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The hero's adventure joseph campbell summary
The hero's adventure joseph campbell summary
Essay about elie wiesel
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Some people are born to be heroes. Some people may be forgotten heroes. Some people are born not to be heroes at all. In ways they are similar and in some ways they are different. John Campbell’s Hero’s Journey Monomyth shows the certain stages that a hero would traditionally go through to be qualified as a hero. Elie Wiesel is not a monomyth hero, because he does not follow the correct steps and does not hit enough steps to be considered a monomythic hero. Elie is not a monomyth hero for a few reasons. First of all, there is no goddess in this story. A goddess must be present for the main character’s journey to be considered a monomythic story. A goddess is a character in the story that impacts the main character’s life life and helps him find his true self. The goddess provides an extra branch of structure for the …show more content…
The best example from the novel is when he takes control of his own life after his father dies. His truer qualities as a leader tend to shine brighter than a hero towards the end of the book as he starts to act more independent but still follows in line with all the conditions he is put in. It even briefly mentions towards the end of the book when he says he looks into the mirror and he sees a man he never knew. This shows him as a leader because before he went through the terrors of Auschwitz he would walk around and not help anyone, not even himself. He is also a good leader throughout the book. It is actually quite clear throughout the book in the way he writes. He becomes more independent as a person as he spends more time in the concentration camps. For example, after his father dies he starts to push himself to make it to the end. He shows how he helps himself through all the obstacles that are thrown at him like when he is running from camp to camp and he sees one of his prison mates fall down and get shot. He leads himself and others several times throughout the book as
According to Umberto Eco, “The real hero is always a hero by mistake….” In other words, one doesn’t act heroic as a lifestyle, but by surprise when the time comes to do so. To be heroic means to put others before you in a desperate time of someone else’s despair. Two works of literature that agree with the critical lens are the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee and the memoir, Night, by Elie Wiesel. Atticus Finch and Elie Wiesel both demonstrate heroic actions unintentionally.
An estimated 11 million people died in the Holocaust. 6 million were Jews. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel tells his story as a Holocaust survivor. Throughout his book he describes the tremendous obstacles he overcame, not only himself, but with his father as well. The starvation and cruel treatment did not help while he was there. Elie makes many choices that works to his advantage. Choice plays a greater factor in surviving Auschwitz.
So as the morning Sun rose. The light beamed on Christopher's face. The warmth of the sun welcomed him to a new day and woke up in a small house in Los Angeles. Christopher is a tall, male, that loves technology and video games. He stretched and went to the restroom it was 9 o'clock and he was thankful it was spring break and didn’t have to go to school. Christopher made his way to the kitchen trying not wake up his parents and made himself breakfast. He served himself cereal Honey Bunches of Oats to be exact with almond milk. Then he took a shower and watched some YouTube videos before doing his homework.
Humanity has created this “universal story” of what a hero is, or at least the myth of it, time and again. Different tasks and encounters with a variety of villains all lead the hero to the prize, to a new life (Seger). This person deemed the hero is as ordinary as the next but what makes them different is the drastic test that they must face. Individuals admire this character because the hero stands for something, something bigger than themselves. Whether it be the compassionate act of Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games or the death of the oldest brother in Brother Bear, as an outsider, an individual sees the human side of these heroes and relates. Connor Lassiter from Unwind by Neal Shusterman is an ideal example of the myth due to the
Who is your hero? Many of us can clearly picture our idea of our personal hero in our head, but is the person you consider to be a hero really a hero by definition? In Heroism: Why Heroes are Important, Scott LaBarge, a Classics and Philosophy Professor at Santa Clara University, awakens your thoughts on the word heroism and how it has changed since its origins in ancient Greece. Throughout his essay, he goes in depth into the term ‘hero’ and compares it to society’s take on heroes today. Although LaBarge uses examples to back up his stance that “Today, it is much harder to detach the concept of heroism from morality (LaBarge. 1),” his essay contains flaws and he contradicts his own words.
Inked on the pages of Elie Wiesel’s Night is the recounting of him, a young Jewish boy, living through the mass genocide that was the Holocaust. The words written so eloquently are full of raw emotions depict his journey from a simple Jewish boy to a man who was forced to see the horrors of the world. Within this time period, between beatings and deaths, Wiesel finds himself questioning his all loving and powerful God. If his God loved His people, then why would He allow such a terrible thing to happen? Perhaps Wiesel felt abandoned by his God, helpless against the will of the Nazis as they took everything from him.
In Night, by Elie Wiesel, there is an underlying theme of anger. Anger not directed where it seems most appropriate- at the Nazis- but rather a deeper, inbred anger directed towards God. Having once been a role model of everything a “good Jew” should be, Wiesel slowly transforms into a faithless human being. He cannot comprehend why the God who is supposed to love and care for His people would refuse to protect them from the Germans. This anger grows as Wiesel does and is a constant theme throughout the book.
The mold of the heroic template is evident throughout various types of media. Within movies, novels, and poems the hero’s journey is present. Of course, not every piece of literature or movie follows the cycle. However, the idea of the monomyth arose from Joseph Campbell. He wrote his own book, The Hero of a Thousand Faces, within his writing he describes that heroes’ follow the same basic procedure throughout their quest(s). This is where the idea of the hero monomyth arose. In Michael Lewis’s novel, The Blind Side, he portrays “The heroic monomyth.” The Blind Side consists of the basic characters and archetypes that accurately reflect the heroic template.
Who is a hero? In contemporary times, usage of the term has become somewhat of a cliché. Over the years, the term “hero” has become representative of a wide variety of individuals, each possessing differing traits. Some of the answers put forth by my colleagues (during our in-class discussion on heroism) as to whom they consider heroes pointed to celebrities, athletes, teachers and family members. Although the occupations differed, each of their heroes bore qualities that my classmates perceived as extraordinary, whether morally or physically. Nonetheless, Webster’s defines “hero” as “a person who is admired for great or brave acts or fine qualities.” Thus, it is worth considering that individuals become heroes relative to the situation with which they’re faced.
Elie Wiesel: A Survivor of the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel wrote in a mystical and existentialistic manner to depict his life as a victim of the holocaust in his many novels. Such selections as ‘Night’ and ‘The Trial of God’ reveal the horrors of the concentration camps and Wiesel's true thoughts of the years of hell that he encountered. This hell that Wiesel wrote about was released later in his life due to his shock, sadness, and disbelief. Elie Wiesel spoke in third person when writing his story.
Joseph Campbell defines a hero as “someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself” (Moyers 1). The Hero’s Journey consists of three major parts: the separation, the initiation, and the return. Throughout a character’s journey, they must complete a physical or spiritual deed. A physical deed involves performing a daunting and courageous act that preserves the well-being of another person. A spiritual deed calls for action that improves another individual’s state of mind.
From the beginning of time, mythology has appeared to be one key method of understanding life’s confusions and battles. Within these myths lies a hero. From myth to myth and story to story, heroes experience what may be called a struggle or a journey, which lays down their plot line. Bearing tremendous strength, talent, and significant admiration, a hero holds what is precious to their audience, heroism. Over time however, no matter the hero, the hero’s role remains indistinguishable and identical to the position of every other hero.
“There is heroism in crime as well as in virtue. Vice and infamy have their altars and their religion.” William Halzlitt, a British writer, once said this on the subject of heroism. His personal view, reflected in this quote, was that the evil and the righteous can be heroes. Everyone has a different view on heroism. Some may view Odysseus from the Odyssey, a fighter and soldier, as a hero, and others may view Mahatma Gandhi, humanitarian and pacifist, as a hero. Although Odysseus from the Odyssey and Mahatma Gandhi, a prominent figure in the fight for India’s independence, are both known to be heroes because they are brave, they are different because Odysseus used deceit to reach his home while Gandhi used his morals and honor to fight against bigotry.
In movies, novels, and life, people are named as heroes. The heroes we establish and the heroes we recognize, however, may not meet the criteria for a mythic hero. A mythic hero ventures forth on his journey, and comes forth from the hero’s path to greatness. Joseph Campbell, a mythologist who studied many of the great human myths and religious tales, realized, in studying these myths and tales, that there were certain steps that every hero went through. Campbell called this “The Hero’s Journey”; it is based on Carl Jung's idea that all human beings have an archetype.
There is another type of hero that almost no one is aware of. In the poorest areas of the country, live mostly minorities and other ethic background. All their lives they’ve been expected to work harder and expected not succeed in life. Some individuals living in poverty with a determination to succeed work hard all of their lives to become what everybody doubted they could. Escaping the crime, drugs, and prostitution is enough to escape hell, even if they don’t go to college. Despite of their financial problems, drug and crime surroundings, or difficulties in the language skills, their desire to triumph fuels their persistence. Those who make it to success are the few living examples of the purest form of hero anyone can be. They are not only their own heroes but also the heroes of the poor children who dream of becoming like them someday.