Byron’s Comments (group member since Sep 06, 2011)

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

In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus follows a set path of trials, all of which bring him towards his final goal. This path, as outlined by Joseph Campbell, is known as the ‘Hero’s Path’. The Hero’s Path is what guides Odysseus though his journey, and even what brings new enemies, skills, and mentors to him.

The first part of this path is known as The Mundane World. This is where the hero has no obstacles to overcome or enemies that he has to face. In the Odyssey, The Mundane World, for Odysseus, is in Book 5, when he is on the island with Calypso. The reason this is The Mundane World is because there are no enemies or obstacles threatening Odysseus. Calypso, who represents comfort and desire in the items that she has, offers Odysseus anything he wants, even her love. However, Odysseus is not comfortable in this setting of reiterating perfection, and wishes to leave, as it states on page 1108, with a tearful gaze towards the sea. This entire example is similar to the audience, in how the audience may have their own personal luxuries, but they want to experience something more.

The second part of the Hero’s Path is The Call to Adventure. This ‘call’ can come in the form of a message, an attack, or even the hero’s own will to explore the unknown. Whatever it is, it changes the way the hero views The Mundane World and forces him to leave everything and go on the journey. In the Odyssey, this call comes in Book 5, when Hermes, who is the representation of the unknown, brings a message from Zeus telling Calypso that she must let Odysseus go. Odysseus, being the hero that he is, willingly accepts this call, showing the audience that you have to be willing to give up luxuries to do what is right. At the same time, the story warns the reader that if you decide to take the call, you may not be able to get back what you may lose. The way that Odysseus takes the call also shows the reader how to overcome the challenge of leaving behind all the luxuries of the reader’s life and moving on without them.

The third part is known as Crossing the Threshold. This is where the hero takes his fateful, and often irreversible, steps into the unknown. Odysseus does this in Book 5 when he says farewell to Calypso, and all her belongings, and sails into the ocean on a raft. The raft represents the final decision to commit to something, let it be taking something, going somewhere, etc., and is thus the official threshold, where Odysseus, or the reader, can not go back. The fact that Odysseus can not go back also mirrors the problem that people have with being brave and willing to leave everything behind, and instead would rather stay in their comfort zone and not have to give up anything. Overall, this example warns the reader that when you finally ‘cross the threshold’ and commit to do what you need to, you won’t be able to stop, or go back, until it is done.

The forth, and often largest, part of the Hero’s Path is known simply as The Path of Trials. This path is when the hero meets the enemies, challenges, and knowledge that lead to his final encounter, be it with himself or another. Odysseus goes through a long and winding Path of Trials, but a large portion of it is contained in Book 12. In this book, Odysseus meets Circe, who is the representation of knowledge, who mentors him on what to expect in his soon to come adventures. Odysseus also encounters new enemies, such as the the Sirens, which represent the lust people have for beauty, as well as Scylla, and Charybdis, both of which represent the evils and darkness of the world and in our hearts. Odysseus also has to face many challenges, like the death of companions and geographical hazards. These challenges warn the audience that if you go on this path, you may lose those that you hold dearest as a price for your actions, and of the cumbersome path that you may have to travel on. However, the way Odysseus mourns for the loss of his companions, shows a good way to overcome the obstacle of losing people, because it isn’t healthy, or helpful, to not mourn over those that you lose.

The fifth, and final, part of the Hero’s Path is called The Master of Both Worlds. This is where the hero returns from the irregular world back into the mundane world, with knowledge, treasure, and other things, that he has gained by facing the final confrontation, and being victorious. In The Odyssey, when Odysseus finally returns to his homeland of Ithaca, he returns as The Master of Both Worlds in the skills that he had gained from his travels, which make him superior over the suitors during his conflict with them from line 80 to line 126. In the real world, people gain new skills and knowledge that make the master of their own world, much like Odysseus. In the end however, the reader can learn to avoid what Odysseus did, and not kill everyone, because then the reader won’t have to deal with people trying to kill him or her, as well as make some possible friends.

Joseph Campbell’s quote from The Power of Myth has a lot of meaning. Every phrase has meaning that can be helpful to those who need it. In the first sentence, it said, “…For the heroes of all time have gone before us.” This tells the reader that even though they feel as though they are the only person who has certain problems, they aren’t alone. If somebody is trying to accomplish a task that seems impossible, there is always somebody that they can talk to, in order to get advice to help them. Throughout history, (be it in stories, real life etc.) mankind has shown fear in the unknown, but there has always been a person there to help them. The same is still true today, where people are afraid, or unable to do something, but they find a person who can help them.

The quote also states that, “Where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves.” This is true for today’s audience as well. People go out thinking that they will get revenge on someone, but end up hurting themselves in the process. They can injure themselves morally or physically, both of which can be damaging to that person for the rest of their life. If a person goes as far as to kill another person, they just irreversibly damaged their conscience. They will always have to live with the thought that they had killed another human being, and that they can never fix it.

Lastly, the quote says, “Where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.” This means that even when we as humans are feeling at our lowest, or like no one can help, there is always those people that have gone through the same thing that can help us become better. It can also be thought of in a literal way, in how someone is lost in the forest, or a supermarket. There is always someone out there that is with us in heart. Either way, we are always with someone else who has gone through, or is going through, the same thing.

No matter how we look at it, this quote from The Power of Myth has a lot of extremely important meaning that can help us in our modern lives. We are always walking our own “hero path” in everything that we do and say. We are never alone, and we always have people on our side to back us up.

Even though the book A Tale of Two Cities was written over 150 years ago, it still carries an unbelievably large amount of modern relevance. On page 1 it says, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” Even in today’s day and age, with mankind’s smartphones and automobiles, this small passage has a huge amount of relevance. As people go about their everyday lives, we see the “best of times”, with electricity, clean water, supplies of food, and even something as simple as the houses people live in. What we are forgetting are places like Africa, where people there are having the “worst of times”, with no clean water, no shelter, no medicines, and having to live with the fear that they could be taken away from their families or even killed. It also states on page 1 that, “…it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…” This is also applicable to today, in how people are having hopes and despairs. There are people in our country having hope that their loved ones are going to come home from war, yet there are others that are filled with the despair of losing that person.

Later in the book it states, “...today, taking the life of an atrocious murderer, and tomorrow of a wretched pilferer who had robbed a farmer’s boy of sixpence.” (Pg. 3) This may seem like complete madness, but things like this are happening now. A greedy businessman could steal billions of dollars from the stock market or from the company he works for, and then spends the same amount of time in jail as a starving man who either has to rob a store of a couple hundred dollars, to get food for him and his family or let them all starve. Further along in the book, the Marquis runs over a child and then tries to cover it up by giving the father a gold coin (pgs. 83-84). Things like this are happening now as well. Something horrible may happen, and the news stations will be paid not to tell people. Other people will be paid off to “look the other way”, while someone is mugged or something gets stolen. In short, this book is extremely relevant to today’s modern audience, even though it was written over 150 years ago.

In "The Most Dangerous Game", I think that Rainsford will have changed for the better. Although it may seem that he has fallen into the wickedness that he was trying to stop, I think that he changed throughout General Zaroff's 'hunting' of humans. I think that Rainsford changed because of many different things. The first reason I think that he changed for the better is because through his experience of being hunted, he has gained a better understanding and sympathy for any animals that he may hunt in the future. I don't think that this experience has stopped Rainsford from hunting altogether, but it most likely deterred him from being the blood thirsty hunter he used to be. There were many other explicit pieces of evidence that could show that he turned bad, but in my own, personal, opinion, Rainsford became a better man because of his experiences in "The Most Dangerous Game".

I think the the Scarlet Ibis is a symbol for doodle for many reasons. First, just like Doodle, the Scarlet Ibis was a strange thing to be able to see . Another reason is because when the Scarlet Ibis fell out of the tree, it foreshadowed the coming death of Doodle. Thirdly, the Ibis' red. or 'scarlet', coloring was there to symbolize the color of Doodles blood on his shirt. The reason i believe that the Scarlet Ibis was in the story to symbolize Doodle, and not just a fluke, is because of how close together the death of Doodle and the death of the Scarlet Ibis were. That is why I think that the Scarlet Ibis is a symbol for Doodle.