The Hero's Journey Character Analysis

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Slide 2: Introduction to Little Brother

Marcus Yallow, who skips school with his friends, is detained by the DHS after a terrorist attack on the Bay Bridge. After six days of humiliation, torture, and interrogation, everyone but Darryl is released. Marcus, who is angry after being humiliated, vows to, quote: “get them” (Doctorow 71) and what ensues are weeks of defiance and resisting the DHS underground. During this period, he meets Ange, who helps him conspire against the DHS. Their movement for civil rights and privacy gain traction and Marcus is contacted by “Masha”, who offers him a way out. Right as he’s about to flee, he realizes that he must stay and fight so he smashes Masha’s hands and is once again captured by the DHS. As the DHS …show more content…

The 12 steps include The Ordinary World, The Call to Adventure, Refusal of the Call, Meeting with the Mentor, Crossing the Threshold, Tests, Allies, and Enemies, Approach, The Ordeal, The Reward, The Road Back, The Resurrection, and Return with the Elixir.

Slide 6: Part of the Hero’s Journey that Affected Me

In Little Brother, the stage of the Hero’s Journey that affected me most was stage 11: The Resurrection. In this stage of the Hero’s Journey, Marcus decided that he “couldn’t run” (Doctorow 319) and that he had to “stay and fight” (Doctorow 319) This stage of the Hero’s journey affected me the most because Marcus deciding to take a stand, risking his personal freedom and safety, really inspired me to persevere and pursue my personal legend.

Slide 7: Themes in Little Brother

A few main ideas or themes in Little Brother that can be applied to the world are civil rights vs security and control vs freedom. The theme of civil rights vs security is seen when the government begins to monitor citizen’s travel records and use that information to detain and imprison citizens. This act, in America, goes against the fourth amendment, which essentially states that the government cannot search you without a …show more content…

This event, known as 9/11, is very similar to the fictional bombing of Bay Bridge in Little Brother. In both 9/11 and the Bay bridge bombings, major structures were bombed, citizen’s rights, particularly the first and fourth amendment, were suspended, suspected terrorists were tortured and citizens protested against the erosion of civil liberties. In little brother, the suspension of the first amendment is shown when Carrie Johnstone says to Marcus “You will never speak of what happened here to anyone, ever. This is a matter of national security. Do you know that the death penalty still holds for treason in a time of war?” (Doctorow 65) The suspension of the fourth amendment is shown when the travel records of San Franciscans are being monitored and used to detain citizens. This relates to 9/11 because after 9/11, President Bush suspended the fourth amendment and Congress passed a bill called the “Patriot Act” which allows the government to collect vast amounts of communication records and use it against American

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