln look like a hero.
People focus on positive traits of our heros because if we thought about the mistakes they had made we might not focus on the good things thay have done
in the timeline ab licoln was shown to be hard working and honest. he had a graet family and was very happy.
in the world news it showed that his dad was never home and so he left. he tried many jobs before becoming a lawyer. they said that he got married and had kids, but the truth is that his fiancey died before they got married. they never had kids who moved into the white house. after she died he was very emotionaly unstable. he told a client that he was to big to cry but to sad to laugh. the towns thought he was crazy and might commit suicide.
we only see the positives in people because we need someone to look up to. we cant look up to a crazy person. we need a strong leader.
The Lincoln in the US News and World Reports was more realistic and thorough. It had both the highs and lows for Lincoln. The article contained the troubles and hard times Lincoln went through to get where he was as President and a hero. The timeline just highlighted the positive things about his life growing up as a child and becoming famous. It doesn't mention all the hardship Lincoln went through to become President.
We seem to focus on only the positive traits of our American heroes for the simple reason that if we learned about all of their flaws, their perfect image would be tainted. As regular Americans in every day life, we strive to be perfect and flaws are our enemies. Therefore, our American heroes, of all people, should be (perfect) role models.
The abe Lincoln in these articals are telling us that the abe that we all know about is a faliure and that he had much self doubt. these articals go very in depth with his life to find out that the abe that we know isnt the perfect man that was brought up in a log cabin (though he was)and struggled for his life to get to where he was.
I think that we all picture him a such a hero becaue we have been thinking of him as one for such a long time that we don want to admit that he is just another person that had many flaws.
On the time line, that just shows when events happen. Pictures and drawing, things like that, those are what people want others to see. Sometimes they are what need to be seen.
The information on the news cast and newsletters those are what really happened that was recorded by people who were there and taped by people who were there. All Lincoln wanted was each person to be free and each person to be happy. He wanted a free nation and a free world.
Hero's are what the people of our nation want them to be. Take bush for example, some think of him as a hero for helping in Iraq, but most think that it was a waste of American lives. So is he a hero, maybe. Hero’s are what you want them to be, and what you think makes a hero.
The Lincoln that was presented in the US NEWS and WORLD REPORTS was a more... professional view on Lincoln. The thought process was clear and organized and it was very well researched. It was exactly how you would expect something from a news source to be. The Lincoln that was presented in the timeline seemed a lot more amateur than anything. It was more summarized and very positive. It was pretty much an overview of the facts that everyone probably knows about Lincoln.
I personally think that we focus on the positive traits of our heroes because we don't want to face the reality that no one is perfect and everyone has flaws, even those that are perceived as heroes. When you think of Lincoln, you remember him as the president that abolished slavery and we love and honor him because of the positive things he contributed to our current culture. But as normal human beings, we ignore the fact that even Honest Abe had flaws. For instance, we ignore the fact that he was anti-civil rights for the larger portion of the Douglas vs. Lincoln debates. Obviously it is not only Lincoln that we perceived as a hero and de-emphasized his flaws, there are plenty of people like that. But as I said before, we as normal human beings do not want to face the fact that even heroes are people too and all people, no matter how well-publicized they are, no matter how much of a good samaritan they are, no matter how good their contributions to society may be, have flaws.
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