VI.Superman and Reeve Define American Heroes

1.In the face of enormous frustration, Reeve was held up as an example of courage. Although he was not able to move from the waist down,Reeve continued to travle, do public appearances,and serve as a voice for the paralyzed in th United States.

Christopher Reeve became a cultural icon himself, said M.Thomas Inge, a popular culture historian and author of "comics as culture"

American heroes are usually rugged individuals- plain folks from humble, often rural beginnings who react gracefully to the hands the are dealt or achive the impossile against the odds. But Superman was extraordinary from infancy,the survivor of a doomed world, and he didn't have to overcome any odds. His vulnerability wasn't self-doubt or human intransigence,but a glowing green rock.

2.One could bend steel from the moment he arrived; the other insisted,over and over,that"nothing is impossible". One took to the skies heroically and effortlessly; the other was grounded tragically, and battled to stand up again.

Known over the world as Superman, Christopher Reeve served as a symbol of strength, the force of good, with the ability to fly and soar over the problems of man.He was the stength and mobility personified to people throughout the world. This, it came as a shock when Christopher Reeve fell from his horse during a riding show accident, and broke his spinal cord and paralyzed him from the neck down.