The best way to understand the character of a society is to examine the character of the men and women that society chooses as it heroes and heroines.

 The speaker contends that if one wants to explore and research the character of a society, the best way is to understand of the heroes and heroines of the society. I think the assertion is partly reasonable, because the personal characters of these persons are generally praised by our society, which reflect what we would applaud or appreciate. But I think simply studying the heroes and heroines is insufficient, as the diversity of society requires more research beyond just the heroes/heroines.

 First, I acknowledge that the heroes/heroines represent part of our societal value. For example, we appreciate business role models because our society cherishes creativity and innovation. When Bill Gates or Steve Jobs are viewed as business legends, they serve as role models which we would like to see revered and replicated. We all scream for sport stars because their spirits always encourage us to face challenges and tell us we should struggle for our goals.  Further, the fans of the sports stars will likely find that their success is a result of “perseverance  and working hard”, which is a precious character in society. In a word, through studying those role models of society, we would know the value orientation of the society.

  But only researching these famous peoples’ character cannot fully and truly reflect the character of our society. On the one hand, the number of these heroes/ heroines is quite few, as they all elites of this society. They just reflect one facets of societal character. In the other word, they are quite far away form the ordinary people, and cannot typify the ordinary characters of society. On the other hand, sometimes, what the heroes/heroines do or say can not reflect their real characters. It is entirely possible that when these people become public figures, what they say would be beautified or processed. It is also possible that their  message was crafted by public consultant company. So, one should not accept the hero/heroine image naively at face value.

 Today’s world is a diverse society which consists of celebrities and ordinary persons. In fact, most of people are common persons. In order to get an accurate representation of the society, one needs to thoroughly study these ordinary persons. So, we should expand our demographics beyond the heroes/heroines and try to understand both famous or non-famous people in order to understand the world well.

   Finally, the character of the society should not be limited to positive values, but also negative ones . So, we even need to understand those who

represent negative behaviors, such as criminals and immoral people, in order to represent the society fully. From what has been discussed, I think only study the character of heroes/heroines is not enough to understand the value of society. Only when we greatly expand our sample size, can we get thorough information about the society.