Sydney’s Comments (group member since Nov 08, 2011)

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

Odysseus’s path becoming a hero starts where most hero’s started, the Mundane World. This beginning state is where you feel you don’t belong; Odysseus’s mundane world was on Calypso’s island. Calypso gave Odysseus everything and everything he could ever want like a great place to live, wonderful food and beautiful women. Calypso can tell Odysseus doesn’t feels this isn’t where he wants to be. She then has a nice meal with Odysseus where she asks him, how can you want someone else when you have a goddess right in front of you? But what Calypso doesn’t know is Odysseus has the heart of a hero and the heart of the hero is filled with loyalty and Odysseus is loyal to his wife.

The Call to Adventure is the second step where the hero is really starting to make their way down the path. It is when the hero is told there is something greater out there, the hero can either accept this call or it is simply put upon them. Odysseus decides to leave after Hermes tells Calypso to let Odysseus leave. She helps Odysseus make a raft then watches him float away. This part is also crossing the threshold, which is the third step. Odysseus is crossing the threshold because h is leaving this lovely island with Calypso and is trading it for a world full of trials. Odysseus now is officially on this road to becoming a hero there is no turning back after crossing the threshold.

The fourth step is the path of trials, which contains many steps within it: new friends, new mentors, new enemies, new challenges, new skills and new knowledge. Odysseus doesn’t really make new friends, besides his new crewmates, but he does meet up with an old friend: his hubris, which becomes a problem of its own. When Odysseus sees the Cyclops (his new enemy) his own hubris is what causes him to pick a fight and take his own men into the Cyclops cave. He seems to always take the hard way to build his reputation for example after causing a fight with the Cyclops he could have just left without stealing stuff and killing six of his men. Odysseus also lets hubris get in his way when he chooses Scylla over the Chary birds because he thinks Scylla will be more of a challenge even if it means putting his crew in danger. Not only does his hubris create problem it makes enemies like when he eats Hermes cattle, but also the gods soon retaliate when Zeus strikes Odysseus ‘s boat with lightning. Odysseus then is given the knowledge from theses trials to be a better person and know how to handle different situations better than the last time.

The Master of Two Worlds is when the new hero reaches home and realizes they are a different person now and they have simply out grown their home. Odysseus also discovers his hubris is what has caused all of these problems and puts his pride aside. When he sees his wife he sees she has many suitors because she believed when Odysseus left he would be gone forever. So with the god Athena on his side he kills the suitors and is reunited with his wife Penelope.

Readers wanting to become a hero know they will have it go through these things to become this greater person. But to be a hero you have to put pride aside and be vulnerable to new situations. The most important thing for a person who want to be a hero to know is that they have to know the journey impossible, just take a look at Odysseus.

This quote is (of coarse) talking about life itself and the patterns humanity continually cycle through. Joseph Campbell is showing how we see these patterns in myths, “for the heroes of all time have gone before us.” This means the world is what the older generations have made it, and we have to make that the same for the next generation in a continuous pattern. “The labyrinth is thoroughly known.” Joseph Campbell is simply saying if we want to do something great or become someone great there will be challenges to face to get to that point. “We have only to follow the thread of the hero path.” this proving the point that we are only following the path our ancestors have created for us.
This applies to mythology in how the stories are put together. “And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god.” This is a common pattern, for example, in some stories heroes looking for something bad to defeat or concur find the journey to be a self-learning experience that changes them for the good and makes them stronger. “And where we had thought to slay another, we slay ourselves.” This also is a trend we see in villains in mythological stories; the villain tries to hurt the hero when in reality they are defeating themselves, so when he tries to become greater than another he ends up breaking himself down one by one only concurring himself.
This concept is very true, often the journey is what makes us who we are, when we gossip we are only hurting ourselves, and when we think we are alone we stumble upon those who are similar to us. Even today we follow the trends from old mythological characters, it is how we learn and become who we are, that is what Joseph Campbell wanted us to remember.

The Tale of Two Cities is relevant to a modern audience, of course; we would have to compare it to today’s issues and problems in the world. The Tale of Two cities starts off with a very famous line, “It was the best of time, it was the worst of times…” Today we are living in the best and worst of times, for example, we have new technology and new businesses that show hope but in rural areas children are starving, dying and being forced to fight in wars. This definitely seems that the good and the bad are balanced book in the book and in modern day.
The characters all are relevant to a modern audience even though they were living in a totally different time period. Sydney Carton falls under the hero archetype because of his constant struggle to become a better person. Like the hero archetype, Sydney had a very sad back story that makes Sydney the person he is. Hero’s usually have a tragic back story and a constant struggle that they try to overcome, Carton did just this. Carton would spend most of the day drunken and sad, when he meets Lucie and falls in love with her, he suddenly finds a reason to be good and sober. On page 159 Sydney says, “I remember it too (drinking). The curse of those occasions is heavy upon me, for I always remember them. I hope it may be taken into account one day, when all days are at an end for me!” Carton is showing how he has come out of the darken days of drinking and is trying to become a better person.
Personally, I know several people who have fallen in the deep despair of drinking, and watching them come out of that deep despair is painful. Sydney Cartons transformation to a hero was a struggle, he went from thinking he would never having purpose to live to a man of great strength and hope to help those who planned to do good from the start. Becoming a better person takes your own person will and wants to become better. He ends up saving Mr. Darnay, earning the feeling of doing something good for others and “getting a girl.”
This is relevant to a modern audience because some of today’s biggest stars and most successful “hero’s” of today have struggled with drinking, drugs, or abuse of other kind and have risen above that by focusing on what they want and acting upon that. These older characters are more like people today ion the struggles they face and the diversity of classes.

The female archetype is generally a keeper of morality. They have certain codes and standards that they constantly follow and express. In The Hunger Games, Effie Trinket best embodies this archetype, she is strict with manners and the way she talks and dresses, this shows how she is a keeper of morality.
Effies appearance consists of a modest and classy women. She walks and talks as if she is the Queen on England, standing up straight with poise. She teaches this to Katniss before the interviews. SHe exclaims things like “See like this, I’m smiling at you even though you’re aggravating me.” I took her a while to warm up to Katniss because she was not brought up according to Effie's standards.
She can't stand being late, because it is not to following her standard to be late. You can see thins during the book, , “Up! Up! Up! Its going to be a big, big, big day!” and “ I’ll get him to the table at gunpoint if necessary!” BUt in the end she is always happy as long as people are in line with her codes!

In the Hunger Games, the person who best describes the female archetype is Effie Trinket. Effie is a typical Capital women, she tries to look young and the same as everyone else. Since she lives in the Capital, she can stay looking young and fashionable with her pink hair and perfect white skin.
Like typical female in our day she over exaggerates when she speaks, "up,up,up! It's gong to be a big, big, big day!" and "I'll get him to the table at gunpoint if necessary!" She always ends a sentence with an explanation point to make it seem like she is always super excited!
She also has a softer side like most females, "and it's just because your from District 12, thats no reason to ignore you." She feels pity for those that don't have much like when a women sees a homeless animal on the sidewalk they feel sad and helpless because they can't do anything.
Like most older women, she is very strict with manners. When Peeta and Katniss are eating on the train, they purposefully shove as much food in their faces to bother Effie because they know she is disgusted by people wiht no manners. Also, she is very lady-like, she is instructed to help Katniss before the games to make her look and act more lady-like. "See like this, I'm smiling at you even though you're aggravating me." It was hard for her to teach Katniss because she had never needed to be very lady-like, but Effie knows just the right tricks fixed her up!
Effie embodies the perfect Female archetype with her charm, over exaggeration of words, her soft side and her perfect makeover tips!

when we first meet Doodle we see him as a poor, red, sad baby. They thought he was going to die. ALso, when we meet the scarlet Ibis, we see him as a poor unfortunate soul. They both appear that they are hopeless, but their spirits shine on others souls.
In the story, the mother tells Doodle not to touch the bird, Doodle was also classified as untouchable at his birth. The family didn't want to become attached to Doodle because they knew he was going to die, Doodle was told not to go close to the bird and not to touch it, as if they didn't want him to become attached to it.
The Scarlet Ibis is an exotic bird, when they look it up in the Bird Book they see the bird is from Florida which is fair away from their home. To me this is like how the family thought Doodle was very out of place. The boy often asked himself; why did he has to come to our family? They both were beautiful creatures that where sent certain places for a certain purpose.
They also say how the Scarlet Ibis flew a very long way just to die, this reminds me of Doodle's hard work to become like his brother. Both Doodle and the Scarlet Ibis got to a certain stage in there life where they we comfortable to die. As if they were content with who they were and what they had accomplished, so their mission was done.

In the story "A Most Dangerous Game" it is easy to tell Rainsford is the protagonist. The Narrative's plot follows Rainsford on his journey to an unknown Island to be hunted. At first we she Rainsford as a rich hunter who shows no compassion for the animal(s) he hunts, "Who cares what the Jaguar feels?" hey says to his partner whitney. When Rainsford lands on the Island where he meets General Zaroff he sees he is a hunter. Rainsford gets to see all of the animals Zaroff has hunted, then he finds out what his new pray is. Zaroff tells Rainsford how he is tired of hunting Tigers and other creatures, and how he has advanced to a more difficult creature to hunt, humans. Rainsford believes this is completely wrong and when he is asked to go and hunt humans with Zaroff asks him to go hunting with him he replies saying "I am a hunter, not a murder." You can tell he has a slight change of heart. But when Rainsford is hunted by Zaroff, his change of heart turns into psyco change of the brain. You can sense this when he is found in Zaroffs room after he think Rainsford is dead after jumping of the cliff, it seems that he has become obsessed with the game. I think it changed him for the worse, because he had a traumatic experience on this Island that changed him for the worse.