Chapter 5: How Heroes Transform Themselves and the World

There is a very telling scene early in the classic film, Casablanca, during which the story’s hero Rick Blaine, played by Humphrey Bogart, declares his undying loyalty only to himself. “I stick my neck out for nobody,” he reveals to French officer Louis Renault. The scene is telling because we know, or at least strongly suspect, that it can’t possibly be true. Casablanca would not be regarded as one of the best movies of the twentieth century if Rick remained throughout the film the kind of guy who refuses to take risks to help others. He must change. Sure enough, our hero’s heart is wrenched by the appearance of Ilsa Lund, the love of his life who jilted him a few years earlier. Rick’s love for her is awakened, and with that awakening comes a greater realization that there are forces at work in the world around him that transcend his need to be with Ilsa. At the end, when Rick sticks his neck out for the world, viewers of the movie are eminently satisfied. Nothing gives us greater fulfillment that witnessing the complete transformation of a hero.