Cornelia ’s Comments (group member since Sep 05, 2011)

Cornelia ’s comments from the 2012 - Ms. Richardson L.A. group.

In book five, Odysseus follows the first step of the hero’s path which is the mundane world. A mundane world is a place that the hero does not want to live in either because they are not in a place where they are happy or they are too bored in their luxuries and comfort. Odysseus has everything that any mortal man would dream of having. He has a gorgeous wife and a beautiful geographical land that his wife created for him. He is too comfortable and he has a deep longing for adventure. People tend to get into a routine of life and they have the same routine every single day. The question is when to get out of that world and start a new world, but the question still standing is: “Is it really worth leaving this life just because of boredom?”
The second step of the hero’s journey is the call to adventure. This is when the hero is called out by some force either mentally or physically that requires the hero to either accept or decline a battle. His call to adventure occurs the moment that he steps land on the Cyclops’s island and see’s the goat and sheep. He instantly has a quick battle in his mind, but soon his pride takes over him as he forces his crew members to wait for the Cyclops to get back so they could talk to him, and have an epic battle.

The third step of the hero’s journey is crossing the threshold. The hero has been changed forever and can never be his old self again. The point where Odysseus crosses the threshold is after they have escaped from the Cyclops and as they are getting onto their boat, something happens to him. His pride turns to something even worse, and he is stuck in the mind that he can do anything and nothing can stop him because he is the all great and powerful. We can avoid this by watching out for our friends to make sure that they don’t get hurt just so that we can get something that we want.


The path of trials is the forth step of the hero’s journey. This is where the hero makes new friends, new enemies, new knowledge and plenty of adventure and trials put before him. There is a trial when he is almost finished with his journey that a new friend has warned him about. Yet, with his pride again he will not turn back. He is told of sirens that will go off that will tell him everything about himself so he tells his men to tie him up, but let him listen to the siren. This is an act of curiosity more than pride because he wants to learn more about himself, yet he could die showing a bad example to his crew. Yet, in the end, whatever choices he made shifted him into the person that he turns into in the end.


The fifth and final step of the hero’s journey is the master of two worlds. This is where the hero is now a hero in both his mundane world and the world that he battled in. When he returns to his real home, not his mundane world with his wife, he is respected and treated a lot better than he did before. Yet there is almost a fear towards him showed by his sons and family because they know he has been through things they could never even imagine. He is asked to fix problems and create solutions which what every hero wants to be asked.

“The power of the myth”, written by Joseph Campbell, has many different mythological quotes and stories that can be place into our own lives, and help others to understand them also. There are many different parts of this quote that all have significant mythological and symbolic meaning.

“We have not to even risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path.” What Joseph Campbell is saying here is that we have had people before us to pave our pathways for us, so taking the risk of trying to do everything on our own is unnecessary. It is just extra work that is not needed and may take away from time that you could already be finished and living your dreams.

Another quote from Joseph Campbell is “And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves.” People can be very rude to each other so that they can tear that person down, but it turns out that it only tears them down. An example is on facebook, somebody made a fake profile for another girl that went to their school. It said a lot of mean and hurting things about her on it. They were charges a fine under the law and had to pay a lot of money because of the harmful things that they posted. Then as they continued to grow up, they had the burden of hurting a poor innocent girl for the rest of their lives, and it won’t look good when they are trying to apply for a college. Then when they are older, they will look back on when they wren younger and hate all that they were and all that they did. So, in the end it only hurts the person who tries to hurt another.

“Where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence.” Trying to somehow get away from ourselves, and become some kind of different person than we already are because we are not satisfied with the person that we already are. It may be looks, personality, clothing, or wanting to be more like somebody else. It’s all coming from the caring of what other people think about, not what you think about. Yet, that’s all that matters, is what your thoughts are about yourself. In the end, even though our reputations may be changed, it will only be a thin mask that at some point will break because you’re true identity will never go away, it is a part of you.

“And where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with the entire world.” No matter how the feeling of loneliness haunts about, how its thought there isn’t one person in the world out there. That there’s nobody that understands. Misunderstanding has obviously been made, because that is not true. There is always somebody to be there to catch for a fall, and to dry a tear off of your cheek. And there are always people out there that are suffering more, so to fill that loneliness you must help others through service to find true happiness in yourself.

"A tale of two cities", written by Charles Dickens, was written over 150 years ago, yet it is still relevant to modern audiences. For example, on pg. 1, one of Dickens most famous quotes, "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times"
It is explicitly shown through our world that we are living in the best of times. In America, for example, we have freedom: the right to choose. Most people are blessed with a house over their head, food in their bellies, and shoes on their feet. They get to experience the happiness of a family, no matter what size, shape or form that may be. In the book, many wealthy people have it all and yet they give nothing to the poor. This is not true happiness, but is portrayed as the best times, as today we have our wealthy billionaires with seven houses across the world and electronic goodies, swimming pools, and every luxury in life.
“It was the worst of times”, in the book, a young boy had his tongue cut off and was burned alive because he did not bow to a procession of monks about fifty feet from his view. Recently, in Africa, people have been killed for no reason, or for silly reasons like the boy who hadn’t bowed. There are people starving to death not just in poorer places like Africa, but also in America. And the wealthy leaders and citizens only sit there and watch.

I would have to say that Suzanne Collins definitely makes Katniss embrace the male archetype. She shows this in many ways throughout the book. A male archetype is aggressive, impatient, and the provider of the family. Katniss is all three of these. She is the provider of her family back in district twelve. She hunts for her family out in the woods so they can survive. Then she has to trade for other stuff at the hob. When Peeta pronounces his love for her, she just shoves him and yells at him that "he made me look weak!". She is a very impatient person. In the games, she was just sitting in a tree doing nothing, and she said that she would rather be out there, killing people. Then after the games were over, she finds herself bound to a hospital bed which she tries time and time again to escape, even though she already knows the outcome of the tried escape, which is passing out. Yet, she has to hold herself back from escaping.

In the story, the most dangerous game, our protagonist,Rainsford, goes through many trials to change him into a different person. While hunting tigers with his rather sensetive hunting partner,Witney, he exclaims"who cares how the tiger feels?!?!" He having no care in the world about a life, even if it is an animal. He wants it to die. He thinks that it needs to die.

When he landed on that dreaded island where a evil scientist trapped people onto his island and then hunted them. He is then invited into his mansion and forced into a competition to the death, and if he wins he gets the island, and if he doesn't, he dies. As he was running away from what used to be himself, it changed is heart as he felt what it was like to be the tigers and to be hunted. His heart is changed because of the terrifying experience, and he most likely will not pick up another rifle again.

The scarlet ibis is a symbol for doodle in how they are both exotically beautiful which make them out of the place to the people and things around them. In this story, they both had forces or in doodles case, the narrator, pushing them away from the strangeness of their nature to what they think is not only normal, but essentials needed to do their best. People try to change you I know from my personal experience, but if you keep your own "exotic strangeness" then you wont loose yourself in place of another.