Superman - an American cultural icon Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Superman - an American cultural flick - Essay Examplein the blue tights and red cape who flew around rescuing anyone in need of help and constantly struggling against a slew of supervillians of various sorts. In many ways, this Superman can be compared to the ancient stories of the half-man, half-god Hercules and his various adventures changed close to to fit the modern understandings of the world and provide him with powers equally astounding to the modern audience. To understand how and why Superman has become a cultural icon and why he will remain so for many years into the future, it is necessary to understand what is meant by the term icon, how this term applies to Superman and why this reference work fits a particular need within todays social structure.The first step in discovering how and why Superman is a cultural icon of both past and future is identifying exactly what is meant by the term icon. Fortunately, Margaret Kenna (1985) has already gone a long way toward identi fying exactly those elements that define the original make-up of the icon. The Greek word eikon can be translated as image, picture, portrait, representation. The modern use of the word denotes two-dimensional representations such as paintings, photographs, or pictures in magazines and newspapers, and 3-dimensional objects such as statues. In certain contexts the word refers particularly to pictures of holy persons and events (Kella, 1985 347). Thus, an icon is generally defined as an object that is imbued with divine power of rough sort. Taking the religion out of the equation, this equals to super power or power beyond the ordinary strength and abilities of man. In addition to its symbolic relationship with the divine, the do of an icon follows a specific tradition that is intended to provide an even deeper symbolism in that the icon is a microcosm of the relationship between the material world, clement beings and the divine power believed to have created them all (Kenna, 198 5 348). Here we