Our town
5
In Literature:
Superman
There are limitless examples of real-life scenarios where power and responsibility have been connected to each other. But are there examples of this connection in literature? The short answer, is yes. Power and responsibility have shown up together multiple times in the past decades, and have varied from stories such as The Help to Lord of the Rings. What I will be focusing on is a slightly less serious version of literature; Superman and his comics.
Superheroes have always been viewed as the perfect human being that will sacrifice anything for the greater good. However this promise to always protect the community does not come with a price. Time and time again, superheroes are forced to sacrifice what they love in order to make sure that everybody else does not have to. Three superheroes show this explicitly in their comics from the 1960s until today; Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man.
Superman, or the Man of Steel, is by far the most well-known superhero of all time. He developed into an American cultural symbol in the late-1930s, when the first volume of Superman's comics came out. He is viewed as the perfect man, one who is brave, smart, trustworthy, and caring. But being the protector of America is not always so easy for Superman. Time and time again, he is flung into fighting some ridiculous battles, and each time he sacrifices everything to keep America safe. Superman's signature calling card is very similar to that of many other superheroes; he seemingly never fails. This is partially because unlike the vast majority of these comic book characters, he is truly unhuman. This mean that for most of the time when he is fighting, he does not have to worry about losing. But say that he does somehow lose his fight for humanity. Say that some evil-doer is able to wipe out Superman for good. What responsibility does Superman hold for losing this fight? He promised to protect humanity at any cost, and he was unable to. Should he be held accountable for failing, even though he was willing to put everything on the line? Well, it is largely a matter of preference. Sure, he failed. But is it really his fault? For example, if you were playing the trust-fall game with a friend and you let him fall because some outside factor physically stopped you from saving them. Obviously, in this situation, you could not be held responsible for what happened, because it was completely out of your control. In some ways, this is very similar to Superman's supposed failure. Sure, he lost. He was given all of the power in the world, and he lost. But if he also did everything he could do to stop himself from losing, it makes sense to say that he still should not be held accountable for what happened. Therefore in this case, unlike that of people like Hitler and Napoleon, Superman cannot be held accountable for his failure. This shows how the responsibility of an individual is largely based on how he used his power; whether for good, like Superman, or for bad, like Hitler and Napoleon.