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Recommended: Essays on symbolism in literature

The book that was chosen for this essay was The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. In order for this tale to be understood fully one would need to know that The Neverending Story is an actual book being read by a character. The character that is reading the book eventually enters the story and becomes the main character within it. Bastian a pale, fat kid that is picked on by other students from his school is the main character who reads and enters The Neverending Story. While Bastian is reading this tale he is introduced to the main character within the story and his name is Atreyu. He is little boy who looks to be at the age of ten and has blue-black hair. There are two settings in this story; the first one being inside of a school attic where Bastian is reading The Neverending Story and the second is when Bastian goes inside of the book where Fantastica lies. There are two major conflicts that are going on within the story. The primary conflict in the story is that Fantastica is being consumed by the nothing and will soon there will no longer be Fantastica if Atreyu cannot find a human to give the Childlike Empress a new name. The secondary struggle is that Bastian is given an amulet by the Childlike Empress that allows him to wish anything that he desires; but the cost of a wish is Bastian’s memory. Once he uses all of his memories than he is trapped inside of Fantastica forever. So to keep from being stuck; he must find his way out of the book.
Joseph Campbell’s monomyth is seen in The Neverending Story. The departure happens when Bastian is needed to come inside the story to give the Childlike Empress a new name. Bastian is scared at first to enter into the book because he fears that maybe once he is in then he would not b...

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...yu because he is with Bastian throughout many of his adventures. He also tries to direct Bastian to put effort to getting back to his home world so that he would not be endlessly bound in Fantastica with any memory of anything of his world or himself. This story also includes one of the Weigle creation myths. The creation myth that was used in this story was ex nihilo. Bastian tells stories to certain characters in the story which come true and create in the process. For example Bastian spoke the story of the library of Amarganth which gave the Amarganthians the history of their existence. It told them of how the silver city in which the Amarganthians came to be. He spoke of how the acharis made the lake of tears which when he spoke actually made the acharis come to life. After reading this story is was obvious of how mythology plays a key role throughout the book.

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