Destiny of a Hero Essay Example for Free

Destiny of a Hero Essay Upon reading or watching the epic tales of heroes, it is easy to overlook the connection they all share. From his writings in, A Hero With A Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell brings to light the journey of a hero in â€Å"the rights of passage: separation – initiation – return: which might be named the nuclear unit of the monomyth.† (Campbell, 30) The epic tale of a hero follows the universal pattern of Campbell’s monomyth beginning with the separation, or call to adventure leaving one’s family, friends, or tribe. Followed by the initiation of the crossing the threshold into the world unknown where he encounters trials and is victorious. S/he can then return home with a â€Å"boon† to aid and/or restore his/her world. According to Campbell, â€Å"[o]ther [monomyths] string a number of independent cycles into a single series (as in the Odyssey).† (Campbell, 246) In Beowulf, the poet has sent Beowulf on his journey of the monomyth. However, like Csmpbell has written, Beowulf’s journey consist of three miniature monomyths that can be connected into one hero’s journey that take several decades of his life to complete. In the first cycle, consider Beowulf’s initial call to adventure. King Hrothgar was in desperate need of a hero to rid of is curse, Grendel, that terrorizes his people in the Mead Hall. Capbell writes, â€Å"[w]ith the personifications of his destiny to guide him, the hero goes forward until he comes to the ‘threshold guardian.’† (Campbell, 77) He claims â€Å"that there is a benign power supporting him in his superhuman passage.† (Campbell, 97) Recall the incredibly fierce storm in the sea Beowulf and the Geats had to endure on their journey that should swallowed them whole. Campbell claims that there are forces beyond the hero that guide him to his destiny. Upon arrival, Beowulf and his thanes are confronted at Heorot by the first threshold guardian. Here, according to Campbell, the hero must â€Å"defeat or conciliate† the guardian in order for the true adventure to begin. Beowulf conciliates the watchman to take him and his thanes to the Mead Hall. From  there, Beowulf falls into the next step of the monomyth, entering â€Å"the kingdom of the dark.† (245) Beowulf’s fight with Grendel, which takes place in the darkness in the Mead Hall, wins him the boon, the arm of Grendel. â€Å"The final work is that of the return. . . the common day.† (Campbell, 216, 246) Upon winning the boon, the curse of King Hrothgar had been lifted and the community had been restored. In return, Beowulf undergoes apotheosis from the community and is rewarded with the royal dragon horn. The next two cycles follow much of the same pattern of Campbell’s monomyth. His next call to adventure comes in the form of murders. Beowulf wakes in the morning after the celebration only to see his men killed and hung from the ceiling of the Mead Hall. Once again, the hero had to travel to the cave where Grendel’s mother resided – into the unknown. There, he had entered the cave, crossing the threshold, where â€Å"[t]he hero . . . is swallowed into the unknown.† (Campbell, 90) and is confronted by its guardian, which happened to be Grendel’s mother. However, Beowulf does not defeat her, but is rather seduced by her as well as her promises to make him all-powerful, and â€Å"through the graces of some male or female . . . the [hero] still must return with his life-transmuting trophy.† (Campbell, 193) Beowulf returns to the world familiar with his boon, the â€Å"head of Grendel’s mother.† King Hrothgar immediately knows that Beowulf is lying, however he and the community appraise him to an even higher apotheosis and Hrothgar declares Beowulf his heir after his soo n-to-be death. Beowulf’s final call to adventure comes in the form of a dragon burning Unferth’s home and family. Leaving Unferth alive to deliver the message to King Beowulf: â€Å"[t]he sins of the fathers.’† For one final time, Beowulf crosses the threshold (that being the cave) into the unknown and is confronted by its guardian, Grendel’s mother. Failing to conciliate with her, Beowulf enters the threshold of adventure, literally taking the form of a dragon battle. However, in this battle, Beowulf struggled in his magic flight in trying to defeat the dragon and had to descend into his own death in order to slay the creature. Beowulf had brought the boon to his people in the form of freedom from the dragon and received the ultimate apotheosis in that his name will be remembered forever as the â€Å"prince of all warriors†. Viewing Beowulf’s entire life as one hero’s journey on a grand scale, it follows Campbell’s paradigm. In Beowulf’s separation, his call to adventure was when he heard that Hrothgar was in need of a hero to kill Grendel. Beowulf sets sail along with his fellow Geats to the world unknown and must endure the trials and ordeals along the way. Beowulf, being aided by some force of supernatural power on his travels out in the powerful sea storm, no match for ordinary man. Upon his arrival, Beowulf enters the first threshold into the Dark World, that being the Mead Hall, and then battling the threshold guardian, Grendel. After the defeat of Grendel, Beowulf is given his first apotheosis, as the people of Heorot praise him and he was rewarded the royal dragon horn. However, the trials are not over for Beowulf, as after his men are murdered, his next task is to kill Grendel’s mother. Here, he crosses the threshold into the unknown once again and into the â€Å"belly of the whale† (the cave) and meeting the â€Å"queen† (Grendel’s mother). Beowulf enters the initiation element of Campbell’s monomyth. Although there was no battle, Beowulf had been defeated. Not physically, but Grendel’s mother had been successful in seducing Beowulf with her promises in exchange for the dragon horn, thus binding them in a â€Å"sacred marriage†. Beowulf then travels back to the community and is raised to an even grander apotheosis as he is made their king. It takes Beowulf some decades later to reach the final stage of Campbell’s outline, the hero’s return. After years of being an almighty king, Beowulf once again receives the special item, the dragon horn, and then the village is literally attacked by a dragon. This bring Beowulf to the crossing of the return threshold (the cave). Immediately on his arrival, he goes on the magic flight in his battle with the dragon. These set of events lead him into the final stages of the hero’s journey. Beowulf slayed the beast at the cost of his own life as well. He achieves the ultimate apotheosis and his name will always be remembered and the people will sing of it. Beowulf has won a temporary boon (peace from the dragon and Grendel’s mother’s wrath) for the people of Heorot. Temporary because Wiglaf (new king) receives that special item (dragon horn) and it is unknown what actions he will take with Grendel’s mother. â€Å"The adventure of the hero normally follows the pattern of the nuclear unit . . . a separation from the world, a penetration to some source of power, and a life enhancing return.† (Campbell, 35) There is no doubt that the story of Beowulf follows Campbell’s monomyth cycle of a hero’s journey. Beowulf’s entire journey actually consists of three miniature journeys embedded into one grand journey that is Beowulf’s monomyth.

Pardon Debate :: essays research papers

Pardon Debate   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Does money increase power over the rest of the nation? President Clinton’s last minute pardons before leaving the White House has left a lingering shadow over his two year Presidency. To understand this controversy, we would need to discuss the Mar Rich pardon, the Glenn Braswell pardon, and the negative impact that these had on the former President and former first lady.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The article â€Å"A President and a pardon, a price?† written by Mark Mezzetti and Gary Cohen, stated that Marc Rich fled from the U.S. to Switzerland in 1983 to dodge a tax fraud charge. On the morning of Clinton’s final day in office, the criticism was becoming well known around the White House. President Clinton had pardoned her from the tax fraud charge. Carol Elder Bruce, the clients lawyer, informed committee staff members that Mrs. Rich had contributed over $200 million to the Clinton Library Fund. (26). A well known source told U.S. News Today that so far Marc Rich has contributed $450,000 in the past three years. (26). Mr. Rich had donated more than $1 million for Democrats between 1991-1992. He also gave $70,000 to Hillary Clinton’s campaign for New York’s Senator.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While Micheal Milken, former Junk-bond king, waited for a pardon, Clinton fundraisers approached him for money. His spokesman stated that Mr. Milken gave nothing to the fund raiser.(26). But on Presidents Clinton’s last day in office an e-mail had been sent to Jack Quinn by Denis Rich, Marc’s ex-wife, that there was news that Milken will not get the pardon. Milken, who was a pardon applicant that did not contribute to the Clinton Library Fund.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another pardon that was given before President Clinton left was for Glenn Braswell. An article written by Mark Mazzetti and Shelia Kaplan called â€Å"The scandal that keeps on giving†, gave the impression that herb supplement dealer Glenn Braswell was pardoned the same day also. President Clinton’s brother-n-law Hugh Rodham had accepted $400,000 to plead Braswell’s case. (25). This damage was felt mostly by Hillary Clinton. Mrs. Clinton was disappointed in her brother. The former first lady insisted that Rodham return the money that he had taken for the case. The White House log books records each visitor’s time and date they enter the White House. Therefore they can track the times and days when Rodham was at the White House. The White Houses formal couple stated in an interview, that they know nothing about Rodham’s connection with the Braswell pardon.

One flew over the cuckoo’s nest Essay

   Through Kesey’s use of literary features, his novel helped base an understanding on what society decided to believe is normal. Kesey highlights the significance of the insane and their positive energy. He uses McMurphy as a tool to highlight each patient’s positive side whereas society only searches for the negative. Kesey’s outlook on mental illness is simple; he uses his novel to point this out. His novel shows how the patients in the ward are there because society placed them there. Society labeled these people to be against the norms or conformities, which in return allowed the patients to feel inferior and out of place. This novel stresses the fact that each person should not be forced into a corner; they should be given rights to live regular lives with other people. Society should not force inferiority complexes on these patients. The fact that most of the patients were voluntary helps prove this point. It shows how society forced them into a completely different and inhumane lifestyle. Another novel that joins this rebellion against society in relation to insanity is The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. In this novel, Plath interprets insanity in her own way trying to prove practically the same point as Kesey. Plath’s use of description, metaphors, and characterization help provide her main point of allowing insanity to merge with reality. The Bell Jar is a novel equipped with descriptions that allow the reader direct access to the main character’s mind. Plath uses an abundant amount of physical descriptions such as the description of Esther’s surroundings at all times to help give examples of how society has forced this woman to think. Esther’s thoughts on life, death, and the world all seem to be reasonable and justifiable thoughts. She is capable of convincing the reader that those thoughts are not insane. Through the use of descriptions, Plath was able to highlight the unjust life of a 1950s woman. Plath also uses metaphors to highlight the suppression made by society on the women. The title of the book is the major metaphor that best represents Plath’s idea on society’s conformities. The entire novel revolves around the idea of the bell jar and this jar represents how society analyzes and reduces the contents provided in the jar. The jar represents insanity. Esther feels secluded and isolated from the real world when she is labeled as mad. She feels like she is an airless jar that ruins her perspective of what the real world is. It signifies a buffer that ends the connection between Esther and the real world4. These literary features were all used to highlight Esther’s alienation from the real world. It shows how a young woman from the 1950s was forced to act. Esther wanted to pursue a writing career and is supported completely, but her thoughts begin to change when the fact that she cannot merge her career with being a mother come to place. Esther becomes depressed and her thoughts begin to change on the world. These individual thoughts begin to accumulate leading to actions that are condemned upon by society. Society expects a lot from Esther such as the idea of her virginity. Esther rebels against the conventional role of virginity with women at that time by embarking on a sexual experience. Esther did not become insane because she believed against the norms of society but rather insanity fell on her. The treatments in both novels are similar in many aspects. At first, the hospitals provide healthy conversations between the patient and a professional psychiatrist. In both novels, the sense of talking is important because a lot of information is released about society and what they think of it. Another treatment usually done after talk therapy is electroshock therapy. Electroshock therapy was created in 1936 in order to help patients clear their mind5. As years passed, this treatment began to evolve which therefore led to the change of its purpose. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, ECT was used as a form of punishment. Patients were punished for doing anything out of the ordinary. In The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood undergoes several electroshock therapy sessions to clear her mind. She continuously states how painful the therapy is and tries to refuse treatment. Her recollections of these treatments show the inhumanity in medical treatments. Another treatment that falls into the controversial category is Lobotomy. It is shown insignificantly in The Bell Jar, one patient briefly converses about it. On the other hand, Lobotomy has a major impact in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The main character undergoes a lobotomy at the end of the novel. This act completely criticizes the ways of society in relation to medical treatments. Many forms of medical treatments on insanity exist but whether they provide a positive outcome is the main question. Society and mental illness are very closely related in the sense that society creates the separation between sanity and insanity. That separation is miniscule and changes constantly over time. Both of these novels emphasize isolation, suppression, and seclusion forced by society. Society forces these on the ideas that are condemned or not wanted. These ideas should not force inhumane actions but rather welcome ideas as an advantage to a better society, a more open society. Mental illnesses and treatments are used as major themes in novels to help highlight the negative aspects of what society creates. Through showing the unjust actions forced by society on people, the idea of insanity should evolve from punishment to help. Word Count: 1,605 1 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey. 2 Gale, CD-Rom, HS Library. Source 1 3 Gale, CD-Rom, HS Library. Source 1 4 Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography, 1941-1968; Contemporary Authors, Vols. 17-20.

The Rebellion by Edna in The Awakening by Kate Chopin - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1415 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2018/12/27 Category Literature Essay Type Book review Level High school Tags: Character Essay Kate Chopin Essay Did you like this example? Introduction A read through the book by Kate Chopin, The Awakening, leaves one with many questions, especially when they are through to the 7th chapter. The story of Edna Pontellier is the one which is problematic, as one follows the character from the beginning of the story to the end. The various transformation of the character Edna is what is sure to leave many questions in the head of a reader. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Rebellion by Edna in The Awakening by Kate Chopin" essay for you Create order One might be sure to ask as well as ponder whether this is another feminist novel or whether Edna is mad, or it is, in fact, the author, Chopin who is mad. However, one thing that is sure to stand out in the novel is the rebellious nature of Edna. However, the question of whether her rebellion can be termed to be realistic is one of the factors that many critics of the novel try to argue. In this paper, the uprising of Edna will be discussed as well as the causes for the rebellious nature. Analysis of the Rebellious nature of Edna When a reader first comes across with Edna, she appears to be a muted woman, one who is entirely unable to articulate herself and very much unable to tell a story from her point of view (Urgo 23). However, as one progresses through the novel, Edna gets more courageous and even learns to say no, she slowly turns into a woman who is capable of rebelling as her character begins to take into shape. From the novel, it can be said that awakens Edna as well as her sensuality, is mainly the art of speaking out as well as her being able to make her desires, as well as her emotions, be understood in a narrative form. The awakening is mainly a story about Edna being unable to speak and as such, not being able to make her story being heard. The central tragedy to Edna in The Awakening is that comes to later find out that the story which she is telling is mainly unacceptable in her culture, such demands that if she wants to live in their current society, she will have to silence herself, and igno re the others. However, Edna comes to reject this truth. Such is what brings out her rebellious quality at first. The readers are introduced to the fact that Edna is now willing to extinguish her own life than editing her form of the story. However, such raises a very crucial component in her rebellious nature; she even comes to the point of accepting and reaching for a compromise with death rather than being silent, which seems a very suitable bargain when compared to death. It should be noted that from the start of the novel, Edna is always going through a rough patch when trying to express her emotions as well as experiences in the form of a narrative. A perfect example is when Edna and Robert try to come up with a relation to the ?adventureby Leonce, which they have had out in the water, but they fail. Edna says,It didnt seem half so amusing when told (Chopin 173). Furthermore, one of the most discouraging factors that had been attributed to be causing the turbulence in the Pontellier marriage is the fact that, in the eyes of Leonce, Edna was failing to talk as well as converse with him (Chopin 177). However, the catch is that Edna cant appreciate such type of conversation because the first time the readers are introduced to her, we find her to be mute. All these time, Edna can be said to be quiet, especially for the first six chapters of the novel. Ednas attempt to express herself always runs her into problems; all these can be seen at the first effort to make her thoughts be heard. All this was seen when Edna decided to take anatural aptitude test to undertake to do a painting for Madame Ratignolle. However, when the picture was done, Ratignolle was greatly disappointed as the woman in the picture bore no similarities to her at all. However, Edna interrupts this statement. She says thatIt was a fair enough piece f work, and is satisfying in many ways (Chopin 187). As demonstrated, this indeed becomes the first instance of Edna, having a chance to have her interpretation and thoughts be heard. She refuses to get what she sees as being good, being termed as unrealistic by the other. Such shows that whatever Edna sees in her own eyes, it is not the same that is recognized by her compatriots, such explains one of the causes of her rebellious nature. She is mainly rebellious because she does not conform to the standards as well as patterns of her compatriots. However, Edna destroys the picture despite some consolation from Robert. No sooner had she made the unsettling picture of the Madame Ratignolle than Edna is hit by the many series of her forms of awakenings. With this, the realization the relations that surround her are progressively made more prominent (Chopin 191). The incidence of the painting with Madame Ratignolle teaches her a lot. She learns that even though her visions and way of seeing things are different from the others, it is paramount that she learns to express them. And this serves the second reason for her rebellion, to make herself understood as well as bring out her voice. However, as Chopin explains, the beginnings brought about by such types of awakening are vague, and as a result, Edna still had a very long way in a bid to make her voice be heard. However, it is chapter 7 that reveals much about the history that Edna has concerning her rebellious nature. The section explains the kind in which she would run out of the fields in the sole bid to escape the prayer services that she saw as being gloomy. The chapter also shows why she ended up marrying Leonce as her family had the violent opposition to her marrying a Catholic man. It is evident that she led a dual life all her life as her outward appearance mainly seemed to conform to what the society expects of her while the internal part of her always appear to be questioning the actions she undertakes. Before the life that Edna leads while in marriage, she had experienced various sexual, obsessions as we passionate encounters with some men that he could not have lasting relationships with them. She was always fixated on a writer who was dead as well as having the constant amount of persistence of the infatuation to these other men. Such made it seem like it was genuine love. However, such kind of perception, especially to a dead man, was in a way a perfect portrayal of the weakness that Edna suffered the pain as well of having an unfulfilled love. All these were some of the reasons that aggravated her need to express herself to the world. The story that needs to be told by Edna, as seen, is the story of the awakening that is seen in her body. Such is described by the author asthe animalism that has forever stirred impatiently within her (Chopin 293). Her body has been the one that has suffered more from the silence as it had never found a perfect place to express her desires openly. It is this, however, that he must rebel against, in a bid to set her body and soul free. She must be able to tell her story and be able to explain or narrate her desires to the people, who might sometimes take advantages of her silent and muted nature (McConnell 44). The incident that happens at the Grand Isle, very early in the novel, represents a foreshadowing of the move that will be taken by Edna. That when moving from the appreciation of the passive consumption and appreciation of the arts, towards the side in which it demands active participation, towards the authority as well as the expression of oneself. Such typically represents a move from the viewpoint that the art is taken as being ornamental or just being social to the people of the society. Work Cited Urgo, Joseph R.A Prologue to Rebellion: The Awakeningand the Habit of Self-Expression. The Southern Literary Journal, vol. 20, no. 1, 1987, pp. 22â€Å"32. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20077844. Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017. Print. McConnell, Mikaela. A Lost Sense of Self by Ignoring Other in The Awakening By Kate Chopin. The Explicator 72.1 (2014): 41-44. Web.