Jingyi Chen
Professor: Stein, Scott
Course: Superheroes in America
HNRS 201 Are Superman and Batman the heroes Aristotle wants? Aristotle says “everything in the world, whether natural or artificial, had some essence that distinguished it from all other things” (c.330 B.C). The Superhero is a unique and significant part of American culture and many people grew up with the stories. Superheroes stories entertains and teaches them patriotism, responsibility, justice and morality. The writers integrate wisdom into the stories in order to make Superheroes more valuable and they do achieve their goal. Many times, I found myself could not help asking myself the questions “why can Batman and Superman have…show more content… People sometimes find difficult to tell the difference between right and wrong. A powerful hero like Superman also encounters the tough moral question. In Superman: Grounded (2011), Clark stops Lois reporting the article which emphasizes the environmental costs of a plant. Clark feels struggling about revealing the truth because the workers of the plant plead with him that the plant is their major source of jobs. If the plant is stopped, they will lose their job and have trouble raising their families. Clark finds himself hard to making a decision and he tells Lois that it is not all black and white, which states that telling the truth cannot gain the biggest happiness at this time. He cannot avoid making such a tragic decision. He says, “What good is the truth, if it just causes suffering.” Superman finally make a judgment and he decides not to tell the truth. In the dilemma, he measures the good of telling the truth and that of letting the plant continue. He worries about the failure of the plant will kill the native people’s income, which make people’s life harder. He tries hard to balance all the things in his mind to maximize pleasure and the lack of suffering, and he finds the way out. He warns the employer of the plant if they don’t clean up the pollutions in the future, they will have trouble. And he tells them he will come there regularly to check their work. Superman makes a good judgment here. He is mercy to the native people and his kindness and carefulness to people drive him to make such a