Joseph’s Comments (group member since Sep 14, 2011)

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

In the story of The Odyssey, Odysseus follows closely to the thread of the hero’s path. This story is a classic example of the archetypical hero story and has some excellent examples of each of the five main steps of the hero’s path. In this essay, I will dive into what ways Odysseus follows these steps.

The first step in the hero’s journey is the mundane world. The mundane world is most basically described as a place where the hero does not feel at home. They long for something more, something greater. They are simply stuck in a repetitive world from which they wish to escape. Odysseus displays a textbook example of this step of the hero’s path through his time spent with the goddess Calypso. Calypso was giving hospitality to Odysseus in her beautiful seaside cave. Any normal man would be out of their mind not to want to stay there forever. Odysseus had maids at his side ready to grant his greatest desires. However, there was still something that Odysseus longed for that could not be given to him through Calypso. Odysseus longs to be back to his home.
However amazing Calypso’s cave may be, Odysseus is not content.

The second step in the hero’s path is the call to adventure. The call to adventure is fairly self explanatory. It is simply the point in a hero’s life where they are called to their grand adventure. Odysseus has many moments where he is called to his journey, though the best example of this step is directly after the mundane world, when Hermes is sent down to command calypso to release Odysseus. Odysseus is then given a choice, whether to accept the journey placed before him, or to stay within the bounds of his stupefying security. Odysseus is an example of a hero in which is given a choice as to accept the call or not, where as some heros have the decision made for them. Despite Calypso’s disapproval, Odysseus decides to answer to the call and depart from the cave.

The third step of the hero’s path is the crossing of the threshold. This step is a vital part of the hero’s journey. It is in this step that the hero truly crosses over into the world of the adventure, leaving their home behind. This is the point of no return. Odysseus has many examples of crossing the threshold, however the most obvious and monumental is when he sets sail from Calypso’s island. It is at this point that Odysseus has accepted that he cannot change his mind. He has passed the point of being able to go back home until he finishes his journey, for better or worse.

The fourth and largest part of the hero’s path is the path of trials. This is the chunk of the journey where the hero is faced with new enemies, new friends, new challenges, new skills, and new mentors. Odysseus is faced with a brutal path of trials throughout his journey. He has numerous times when he is faced with near death experiences. One of Odysseus’ largest and most challenging trials is facing the cyclops. Odysseus and his men are trapped in the cyclops’ cave and many men are graphically murdered by him. This was one of Odysseus’ most terrifying trials in all of his twenty years of his journey. He barely escaped death and lost many men in the process. This trial was an example of a time when Odysseus’ hubris got him into a stick y situation that hurt him and everyone around him. Another example of a trial in the journey of Odysseus is the journey to Circes island in book 10. When Odysseus and his men arrive at the island, Circe, the enchanting witch, puts a spell on his men to make them unable to leave. It is in this situation when Odysseus must overcome his hubris to save his men and get them off of the island.
Odysseus meets many new mentors, numerous new enemies, and learns new skills along his journey. The god Hermes is a very instrumental part in getting Odysseus off of the island of Calypso and a huge mentor to him. Circes also acts somewhat as a mentor to Odysseus by giving him advice as to how to avoid being captured by the enchanting songs of the sirens. Odysseus meets some nasty enemies, such as the cyclops, scylla, and the suitors that he meets back home. These enemies represent some of the things that we have to face today, such as temptation and lust.

The fifth and final step of the hero’s path is the master of two worlds. This is when the hero returns back to their home, but can never be the same. after facing the trials and challenges of their journey, they are a changed person when they return. Odysseus embodies this step when he returns home in the final chapters. He is filled with contempt of what the suitors did while he was gone, and ends up gruesomely slaughtering them all. Though he is reunited with his wife, his father, and his son, Telemachus, he will never be freed of the horrors that he faced while in his journey.

The story of Odysseus teaches us a lot about how we can deal with the troubles in our own lives. Throughout his journey, Odysseus displays textbook Hubris, a pride or ego that gets him into a lot of trouble. We learn that pride will get us absolutely nowhere in dealing with the adversary, and humbling ourselves is the key to success. Once we can accept that truth, we can then truly become a hero.

The first line of the poem says “we have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us”. This means to me that no one is alone in their troubles, and they are not the first ones to face them. “The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path”. I think this is saying that we can learn to face life’s hardships by following the ways and avoiding the mistakes of others who have faced these troubles in the past. “And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find God. And where we had though to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had though to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence”. I think that these lines are saying that we may not always find what we expect, but something greater. The troubles we shape in life can shape who we become. “And where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world”. This line is saying that though we may think that we journey through life alone, people all around the world are facing similar trials.

This is a truly brilliant quote. It captures the essence of the morals and dilemmas in mythology and let’s us apply them to our own lives. This quote is an excellent guide to live by when going through difficult times and most of life in general. What Joseph Campbell is saying is that through life’s trials, we may not always find what we expect. How we face those trials can determine the person we are. We can use the morals in ancient myths to help teach us and govern our own decisions.

In Charles Dickens’ famous book, “A Tale of Two Cities”, he introduces the first chapter with the famous anaphora, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”. This thought provoking introductory sentence introduces the idea in the novel of the inequality between the lowest of peasantry and the French royalty during the time of the French Revolution. When this book was written, this anaphora lead readers to question their own lives and the morality of their actions. I believe that this is just as relevant to a modern audience as it was to the people reading it 150 years ago. The universal idea of inequality is applicable to any society, whether it be 19th century England or modern day America.
Within the first chapters of the novel, you can see the stark contrast between the stuck up, rich, French royalty, and the impoverished peasantry filling the streets. On pages 20-21, we see as a wine barrel is spilled, the rush of peasants to the muddy puddle of wine in hopes of getting a few handfuls, some so desperate as to slurp it right up from the filthy streets. On pages 83-85, a passing carriage carrying one of the highest frech officials runs over and kills a peasent child. The stuck up Monseigneur stops only to throw a coin in the direction of the father of the same child. This shows how little he cares for the life of a peasant, more worried about his possibly injured horses than the fatality of a small child.
In the world today, we still are not free from these terrible acts of inequality. In despereate third world countries, children are forced into slavery by maliciously criminal warlords. In some parts of the world, some of the greatest discoveries in hundreds of years are being made, while in other parts, such as the impoverished countries of central Africa, thousands starve to death everyday. Also on the very first page, the book states that "is was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness". This also can so accurately represent the fact that alive today are some of the world's most genius leaders, while other foolish leaders threaten the lives of their peers with war and violence. When this book is more deeply analyzed, many themes that reference to today's troubled world can be found. When everything is considered, the societies described in Dickens' novel are not much different than ours today.

Katniss, unlike your typical female protagonist, is no mothering caregiver, but a hardy, hunting defender and provider of her family. As would a typical male archetype describe, the defender/provider of the story is the person who does whatever it takes to put food on the table and provide for their family. They look out for and defend their family against any potential threats or dangers.

In the beginning of The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen is immediately shown to take the role as the head of her family. She goes out everyday, risks her life on multiple levels to feed her family, and rarely finds a second of spare time to spend for herself. On the day of the reaping, Katniss doesn't hesitate for a second to take her sisters place for a nearly certain death sentence in the games. Also, within the games, she practically spoon feeds Peeta when he is wounded in the forest, eventually saving his own life while managing to make it out alive herself.

While reading the hunger games, i found that many of the characters in the book showed strong examples of both female and male archetypes. In this post, i will focus especially on katniss.

Katniss Everdeen, most likely because of her situation, often shows strong male archetype characteristics. This is no doubt due in part to the death of her father. Katniss is always hunting illegally, almost everyday, just to put food on the table to feed her family. This has hardened her personality, making her to be a more tough and independent sort of person. In a typical household, it is the job of a man to provide food for the family, not to mention risk their life hunting to get it. Further embracing the archetype, katniss finds a sport in and enjoys hunting; "i tiptoed through the forest, eagerly awaiting my next kill".

However, katniss occassionaly shows signs of a female archetype. In the heat of the games, sometimes she will break down from her hardened, tough self and reveal a more feminine side. An example is "then i really started to ball". A male, even under stress, often feels obligated to control their emotions and not cry, so as not to show signs of weakness. Katniss in this sentence shows that even she can sometimes let her emotions get the best of her.

The Ibis is an elegant and artful representation of Doodle in the short story, The Scarlet Ibis, in many subtle ways. When the bird first arrives on the scene, everybody can't keep their eyes off it, marveling at it's exotic and strange beauty, very much like the birth of doodle. The Ibis had traveled many miles to their backyard, only to cripple and die, just short of it's true potential. Doodle, as well, travels far in life, overcoming countless obstacles, only to die in his pitiful disabled state, his true potential being drowned by the endless sheets of rain.

In my personal opinion, i think that Rainsford is a changed man after he gets to the island and suffers through the unbearable cat and mouse chase with General Zaroff. When the story commences, Rainsford states that the jaguar has absolutely no feelings, and that hunting is 100% humane. Naturally, through the events on the island, I first started to believe that Rainsford, being thrown into the position of the animal, would have more sympathy as a hunter. However, I was able to come to the conclusion at the end that because he had succeeded at defeating the general, thus experiencing the thrill of the hunt, he found a new interest in hunting the most dangerous game. I believe that he will proceed on to become the new master and hunter of the island.