A book, The American Monomyth, attempted to create the quintessential summary of the majority American fiction found throughout the culture. The book describes it as, "A community in a harmonious paradise is threatened by evil; normal institutions fail to contend with this threat; a selfless superhero emerges to renounce temptations and carry out the redemptive task; aided by fate, his decisive victory restores the community to its paradisiacal condition; the superhero then recedes into obscurity" (The American Monomyth). Quite a bit of this monomyth can be attributed to America’s history and the general moral beliefs of its people. For the same reasons, Australian stories differ from American on many fronts. The country’s past has shaped …show more content…
The structure of stories, on which Campbell’s Hero’s Journey and Booker’s Seven Basic Plots elaborated, is actually only a portion of the field of study it is under. Comparative mythology not only studies the structure of hero stories, but also origins, themes, and characteristics of myths from various religions and cultures. They study the language, psychology, history, and anthropology in order to identify a common theme or beginning point. Even without delving into religion, many common elements have come to light. For instance, many cultures have tales of people with strange supernatural abilities, others speak of similar creatures that reside in water, air or land, while still others extol the importance of talisman and religious symbols. Despite cultures existing on different ends of the earth and having little contact for much of their existence, they share these common …show more content…
(blackdrago.com) “Dragon images have been found on the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, on scrolls from China, in Egyptian hieroglyphs and Ethiopian sketches, on the prows of Viking ships, in bas relief on Aztec temples, on cliffs above the Mississippi River and even on bones carved by Inuits in climates where no reptile could live.” (McNeil) Stories of dragons can be found all through history. Over five thousand years ago, ancient Sumerian cultures had dragon legends in their religions. Modernly, few still believe dragons exist, they can still be found in our movies, books and video
In movies, novels, and life, people are named as heroes. The heroes we establish and the heroes we recognize, however, may not meet the criteria for a mythic hero. A mythic hero ventures forth on his journey, and comes forth from the hero’s path to greatness. Joseph Campbell, a mythologist who studied many of the great human myths and religious tales, realized, in studying these myths and tales, that there were certain steps that every hero went through. Campbell called this “The Hero’s Journey”; it is based on Carl Jung's idea that all human beings have an archetype. After Campbell studied a lot of the great myths and realized this pattern, he published his findings in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Ever since then, authors have used “The Hero’s Journey” as an outline to tell their stories. “It is important to note that not all of these individual steps are present in every hero’s tale, nor is it important that they be in this exact order” (Vogler 20). The Hero with a Thousand Faces gives a sense of significance as it looks into the inner mind and soul. The author, Joseph Campbell, performs two extraordinary accomplishments: compelling his readers that myth and dream, those are the most effective and everlasting forces in life and a unification of mythology and psychoanalysis with a gripping narrative. One well-known example of “The Hero’s Journey” from popular culture is the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling. In the novel, Harry Potter, the main character, is the chosen one and “The Hero’s Journey” applies to his life from the moment he is attacked by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named as a baby.
Pop culture’s mythology theory is used in many forms of media today, from The Legend of Zelda in video games to “Harry Potter in books. One example of usage of the mythology theory is the 1996 movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou? directed by Joel Coen. This movie is based off Homer’s epic poem, “The Odyssey.” There are many similarities between the two, yet at the same time, there are many differences.
Tens of thousands of stories fit into the hero’s journey archetype created by Christopher Volger. Out of these, a large number of them are stories with remakes that share notable resemblances in their heroes’ journeys. However, none of these quite match those very strong similarities found between Homer’s The Odyssey and Joel Coens’s O Brother, Where Art Thou? These stories share crucial components of the hero’s journey whether it be “crossing the first threshold,” where the main characters of both stories begin their long adventure that transforms them into heroes; “the supreme ordeal,” where the main characters are both deprived of the opportunity to get home sooner; or “return with elixir,” where Odysseus and Ulysses both return to their homes alive the comfort of their wives. In their major plot points, the novel The Odyssey and the motion picture O Brother convey obvious similarities in key elements of their heroes’ journeys such as “crossing the first threshold,” “the supreme ordeal,” and “return with elixir.”
Throughout history, literature has been inspired from the culture of the time while staying true to the literary devices used in classical novels. Native Americans also used literary devices without knowledge of European usage across the Atlantic. In their literature, the Huron tribe demonstrated the use of the literary devices analogies and exaggeration while also being influenced by their culture and society. In both the standard creation myth of the Huron natives and the story of “Skunny-Wundy and the Stone Giant[b][c]” there were influences from the Iroquois tribes, who shared a similar language (Redish and Orrin, “Wyandot/Huron Language”). The Iroquois creation myth is very similar to the Huron as a result.
Dragons lie in the realm of fantasy; legendary creatures who are deeply rooted in magic and have captivated audiences for centuries. The depiction
The “Hero’s Journey” is a very eye opening idea that Joseph Campbell has presented us with. It really makes me wonder what myths were derived from each other and which religion is influenced by another religion. It’s been very easy for me to get wrapped up and lost in some of the things Campbell wrote, and I could be completely overthinking the entire thing. It makes me wonder what religion is real and where did some of these mythological stories come from if they weren’t influenced by another myth? I hope I have influenced you to raise the same questions by bringing up these ideas and comparing these myths over the three divisions Campbell gives us.
Lawrence and Jewett, in their book The Myth of the American Superhero, express their belief that myths can influence the ideals and lives of both individuals and society as a whole (Lawrence 7). Their monomyth is based on Joseph Campbell’s concept of a “classical monomyth,” but theirs is based specifically on more modern pop culture rather than all mythical stories. They define the American monomyth as follows: “A community in a harmonious paradise is threatened by evil; normal institutions fail to contend with this threat; a selfless superhero emerges to renounce temptations and carry out the redemptive task; aided by fate, his decisive victory restores the community to its paradisiacal condition; the superhero then recedes into obscurity” (Lawrence 6). Whereas Campbell’s monomyth is on rites of passage, the American monomyth
entertainment. There are many precedents for dragons in medieval literature, two of the most prominent
Throughout the years, certain writers were able to set off a deep sympathetic resonance within readers by their usage of archetypal patterns. One of those patterns is known as the hero's journey, which Joseph Campbell gave an understandable idea of in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. According to his book, while comparing world's mythology, he found that no matter how far cultures are from each other, they will still have the same structure of hero's journey in their legends (Voytilla vii).
Ancient world literature and early civilization stories are mostly centered on human’s relationship with higher beings. Ancient civilizations were extremely religious, holding the belief that their very lives were in the hands of their almighty god or goddess. This holds true for both the people of biblical times as well as those of the epic era. However, their stories have some differences according to cultural variation but the main structure, ideas, and themes are generally found correlative. It is hard to believe that one work did not affect the others. The first great heroic epic poem of Gilgamesh and the Old Testament are parts of two cultures that are hundreds of years apart. Whereas Gilgamesh is a myth and the book of Genesis is the basis of many religions, they both have notably similar accounts of symbols, motifs, meaningful events according to the relationship between the divine and humans in literature.
Homer is credited for writing epics that generate source materials for the modern world. The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer are captivating stories with fascinating heroic characters. The Homer stories share with classical mythology typical recurrent motifs. The two Homer epic poems focus on the Trojan War, and its result. The epic poems contain the Greek mythology featuring the Greek gods, goddesses, mythological creatures, and the Greek heroes, and heroines. In addition, the principal motifs typical of classical mythological hero stories are; the dominance of fate, evil fighting against the gods, and death. In both the classic mythology, and he modern fiction hero stories, the heroes always have a helper in their expedition, but ultimately, they have to stand alone, face the darkness, and conquer it in order to become victorious.
Rosenburg, Donna. World Mythology: An Anthology of the Great Myths and Epics. Third Edition. Chicago: NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group, Inc., 1999. Text.
The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey both are held in high respect by literature analysts and historians alike for the characterization of the hero and his companion, the imagery brought to mind when one of them is read, and the impressive length in relation to the time period it was written in. The similarities that these two epics share do not end with only those three; in fact, the comparability of these works extend to even the information on the author and the archetypes used. However, The Odyssey and The Epic of Gilgamesh contrast from one another in their writing styles, character details, and main ideas. Both epics weave together a story of a lost man who must find his way, but the path of their stories contrast from one another.
According to Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth, one archetypal mythic hero appears in diverse cultures in different forms. Two protagonists in Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist and Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki share similar heroic characteristics despite their different backgrounds and cultures.
The epic hero’s journeys hold the hopes for future of ordinary people’s lives. The Epic of Gilgamesh was written in approximately 2000 B.C.E which is highly enriched with Ancient Mesopotamian religions, and The Ramayana was written by ancient Indians in around 1800 B.C.E. The stories were written in two different parts of the world. However, these two stories etched great evidence that show people from generation to generation that different cultures and religions are interconnected; they share ideas with each other. Both Gilgamesh and Rama traveled long journeys in these tales. These epic journeys played a role in the creation of different archetypes. We can clearly see that these two tales share similarities between these archetypes. Although