Justin’s Comments (group member since Sep 08, 2011)

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

MUNDANE WORLD-When Oddyseus finds himself on the island of the Goddess of Calypso, Oddyseus is on his version of the mundane world. Oddyseus has maidens to do his bidding, an affair with a beautiful goddess, any type of food that he could desire and not to mention a stunning, resort-like island. Oddyseus hungers for more. Oddyseus knows that he is not living up to his full potential in life. This situation relates greatly today when a young adult lives in the safety of their parent’s basement and that in order for that young adult to do something meaningful in life they must go take a calling to the their journey. Even though that the young adult is safe and comfortable in a controllable environment like Oddyseus, they must eventually leave the seamless situation to accept one of life’s great challenges in a new but imperfect world to satisfy ones thirst for something more.

CALL TO ADVENTURE/CROSSING THE THRESHOLD-An example of Oddyseus’s “Call to Adventure” could be when Oddyseus comes upon the island of the Cyclops. Oddyseus and his crew come upon an island where there is what is described as brute monsters herding sheep. Oddyseus and his crew first observe the monsters from a safe distance. Oddyseus then takes a group of his soliders to explore the island more thoroughly. When they arrive on the island they head up to one of the caves of a Cyclops. Once there they take note that the Cyclops is a respectable shepherd based on how he had organized his sheep. While waiting for the Cyclops to return to his cave Oddyseus and his men start eating some of the food inside the cave. Once the Cyclops returned he was rather annoyed to find that a small human decided to stand up to him. The Cyclops held Oddyseus’s crew captive for a couple of days until Oddyseus came up with a plan to out smart the Cyclops and even then some of Oddyseus’s men were brutally killed by the Cyclops. After the survivors of the Cyclops and Oddyseus where escaping and a asafe distance away from the Cyclops, Oddyseus’s hubris takes over as he continues to taunt the Cyclops angering the Cyclops even more andputting Oddyseus and his crew in danger. The Call to Adventure for Oddyseus this time was not forced upon Oddyseus, nor did the call present itself explicitly to Oddyseus. Oddyseus went out of his own way for a fight. Oddyseus probably thought that he needed to prove himself as a worthy leader to his men. This is relative to today’s world by when an athlete or sports team gets over confident and that they think that nobody is better than them. That athlete or sports team loses respect for their oppenents as Oddyseus does in Book 9 of The Odyssey, when Oddyseus comes across the Cyclops. A common phrase that is relative to this situation could be “In order to be the best, you need to beat the Best”.

THE PATH OF TRIALS- An example of when Oddyseus comes upon the path of trials is when Oddyseus and his crew encounter the sirens. Despite being warned about how deadly and dangerous the Sirens can be to one. Oddyseus ignores the cautions he was foretold about and decides that he wants to listen to the Sirens. But Oddyseus still has his men plaster their ears with beeswax to deafen to the deadly song. Oddyseus has his men tie him up on pole and expresses that under no condition to let him go unless the Sirens are out of the way. When the Sirens eventually come Oddyseus describes that he had never heard anything so beautiful in his life before. Despite Oddyseus’s continuing desperate cries to be untied his men don’t give in and leave him be. Once the Sirens are out of sight and Oddyseus is untied, Oddyseus was taught two lessons. First Oddyseus gained valuable information concerning the Sirens and how deadly their voices can be. Secondly Oddyseus learned that he would be able to trust his men with his life. This situation is relative to todays world by when a decent person goes against warnings and becomes addicted on drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes. If the person doesn’t stop they will be putting their own life in peril. The person will need the great help of his friends and family to overcome the state of mind that the person is trapped in.

MASTER OF TWO WORLDS-An example of when Oddyseus’s journey embraces the step “Master of Two Worlds” could be when Oddyseus is telling the king about all of his past of adventures in book 9. Oddyseus finds himself at a royal dinner with a king informing the king about all of his past journeys that he was challenged with.

“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 out own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.” -Joseph Cambell from The Power of Myth

In the three sentences where the quote states that, “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.” It means that no matter what individual shall attempt that person’s feat was not the first and most certainly won’t be the last. The metaphor is comparing how even though an individual's task may be difficult and unique, the task has still been accomplished in the past.

“And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god.” This statement means that where an individual might find treachery and hardship, instead may find a reward or high praise. The modern relevance is tremendous, through how when an individual is heading through a difficult time and having a negative aspect on things but when they arrive through the event they find that it wasn’t as bad as they thought it would be. The next sentence “Where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to center of out own existence.” Follows the same guidelines as the sentence stated before. This show modern relevance by if an individual gets their hopes set for a too high of a standard, one might be let down of what that person can accomplish. The previous two sentences foil each other by saying that how a negative aspect can turn out as a positive experience and/or the other way around. The last sentence stated in the quote tells one that their will always be someone there for you.

The quote as a whole relates to today by comparing how a event can appear in a positive or negative way but end up as a completely different experience then what an individual would have intended.

The theme or imbalance in A Tale of Two Cities is just as relevant to the theme today. For example, on page one the author quoted, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." The author would continue to use foils to describe the severely different positive and negative aspects of life back during the French Revolution. The quote shows modern relevance because in the world today we have the wealthy countries that are pretty much naive to all the third-world countries that are struggling just to obtain food. This theme happens in America today to, in the slums compared to the wealthier parts of towns.

Another theme that A Tale of Two Cities embraces is the strict process and harsh assumptions to immigrants or foreign travelers. For example when Charles Darnay is trialed for being an Evermond and also accused of being a spy. This is relevant to today all the time such as Arizona's SB 1070 law about illegal immigrants coming to the U.S. Americans also have unreasonable assumptions of people from the Middle Eastern being terrorists. This takes place today in airports in the U.S. were a person who looks particular or foreign could be assumed to be a risk. The modern relevance of themes in a Tale of two cities is endless and extremely close to today's world.

In the novel the Hunger Games,the charecter Katniss Everdeen embraces the male archertype of being a protector. A definition of an archetype is a certain, typical person or thing. And a proector is someone that has the saftey of the people they are responsible for one of their top priorities.

At the begining of the book it talks how Katnis is the leader of her family after her father was disceased and how she protects her family from poverty and hunger. She spends basicly all of her day hunting just ensure that her famlily can live.

Another point in the book where Katniss embraces a protector archetype is when she steps in for Prim at the Reaping. She saves Rues life indefinetly at that point and puts hers in grave danger.

I will be argueing that Suzanne Collins likes to defy a charecters archetype more often then not in the novel, Hunger Games.I think Collins is alot more likely as a writer to have a charecter defy his or her archetype.

A great example would be the charecter Katniss. Right in the beging of the book on page 5 it states that she is going hunting to keep food on the table for her family. This would be embracing a male archetype if she was a boy. But Katniss is a girl which a female archetype wouldn't most likely do. A female archetype expecilly as young as Katniss is would probably never take the fatherly role that is being described as Katniss daily routine.

To close my arguement that Suzanne Collins defies most of her charecters archetypes would be a true statement in most peoples eyes. In the book sometimes a villan would do a decent deed while a hero would do a villanous act. Or a female would do male actions and a male would act a little femine.

At the beginning of the story the reader of the most dangerous game is introduced to two charecters, two guys called Rainsford and Whittney. The charecter Whittney seems to be a more likeable while Rainsford is erragont, cocky and onlivious to the how the animals feel about being hunted. But after experiencing a horrific, and deadly adventure where he was the prey changed his prospective on how it is like to be the hunted.

I think the Scarlet Ibis is a symbol to Doodle because they both are out of place in a way. Doodle is out of place because many questioned that he should even be alive and that he was supposed to die. The Scarlet Ibis was out if place because the bird had gotten caught in the hurricane in the story which transported the bird to an enviroment in which he doesn't belong.