Life, Death, and the Heroic Archetype

Life, Death, and the Heroic Archetype

The heroic archetype is a creative expression borne of the individual's desire to know and to understand the uncontrollable and often chaotic world in which he lives. In the popular culture of America we can find many reflections of the heroic figure; in writing, in the graphic art of comic books, and most certainly in the aftermath of September 11th, heroes are ever present. Our cultural champions speak to our collective need to make sense of the nonsensical and to establish order in both our external and internal worlds. Indeed it is through the internal world of the psyche and the lens of psychological thought that we may gain a better perspective of the fusion of creativity and knowledge that we have come to call the heroic figure.

Creative experience and its expression cannot exist without some contextual framework by which it is understood and appreciated. The very survival of all that is creative depends upon such knowledge. Just as a bird released from its cage must eventually return to roost or perish in the wilderness so must our creative thoughts and imaginings eventually return to the reality of the corporeal world and the causal laws that govern it. This is the very nature of that which we call 'learning' and it is in such a way that creative thought gains relevance and weight, becoming part of our conscious reality. It is through this relationship between creativity and knowledge, between that which we imagine and that which we know, that we may gain a greater understanding of the heroic figure and its cultural significance.

The archetype of the hero is an expression of our imagination as well as a reflection of our experience. Carl Jung develops this idea in his essa...

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