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

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

The Odyssey -5 Steps to Heroism

The mundane world- The first example of this step in the story the Odysseys is shown in book five “Calypso.” In this book Odysseus is in the land of Calypso. Lavish food and novelties and all sorts of luxuries surround him. Beauty is all around him there is no danger in sight, but still he longs for something different. Odysseus doesn’t long for more it is actually a sense of longing for less. Odysseus is living in a world fit for a God but he wants nothing more than to live the life of a human, he has loyalty for his wife even though he has beautiful goddesses to love every night; he is simply not satisfied with this mundane world. If you travel deeper into the text you can really relate this step to modern life. An example of “the mundane world” could be living in a household where you have everything you could ever need to live successfully, and yet you still wish for more. Everyone has felt a longing for something more at least once in their life, and reading classic mythology can really provide the reader with s structure because deep down all myth stories pull on common human emotions.

Call to Adventure – The reader will find that step two, a call to adventure, also appears in book five Calypso. The call comes when Hermes travels to the Island of Calypso. He sees this beautiful land before and he is quite perplexed as to why Odysseus would ever want to leave this place. Analyzing the text will lead the reader to realize that a common human emotion is triggered. Getting his “call to adventure” makes Odysseus gain strength. He feels the emotions of bravery and loyalty raging inside of him. These built-up emotions will give Odysseus the courage boost he needs to make the journey home. This part of the story is a very important one - it shows that Odysseus, although very cocky and arrogant in the chapters and books ahead, actually does have a sense of human emotions. Before he is called to adventure I would even say that Odysseus is even a bit vulnerable. In the next books the reader will see that after Odysseus receives the call he builds up a more hubris attitude toward life in general. This can also be related to modern life. Sometimes when someone experiences great success it can also bring upon arrogance and hubris that can damage them in the end.





Crossing the Threshold – Step three, crossing the threshold, comes in to play during book nine, when Odysseus and his men are aboard a ship traveling home. They come across a nice little island. On the island many goats and sheep are discovered, and along with the animals is a Cyclops that lives in a cave. This part of the book shows “the crossing of a threshold”, because Odysseus and his men were not brought to the island to fight the Cyclops out of pride, it was a choice made purely out of Odysseus arrogance. He is forcing his men to cross the threshold between the safe place or the so-called mundane world, which the boat the men travel on could now represent. This step is very important in the hero’s journey. It brings an initial problem to the surface, and makes the hero dig deep and realize what he has to offer.

Path of Trials- The fourth step, Path of Trials, is seen in many places throughout The Odyssey. The path of trials is a main part of the journey that highlights many of the hardships and challenges that the hero character will face along their journey. It also brings along new friends, enemies, and mentors, which will end up impacting the story in some way or another whether it be good or bad. One challenge that Odysseus faces in book nine is the Cyclops. The Cyclops is a dumb-witted mammoth size creature, at least that is how Odysseus views it, but in reality the brute of a beast might have more power than Odysseus thinks. The trial that the men have to face in this book is confronting the sheer strength and size of the beast. They have to use their cunning minds to create a plan to get away from the Cyclops and off of the island before the creature destroys them. In a sense, this fight can be represented as a fight against oneself and an individual’s arrogance. Odysseus brings the fight with the Cyclops upon himself with no intention of doing anything, or how it will impact his men.

This is just one example of a trial or hardship that Odysseus and his men have to face throughout the story. This example is relevant to the modern world because of how often an individual’s arrogance can get in the way of their real goals.


Master of Both Worlds - The final steps comes in book 16-23 when Odysseus returns to his home land Ithaca. When he arrives he is to make a choice of which world he would like to remain in. Choosing Ithaca, his homeland, it is now a place of renewal where Odysseus can lead a more steady life knowing that he has succeeded in the hero’s path. He can also learn from all of the mistakes that led him into problems and challenges along the way. He can use his life as a hero to inspire others rather than alienating them with his own arrogance.

This famous quote by Joseph Campbell is stating that we as mortal humans cannot simply try something once and become a professional, "We have not to even risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us." This part of the quote states that we as people are able to accomplish great successes, not because of ourselves, but because of the heroes and role models that have paved the way for us.

“We have only to follow the thread of the hero path", further describes the concept that we follow people of the past. A good example of this is cultures in different countries where we see that traditions and sometimes difficult methods of success and survival are passed down from generation to generation. The present generations are learning from their past generations, and taking these traits and methods as some sort of process from "heroes".

The line "And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god.", describes that moment when one might feel that they have done something bad, or that they are going to experience a terrible fate, and end up coming upon something greater than they could have imagined. A lot of times when people get disappointing news, when they have to face a trial that is difficult to overcome. People tend to find that they have more inner strength than they thought, and they can get through difficult experiences if their mindset is in the right place.

When you think about causing revenge on others, you might never think of the impact that may have on you, but the truth is “And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves.” This line is a very good example of all the evil and revenge that is in the world if someone calls you a name in front of the class and you decide to get revenge by punching them in the face the person in trouble is you.
Many people that cause revenge to others don’t get dealt trouble personally, but they will have to live with the haunting pain and remorse for the rest of their life. Those who slay will be slain.

This quote overall can refer to all walks of life, although it is part of mythology, it still has a very deep meaning on modern life. I think this quote shows that no matter what time period we are in humans will act similar and portray common emotions and ethics.

Although a Tale of Two Cities was written 150 years ago, it is still one of the most beloved and cherished books of all time. This story is old yet timeless - it has a great significance on both an ancient and modern audience. This novel starts out with a very powerful quote in the first few lines that state, “It WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,” in just a few lines of the novel it is clearly stated that there is a great modern relevance.
In the era of the novel there was a drastic separation between the wealthy and the poor living the peasantry lifestyle. This same type of classing is still very prominent in the modern world. Our world is filled with the “ richer than Midas, and poor as a mouse.” This dividing and placement is the reason for much of the fights and wars that brake out all over the world, and in the novel shows this fighting in the nearest degree.
At the beginning of the novel, the Marquis runs over a young peasant boy with his carriage. The marquis simply throws a gold coin to the father. Outraged that the Marquis would put a price on a human’s life he throws it back. This part of the novel really relates to the modern world. If the story were put into modern relevance in America; a rich businessman would play the role of the Marquis and a homeless man would play the role of the poor peasants. Such an enlarged difference in class can lead to a lot of conflict and trouble, just as it does in the novel.
Later in the story, it is easy to see that Theresa Defarge has a great hatred against Charles Draney*(spoiler) later it is stated that there has been many great conflicts between the Everson’s and Theresa Defarge. Theresa’s sister was brutally beaten and taken advantage of by the marquis. This is a direct resemblance of the sometime cruel world we live in. In modern India, young girls are taken from their families to be put into industries and are completely taken advantage of by the richer and more powerful. This is a direct connection to the novel from 1859, and our world in 2012.
This novel is truly a “classic” and it really shows how little our world has really changed in 150 years. Although we might have much more technology and luxuries, the world is still very filled with war, rebellion, poverty, hunger, division in class, and death. So before you say that this book is to old to relate be sure to take a closer look at the relevance the lesson's of this book has to the world we live in today.

In the novel "The Hunger Games," ideas about a common archetype are hard to uncover. Author Suzanne Collins defies the common male archetype when describing and writing about Peeta. Throughout the story, Peeta defies the common male archetype while embracing the typical female archetype, showing traits of being emotionally unstable or vulnerable. Peeta shows many different characteristics and traits that would lead the reader to think of Peeta in a female way. In chapter 4 of the book it says "Peeta has been crying and has not tried to cover it up." this is good dectection that Peeta is emotionally vulnerable at the time. When the reader sees this trait, they are able to detect the fact that Peeta is embracing the common female archetypical trait of being emotional vunerable. When looking at this idea through the perspective of investigating archetypes vs. stereotypes, we are able to detect the typical gender behaviors that typically girls cry and boys don't, and if boys do cry, then they do they they are considered weak. The part of this example that makes it a pure archetype is not because of the fact that Peeta is crying, which is a stereotype, but the fact that he is leaving himself open and portraying himself as emotionally unstable for the world to see, which is a female archetypical characteristic.

1st paragraph

In the book "The Hunger Games" Suzanne Collins the author does a great job at testing the readers ability of their common archetypical knowledge. In the book Katniss Everdeen the protagonist of the story defies the common female archetype of vulnerable and fragile, and instead defies it by portraying the male archetypical features protective and providing. the definition of a protector is, a person or thing that protects; defender; guardian. Katniss acts like a protector both to her sister Prim and her little friend Rue. A Provider, a person who supports a family or another person the other strong characteristic of Katniss is seen all through out the book. Katiss shows the trait when she goes out hunting getting food for her mother and sister, which is normally a trait of a male.

Reading Hunger Games before, I had a pretty good understanding of the plot and actual events in the story. But I had never really thought about the complex archetypes that collins throws into this thrilling story.
My first time reading the book I payed close attention to the character katniss, the way the story started out, prim and mother in one bed katniss in the other looking over and protecting them, made mt immeadiatly came to the conclusion that katniss was a male character. With my thoughts planned out it was no supprise to me when katniss went out hunting. Not until the moment in the book where it explained that katniss had no romantic feelings for Gale had it ever crossed my mind that katniss was acctually a girl. The reason I was not able to concider the fact that this character could potray either genders, is because of the strong archetypes we are familiar with,when it comes to male and female. Not knowing what an archetype was at the time I didn't pay much attention to it. But know I am able to see the sighs that led me to this type of conclusion. It states "I swing my legs off the bed, and slide int my hunting boots." ok so this character is a hunter a general archetypal feture for a man. This is a part of the story when the auther suzanne Collins defys the common archetype. But there is other parts in the story where she embraces this idea of "common"

Peeta Is a male character but throughout the book he changes archetypes when he confesses his love to katnisshe is defying the male archetype by doing something more female, but when he saves katniss in the games he is acting in a general manly way. So overall Collins embraces and defys archetypes in the book, but I think if we look at all the classic storys out there this is one that deffeinetly defys the archetypes, and thats wat makes it so interesting to read.

Rebecca wrote: "A good protagonist evolves in a story. Consider what you know about the protagonist Rainsford prior to falling captive on the island. How did his experience on the island change him? Did it change ..." The protagonist in the story "The Most Dangerous Game", is the first character that we meet, Rainsford. Rainsford is a hunter that seems a bit harsh, and has little regard for others feelings. Not only does he seem to not care for animals' feelings in the first of the story, boldly stating,"the jaguar has NO feelings, it is an animal!", he also seems very careless towards his hunting partner's feelings as well. It left me feeling a bit hopeless for the further duration of this story, and I wondered, what kind of a protagonist is Rainsford the cruel hunter? As I read on I began to realize where this story was going. Rainsford finds himself on an island alone, and if you ask me this was some form of karma sent his way for punishing helpless animals. He has a fine dining experience with a very skilled hunter named General Zaroff. He agrees to teach him some skills, but little did Rainsford know that he was going to be the target of the hunt, and General Zaroff never lost his hunting game. While reading this story I have to say I really wasn't fond of either of the characters, but something about the General's creepy and demeaning manor made me cringe while reading. When the General's evil plan, to hunt humans rather than big game, came into play, I realized that the story had now introduced an antagonist as a obstacle for Rainsford. I saw little change in Rainsford throughout the story but the one thing that stood out to me is when he stated "You have got to be crazy General, that's murder." I felt as though his mood had changed and he was now looking at hunting from the animals point of view, and starting to understand what it might feel like to be the hunted. Before this experience, he didn't care as long as he got the fame of the animal head plastered in his wall. In the end of the story, (which in my mind was really stupid and made absolutely no sense), General Zaroff was in his luxurious bed thinking that he had "won" his game when Rainsford appeared from the curtains killing him and spending the night in his bed. When I thought about how Rainsford had changed, I'm actually not sure if he really changed that much at all throughout the course of the story. He seemed to be a very driven and motivated person from the beginning. When he realized something was hunting him, he wasn't going to accept it so Rainsford "Won" the most dangerous game. The question now is where does he go from here, does he stop hunting because he knows the feeling to be hunted, or does he become the new "General" of the island, moving on to bigger prey to hunt?

I think that the Ibis has many ways of symbolizing Doodle in the story the Scarlet Ibis. But I think that the most important and prominent idea of symbolism in the story is the fact that Doodle was born into a environment that he wasn't necessarily meant to thrive in. Doodle was supposed to die in his first few weeks of life, as it states in the text, but he defies all odds. He lives six years and accomplishes many things the doctors never said a boy of his condition could overcome. I think in a way this shows Doodle's symbolism towards the Ibis because the Ibis was also not supposed to be able to thrive in such an environment. The Ibis is from Florida and has an exotic beauty that is "different," just as Doodle is "different". It was a miracle that the Ibis survived in the living conditions it wasn't used to, and the fact that it died under the family's tree, and Doodle took such compassion towards the bird shows the deeper meaning and relationship between the Ibis and Doodle.

---Sorry I didn't know if this is where we were supposed to post?....