Question: What does a 1970’s YA novel about addiction, poverty, and the experience of growing up Black in urban environments have to do with a 21st century reality game show about ballroom dancing? Answer: Devaluation of the English language. When the young protagonist says that “a hero ain’t nothing but a sandwich” what does he really mean? He is conflating two different and quite distinct reference points for the word hero, of course, by suggesting that “we livin’ in a time” when heroic figures have about as much meaning in his life as type of sandwich others refer to as a sub, a hoagie, a grinder, and a poorboy. But beneath that, what he is really saying—the subtext that is driving his negative opinions of heroes—is that it is the word itself which has been devalued and not the actual existence of heroes.
When a word becomes devalued, it is not just the meaning of the word that suffers. Benjie is not the one devaluing the word "hero," he is responding to its devaluation by others through constant misapplication. Which brings the answer to the question posed above. Benjie's disrespect for the concept of heroes existing in the world by comparing their use to a sandwich, which has a short shelf life for bringing satisfaction, is comparable to calling a reality game show Dancing with the Stars and then casting its “stars” role with people like Holly Madison, Kate Gosselin, Bristol Pain, Andy Grammar, Jesse Metcalfe and too many others.
While these and others like them may enjoy a slice of the ever-increasing “celebrity” market, to officially categorize them as “stars” only serves to strip that term of even more of its meaning. In fact, the devaluation of the “star” had already been going on long before most of these so-called stars or the dancers they were paired with had been born. The whole reason for the designation of some celebrities as “superstars” traces back to the era when the word star started being thrown around a little too casually. That the word superstar even exists is proof enough that the devaluation of the words has actual consequences in the real world.
And Benjie’s rejection of the use of heroes in his world is proof as well because while he may only be a fictional character, he is very much a representative of real people living in the real world he reflects. Later on, in a section narrated by Butler Craig, there is a scene in which a social worker is giving advice in his attempt to try to assist with Benjie’s situation. The social worker is well-meaning, but his advice it not taken well by Butler, who asserts that what Benjie really needs in his life at the moment is “some male hero figure he can identify with” before suggesting sports figures and movie stars along with important figures in Black History. Butler repeats Benjie’s dismissive claim about what a hero is and points out how many of the people the social worker is suggesting as suitable for hero-worship cannot even take care of themselves despite being rich, much less take care of the responsibilities he himself faces despite being poor.
Butler is not saying it outright, but the subtext is clear enough. Society has gone off track somewhere in its estimation of what defines a hero. The kinds of people that the social worker suggests might be the hero-figures Benjie needs only qualify for that suggestion because of their salaries. There is nothing inherently heroic about being a movie star or an athlete—lives do not get saved and the world is not made better as a result of their labor. The social worker is essentially pointing out that “we livin’ in a time” when the meaning of heroism has been devalued to the point of describing how much more money one earns than most other people. When heroism is viewed from the perspective that equates how much someone else is paying you to do a job rather than what you do to help someone else without any expectation of payment at all, Benjie is right on the mark. In fact, if that is the standard, a hero is not even as useful as a sandwich.
