Mariah Carey's lyrics to Hero are in reference to to discovering the hero inside each and every one of us. Therefore when she speaks of the "long road when you face the world alone" she is certainly not meaning this in the literal sense, but a more symbolic sense of how taking on the challenges and responsibilities of releasing one's inner hero is a struggle.
The simile of Lines 18 through 23 compares the storm clouds that whip across the sky from the horizon to the zenith to: locks of hair of a frenzied woman. (Ode to the West Wind).
