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

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

In The Odyssey, Odysseus begins the hero path in the mundane world. A mundane world is where the hero is unhappy and yearning for something greater and feels as if they don’t belong. In book five, Odysseus is on the island with Calypso, he has everything a person could ever desire, yet he wasn’t content. He had a beautiful Goddess that cared for him and offered her love, ladies serving him at his every wish. He had every desirable food and drink, even Hermes stopped and stared with awe when he saw the island. Odysseus’ loyalty and love brought him to wish to go home to his mortal wife every day along with his curiosity making Odysseus wonder what adventure and challenges he would face if he were to leave the island. Calypso symbolizes comfort, predictability, and well-being. People tend to get trapped in comfort and enjoy the predictable life they are so accustom to. Odysseus has overcome this desire which would be near impossible for most, he has broken the bonds of the luxury he has been offered.
The second step of the hero’s journey is the call to adventure. This is when the hero has no choice but to go and except the call even if the hero did not desire to do so. In book five Odysseus receives his call to adventure. Hermes has come to the island with an order from Zeus to command Calypso to release Odysseus. Calypso obeys Hermes orders and gives Odysseus the option to go. Odysseus accepts this call to adventure allowing him to leave the island. A hero has to face both trials and challenges and must be prepared for when they do come that way. By accepting the call you would be creating new opportunities that you wouldn’t ever receive again, rejecting the call could put the individual’s life further and further into their own mundane world.
The third step is crossing the threshold. The hero has now started into a new world and there is no turning back now. In book 5, after Odysseus accepts the call to adventure, after doing so, Calypso and Odysseus make a raft for him to sail home on; as soon as he steps foot on the raft he has started to cross the threshold. Odysseus mentally and physically crossed a threshold, mentally by committing he wanted to leave and never return, and physically by getting on the raft and sailing away. Already there are new challenges to overcome, but hope to go home and see his wife again keeps Odysseus’ will power strong to be able to return home again. This can symbolize the difficulty of leaving something great, but only in return for something better in the future.
Path of trials is step four of the hero’s journey. Odysseus had many challenges throughout his journey an example of one is in book 9. Passing the island Odysseus spots a huge man who seems un-kept and uncivilized. (pg1369) Odysseus decides to see this giant closer up, he and his men went on the island stormed the Cyclops home and were about to leave with the items they had stolen, just when Odysseus let his hubris take hold. They got caught by the Cyclops and held captive. While awaiting their death Odysseus come up with a clever way to blind the Cyclops then hide under his sheep so he would let them out. They then escape of the island back safely to their ship. The Cyclops symbolizes a challenge that feels bigger than you, or life. If you don’t overcome it, could mean death, of either physically, mentally, spiritually, or emotionally. An example is cancer. It is a challenge that seems so much bigger than you, but if you don’t defeat it could end up as death. Another example of a trial is in book 12. In book 12 Odysseus had to overcome the sirens. He had his men tie him to the boat so he wouldn’t be lost in the sound. The sirens represent any temptation or distraction, desire. It can also represent the dark call inside of everyone, something you can’t resist, it is something you want so badly that it ends destroying you in the end.
Mentors: There are many mentors throughout the book, some of which are Calypso, when she was talking to Odysseus and giving him advice to help him have the most success as possible. Circe is another mentor, even though she help Odysseus and his men for a year, when she let him go she sent them to the land of the dead to get more advice to help them advance into their journey. Odysseus is also a mentor to his men in the book. Throughout the whole book he would help his men get through things they would have never accomplished on their own. He gave them both advice and instruction.
New Enemies: Circe along as a mentor is also an enemy, keeping them captive and turning them into animals. The sirens were also enemies, they were every temptation and desire you could possibly imagine to try and get Odysseus and his men away from their destination. Cyclops was a trial bigger than life seeming impossible to overcome, only wanting to destroy Odysseus and his men. New Challenges: When Odysseus accepted the call to adventure he knew he was accepting challenges to come. He came across trials he could have never imagined, but he succeeded and made it through. New Skills: Odysseus gained many new skills most of those being mental skills over physical. He learned how to overcome great things, and gained even more pride. This isn’t just a skill but also a problem. Without Odysseus’ pride he wouldn’t have been able to overcome most of the trials he had to face. New Knowledge: Odysseus gained a lot of new knowledge, most of it being the experiences he went through throughout the hero’s journey. On top of that he has knowledge from the advice all of the mentors gave him for the outmost success they could provide.
Odysseus is now the master of two worlds. He is successful to reach home when the Gods did everything in their power to make it as difficult as possible. He has gained new skills, knowledge, and has experience from many new challenges. He has made himself both mentally and physically stronger and made it through the most difficult thing of his life.

“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. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god. And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.” This is a quote given by Joseph Campell. This quote can have different meaning to a group of people, but it gives very wise words. This is my interpretation of the quote.
The first sentence says, “We have not to even risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us.” This is saying that even the best people in this world have gone and passed on, when Joseph uses the word adventure; he is using it to represent life. Life is an adventure and everybody should live life to the fullest, all the heroes have gone before us and showed us a path. Death will eventually arrive in every one’s life at one point or another so you shouldn’t risk the adventure.
The next two sentences state, “The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path.” The labyrinth is referring to life’s path. There are so many similarities in people’s lives. Love, hardship, happiness, and sorrow, everyone has a taste of each one. The following sentence “We have only to follow the thread of the hero path” is meaning that the people that have gone on before us have laid down a path or example to follow to help us get through our “adventure” or “labyrinth.”
“And where we had thought to have found an abomination, we shall find a god.” This is the next portion of the quote. When we feel as if we are in a dark and terrible place of disgust and hatred, we will find God. When we think that we are hopeless, we will find God. “And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves.” This is the following sentence. It will not build you to destroy another. This is an example of something that happens very frequently. They try to hide their own insecurities by making others known. It will not help but destroy you and break you down.
“Where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to center of our own existence.” When we reach out and push our boundaries we will find who we really are. If you lose yourself in service of others and reach out try new things and have new experiences, it will bring you closer to yourself. You will learn things about yourself you never knew.
“And where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.” This is the last part of this quote. This is saying when you are at your lowest and you feel so alone you will realize that there are people everywhere. You will never be alone. You will always have a support, somebody will always be there.
This quote speaks very wise well thought out words. It shares things that are applied to the world. We don’t realize, but we all have a lot in common. What Joseph Campbell says are fears that the whole world have.
I completely agree with every word in this quote. It shines hope in matter that individuals would usually not. It shows a whole new perspective that should be held in the best regards. This quote means hope and wisdom.

A Tale of Two Cities, written over 150 years ago brings problems up that we still have in our day and age. This book has value and shows a remarkable amount of knowledge of our modern day life. On pg. 1 states “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” which is an excellent example of what is going on; it shows how our world has inequality.
For example the character Marquis shows qualities frowned upon, but yet it is not uncommon to find men and women with very similar characteristics on (pg. 216) the Marquis states that “he believes that the world revolved around him”, he was also referred to as a vicious dog various times throughout the book. The Marquis was a wealthy man giving him far too much power, which he repeatedly abused. For example at the beginning of the novel the “Marquis runs over a child in his carriage and simply tosses a coin to his father “(pg. 79), believing that his troubles will then be gone. He strongly believes that since he has wealth that nobodies life, besides is own, is worth any value of any kind. This is an extreme example but, you find people everywhere who only look out for themselves and put themselves higher than others due to the wealth that they may have.
A modern day example of inequality is first world countries compared to third world countries. Those in first world countries such as ourselves, have exceeding amount of food available to us any minute of the day, compared to third world countries who go to bed starving every night don’t have a roof over their heads and have difficulty just surviving every day. Yet those in first world countries feel like they don’t need to help since it is not their responsibility.
There are so many people around us that don't look for the service of other people, those who have power and misuse it for the wrong reasons. It shows inequality to many levels but on everyone there is something to be learned. This book really opens eyes showing what kind of cruel world we live in.

Some characteristics of the cultural female archetype are keeper of peace, and emotionally vulnerble. These attributes are more often times than not found in our everyday women. In the novel "The Hunger Games" Katniss Everdeen defies the female archetype.

In its place she emoides the cultural male archetype. THe main trait that Katniss emraces of the male archetype is teh protector by being a gaurdian to those she is clostest to.

first portraying traits of an antagonist by being cruel and ruthless, soon redeeming herself and truly becoming the protagonist in the novel "THe Hunger Games."

The characteristics of Katniss that Suzanne Collins made her portray are, the provider, protector, and conquerer. Which fall into the category of the male archetype. Katniss has had the responibility of these things given to her ever since her father died and her mother was no longer fully there. Suzanne Collins really shows Katniss differently than you might expect.
For example at the beginning of the book Collins decides to not give Katniss' name so one might think the antics she was displaying was one of a mans. Of course Katniss still shows the side of the women archetype, but generally she displays those of a males.

The book "The Hunger Games" by Susan Collins both embraces and defies typical male and female archetypes. For Example Katniss throughout the book has both shown archetypes of male and female.

Even from the start of the book Katniss shows strong characteristics of being a male. For example she provides for her family, she also hides her emotions quite frequently like when she said "I can't afford to get upset", and "I swing my legs off the bed and into my hunting boots." Katniss has had to take on the role of her father after he died in the mine explosion.

Even as we progress through the story, compared to other characters Katniss may appear as heartless, motivated, strong, and competetive. Another example is "If she can do it, so can I." All four of those characteristics are more commenly thought of as men antics. Katniss does show her feminine side, but generally at this time of her life she shows more characteristics of a male.

In the book "the most dangerous game" Rainsford is the protagonist. He has evovled throughout the story. I think his experience in being hunted has changed him for the better. I no long think that he will hunt like he used to. It gave him a whole new perspective in his experiences in hunting. In the beginning of the story Rainsford said "jaguars have no feeling" meaning he really doens't care if he hunted or not. After he had to run from one of the most talented hunters known to mankind and knowing how terrible it was, he might take a second look before he goes back to his old ways.

The Scarelt Ibis is a symbol of Doodle, because they are both exotic to the people surrounding them. The Scarlet Ibis was a bird that nobody had seen before and nobody knew how to help or treat this bird. It is the same way for Doodle he came into this world being something different and people weren't sure how help him. Both the bird and Doodle were not expected to live long, they both strived and worked hard to get to where they ended up. The Scarlet Ibis is also a symbol for Doodle because the family would admire from a distance, but didn't want to get too close.