Essential Questions For the Hero Project. By Chris Sullivan-Irwin For Period 5 English 11

Question 1: How do we define the personality traits of a hero I see a hero as someone who is respectful to others and will do anything to help, even putting the other person first before them. I believe that a hero is someone who has really changed the lives of the people he’s helped. Ex. A Doctor who is able to revive someone after they have been dead for 5 minutes, or a Firefighter who has run into a burning building and saved someone, even if it meant giving his life for the cause. The person also has to be a nice and caring person who will try and make all the people around him/her comfortable and try not to offend them in any way.

Question 2: How do the setting, conflicts, and antagonists influence the development of literary heroes? The area where an emergency takes place is always different like some places are safe because they are next to a police station or they could be located in the area between two bordering gang territories, also known as No-Man’s Land. Each place makes the EMT’s think about there surroundings and how to deal with the patient as in to treat on-scene or to “Scoop and Swoop” which is to take the patient and treat them during transport to the hospital which would mainly be done at a dangerous scene or if the patient needs hospital care fast. Also the type of patient that the person is dealing with could either be a basic broken arm or a person high on PCP who could punch his way out of the ambulance because of the new power he gets from the drug.

Question 3: How does a hero reflect his/her particular culture and society? Well as an EMT during certain calls Joseph would be in-charge of who lives and who dies, such as in a police vs. gang firefight where both Police officers and Gang Members were injured and depending on who he treated first he would be respected by one “side” or the other and if, say, he treated the officer then the gang members who become angry at Joseph and could threaten him and possibly take action against him next time they see him. Or if he helps the Gang members before he helps the officers then some of the uninjured officers could lose respect towards him and possibly not help him when he needs it.

Question 4: How does a hero represent his/her time period and geographical area? When Joseph started his career as an EMT, it was during the early 1980’s when the EMS field was expanding by having Paramedics and other new programs getting involved and even though Joe wasn’t a paramedic, he was starting college and one of his classes would increase his skills in the field and he would know techniques that only him and paramedics would know. Joe would work in an area on the job known as “No-Man’s Land” and at times he would be scene as a “Bad Guy” in the eye’s of the gang members since he wouldn’t get out of him ambulance immediately to help a shot gang member until there was Police on scene, and at times that wouldn’t happen for 5 to 10 minutes, during that time the gang members would become more and more frustatred and would “want Bloodshed.”

Question 5: How do various cultures reward or recognize their heroes? Some heroes, depending on what they have done, then they will be rewarded differently. Say in America when the First astronauts came back from space they were placed in a parade and honored as heroes, as legends. In other society’s though the heroes are honored but not in a parade, but they become “Gods” practically, or rulers of that country in which they are from.

Question 6: How does the action of the Hero reflect onto his personal life? At times if Joseph were to go to an area where he remembers being at a horrible car crash were there were multiple DOA (Dead on Arrival) patients, then he doesn’t feel comfortable going that same way. Also certain things he does on the job he can’t talk to his family about, such as certain “calls” he has responded to because the mental image would be devastating to the mind of someone isn’t an EMT and isn't prepared to deal with life on the street and what happens out there.

Question 7: How does the action of the Hero Reflect onto his Friends and Family? He has made a good portion of his friends working on the ambulance or in the ER and his family is very proud of what he his doing, wouldn’t you be?

Question 8: (to Joseph) How long have you been writing, and how did you come to publish "My Ambulance Education?"

Question 9: Why will EMS providers be interested in this book (My Ambulance Education)? This book tells the story of an average Joe, literally, who does something that not everyone can, by becoming an EMT. This is telling the story of an average EMT doing the not so average job in a dangerous area of the city of Mt. Vernon, New York. He was working mainly in the area between 2 rival gang territory’s, also known as “No Man’s Land” where there are shots fired, people shot and killed, and fires occur all the time. Being an EMT isn’t as easy and safe as everyone thinks it is. This book can give someone who is interested in the EMS field a look into the “Street-Life” of a EMT in a big city, such as Mt. Vernon and how difficult it is to deal with “Life and Death on the Streets” everyday.

Question 10: (to Joseph) Why did you leave the life of an EMT and become to working as a Doctor?