Societies' Model

Heroes in ancient stories and heroes in current stories have a lot of common traits. There is a handful of examples. Heroes often have a mentor. For example, Odysseus’ mentor is Athena, and she helps him throughout his journey. We can see that kind of situations in recent movies, such as Star Wars, where Obi-Wan Kenobi mentors Luke Skywalker in his journey. Even though heroes in ancient tales are alike in many other aspects, this essay will just be focused in one characteristic.

An epic hero is the model of the idealistic person in a society. They represent everything that society believes a perfect citizen should be. In the Odyssey, that is well established. Odysseus clearly represents a perfect ancient Greek. Odysseus is a great warrior, and Greeks considered war a very important aspect of their society. Odysseus is also a clever man with leadership. I do not think any society would not want a clever leader between them. Odysseus was an honorable man. In almost every ancient society, including the Greek, Honor was the most important value. In the Odyssey, Odysseus is known all along Greece as a very honorable man. Odysseus is held in Ogygia by Calypso. She is beautiful; Odysseus could stay with her forever and become immortal. Odysseus chooses to try to get back with his wife Penelope, even though the journey to get back with her might kill him, and even when he gets home, he will not be with a goddess or become immortal. He still gets back with his wife. This shows that Greeks considered loyalty and family very important in their society.

Just as in the Odyssey, in the movie Captain America some of the United States’ idealistic characterists are represented, nevertheless the influence of the hero’s traits is not as evident. Captain America’s dream is to go to war and fight for his country. North American society considers nationalism one of the most essential aspects of a perfect North American. This society also has great pride on the citizens that honor their country in war, and everything Captain America did is honor his country in the World War II.

In conclusion, stories and societies have evolved over the years. Now a days stories, told in movies for example, don’t have the same objective that they used to have in the ancient societies. Societies have different priorities and more open minds. But Even if stories and societies keep evolving, people will always want to be identified somehow with the heroes in the stories. Societies want to see in a hero what they think a perfect human would be, that is a simple thing that would make a diverse society come together.

Odyssey beginning by Zeus

“Zeus’s perspective”

            From the sky, all the problems in the earth seem simple, but they start to get convoluted as they keep involving more complex levels of power, until they get to the Olympus. Last Friday, the Olympians and me had a meeting. They thought they could decide whether Odysseus was being freed or not, but I, Zeus, ruler of the skies, have the last word in every decision. Neptune wants Odysseus to suffer. Athena wants me to focus on Odysseus matter and give him his freedom back. Odysseus’s men ate Helios cattle, so he deserves punishment. On the other hand, he has suffered quite a lot.

            After everyone made me loose time presenting their arguments, I made my decision. I am the wisest and most important god in the universe, so I obviously did not listen to their debate. I decided I would let Calypso free Odysseus, but he and his son Telemachus had to earn Odysseus freedom. Athena was very inquisitive about helping Telemachus, so I let Athena help Telemachus.

            Now I can see everything in a panoramic screen up from the heavens. The suitors are disrespecting Penelope, Odysseus’s wife. Telemachus is trying to do something to arrange his estate before he goes in his quest to locate his beloved father, or at least his body. In order to leave Ithaca, Telemachus, unsuccessfully tried to demand the suitors some respect. Telemachus escaped from Ithaca, so his mother would be partially content for an extra couple of days before she proceeded to break down. Finally, Telemachus started his pursue. He was insecure at times, but every time, Athena encouraged him to keep going. Telemachus first arrived to Pylos to talk with Nestor. At first, he was nervous, but he stepped out and asked Nestor about his father. Nestor talked about Odysseus with admiration and respect, nevertheless Nestor didn’t know anything about the location or whereabouts of Odysseus. Even though Telemachus did not find his father in Pylos, the start of his journey had being successful because X Nestor’s son joined Telemachus in his jaunt. Well, apparently it will be a delight to witness this journey. (Zeus before the Odyssey took place.)

Short Story

            I was a simple suburban boy. I lived outside New York City. I had to drive one and a half hours to get to the city to work as an intern in “Blake and Robertson” the greatest law firm in the country. Then, at noon I went to school to get my law degree, so I could finally be recognized as a lawyer at work. After that, I had to drive back home again, and I didn’t have an amazing car with heat to be warm during my ride or confortable seats. No, I had my father’s old car that could barely take me back home. I had to do that every single day, and yet I loved it. One day after a couple of bad days at work, I met Emma. I started talking to her for a while, and I kept talking with her at work. After the first week, I was in love with Emma, and she was in love with me. I talked to her every day for a couple of months. Even though we liked each other, we just interacted at work, but I was planning to, finally, ask her out for dinner. When suddenly, one day I didn’t see Emma. I was really concerned, so I asked Ms. Radcliff, the lady in the front desk, where Emma was. She said Emma was the daughter of Aaron Robertson, the founding partner in my law firm, my boss, and she was moving to Chicago in four week to marry Connor Alcobia, the most important lawyer of “Blake and Robertson” in our offices in Chicago. Connor had a very good relationship with Mr. Robertson, Emma’s dad. I was highly confused, but one day, just before the four weeks were over, I saw Emma when I was walking out of work. Emma explained everything to me. She said that her father was forcing her to leave Manhattan and go to Chicago to marry Connor. She was going to delay her stay in New York for three weeks, and in that time, we needed to figure out how we could be together living in Manhattan. During the first couple of days I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to be with Emma, but after the first week I decided I did want to be with her. In the second week someone told Mr. Robertson about Emma and me. He immediately sent Emma to Chicago, so I thought everything was over. I was wrong; just a few days after Emma left I received a phone call from her, and she asked if I came up with a plan. All of my plans were a possibility when she was in New York. Now that she was in Chicago, it was almost impossible to work something out, but I came up with the perfect plan. We had to wait three months until I earned my law major. Then, I had to get a job in a city far away from Connor and Mr. Robertson. The only problem was Connor. Emma was convinced that I had to confront him. I was not sure about confronting one of the most recognized lawyers in the country that would definitely mess up my career. After a lot of thinking, I decided that I was going to confront Connor, so three weeks later I was in Chicago ready to confront Connor Alcobia. I arrived at 12 o’ clock to Chicago, my knees where shaking as soon as I set foot in Chicago. At one thirty five I was outside of the office where Mr. Connor Alcobia was, my knees were still shaking. I entered his office ready to give him a piece of my mind, but I was in the wrong office. I walked to the actual Connor’s office, and when I entered I just started speaking, without even noticing I was telling Connor Alcobia that Emma was coming with me. I told him that the country we live in is a free country where every person gets to decide where he or she lives, and with whom they live. He was really angry, but being a lawyer he had to let Emma go in order to follow the laws. Finally, Emma was free from Connor and from her father. Three months later I was a lawyer. Emma and I decided to live in San Francisco; where we opened, as partners, the best law firm in the West Coast. Our main focus was to fight for human and civil rights. Today, ten years later we are married and have two kids.

The Role of Archetypes

There are various definitions for archetype. For Example, Carl Jung says that an archetype is "a preconscious disposition that enables a man to react in a human manner". I don't think that is an accurate definition for an archetype because archetypes have nothing to do with human psychology. I think archetypes are related to the problems and questions a society has and the way they solve or answer  them. So archetypes are human patterns of ideas or feelings present in a story or narrative. That is why archetypes are common in towns all over the world because they have similar ideas when solving a problem or answering a question.

One common archetype is the figure of Tyler Durdan, and it is featured in the movie "The Fight Club". I think Tyler Durdan's character represents the shadow because he represents everything the main character (narrator) would want to be as well as all the narrator considers as wrong. Tyler represents the shadow because he is the doble personality of the narrator when the narrator thinks he is asleep. For Example, Tyler develops a plan without letting the narrator know. Here we can observe how the narrator looses control of his "dark side" and even acts without knowing that he acted.

This movie represents how the lack of sleep is very painful. So this archetype is essential for the story because without Tyler Durdan the viewer would not understand that insomnia broke the narrator into two different people, which lead the narrator to hurt himself. For example, Tyler asked the narrator "would you be happy if you died right now?"in a life or death situation. The narrator did not know the answer. Without Tyler in situations like this the viewer wouldn't understand the relation between the narrator and his "dark side".

In conclusion, the use of this archetype is important to the movie because it helps the viewer understand the relation between the narrator and his shadow. This situations where an archetype is essential in a narrative, story or even a movie are common because archetypes are the patterns that help the reader or viewer understand the role of each character or event.