...What do you think of a hero that is not really know by anyone, lives on the streets and is not a human. I think that the hero is not a hero in the human world but is a hero to a family of cats. This tom cat is a hero to these cats and their owner because of the courage he gained in the belly of the whale. The most important part of the heroic journey is the belly of the whale. This can be seen through what the hero gains physically, mentally, and how these gains help the hero later. One of the best way to show the belly of the whale is through the mental gains from it. One example would be when o'malley is feeling down when he told dutches that he is not a house cat that he belongs on the streets. Then he turns around and ends up saving dutches and the kittens. A example from the hobbit would be when bilbo showed up to help the dwarves get out of the elven kingdom.(chapter 9) This is why I think that the belly of the whale fits so well with the heroic journey....
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...What is a heroic journey? Well according to Joseph Campbell's theory it’s the way all stories go. They all have the same basic principles that tie them together, this is important because after all, going to a new world/place can be difficult, it can come with new challenges. New people to meet and new things to discover. This all may seem hard at the time, but it will soon all be worth it. Every story has to have multiple characters with multiple personalities in order to have a proper story. These might be humans or even a beast or dragon’s. Stories are built by the characters that are or around the hero. These might be good characters, like Gandalf in The Hobbit a strong leader and father figure for Billbo. Or even Toothless helping Hiccup...
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...famous author, mythologist, and most notable for his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. During the mid 1900’s, Campbell studied the heroic ideology throughout the world and time. Campbell realized similarities of the heroic journeys between the different cultures and time periods. Even though all heroic stories are different, they all have common patterns of their journey. He wrote his discovery in the book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. To summarize the heroic journey, Campbell wrote in his book, “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: The hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power...
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...An archetypal hero is defined as someone who “…possess attributes which you would recognize as heroic.” More importantly, the archetypal hero has some “…form of journey (the hero's journey archetype); these needn't be physical journeys like Homer's epics, but also spiritual journey(s)…” In the Anglo-Saxon poem, Beowulf slays dragons and monsters, as well as becomes king, and sails across vast oceans—however, Beowulf’s ultimate purpose to his journey is to be remembered for what a renowned hero he once was, as well as gain recognition from others for his heroic battles. Beowulf can be considered an archetypal hero because he possesses attributes that would be considered heroic, and also goes on a physical as well as spiritual journey. In the story of Beowulf, Beowulf has an ultimate journey that involves a call to adventure, followed by a refusal of the call, as well as reward (seizing the...
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... APA Style!!! * An epic hero has four distinctive qualities. The first characteristic is that the hero requires a life altering journey, one that can change the way he thinks about someone or something, or that has a substantial impact on him/her physically or emotionally. The next quality is that there must be some form of divine or godly intervention that helps or hinders the hero’s journey. A third quality of the epic hero is a quest, goal or objective that the hero must reach. Nearly all cultures have produced myths about heroes. Some heroes, such as the Greek Achilles, have one mortal and one divine parent. Others are fully human but are blessed with godlike strength or beauty. Many myths about heroes concern significant phases of the hero's career, such as the circumstances of the hero's birth, a journey or quest, and the return home. The birth and infancy of a mythological hero is often exceptional or even miraculous. In the ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean world, the births of many heroes followed similar patterns. Many heroes were often left to die at a ver young age but miraculously survived. Other heroes were immediately able to care for themselves. They performed astonishing feats of strength as children. Most heroes set off on a quest or a journey of some kind. One of the earliest tales of a hero's journey is the Babylonian story known as the Gilgamesh epic, written in cuneiform on 12 clay tablets in about 2000 BC....
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...Whirligig Hero Essay Elvin Deckard R Paul Fleischman wrote the book Whirligig, a story of a boy named Brent who goes on a journey to carry the life of a girl, whose life he took. In the book, Brent goes through a lot, but in the end, Brent does become a hero. Brent goes through all the phases of the heroic journey, becomes a better person, and makes peoples life better. Probably the most important factor of all would be Brent going through the heroic journey. Brent killed Lea and was asked to go on his journey, the call to adventure. He met many people throughout his journey, let this be the previous owner of the whirligig book, the cyclist, Ameal, or Lea’s spirit. These would be his allies. For preparation, he collected...
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...how they lived and died without the hope and consolation of the Christian faith (“Beowulf” 30-31). Beowulf is an epic poem that describes various characters and events from the sixth century, in particular the story of a brave warrior named Beowulf, his many heroic adventures, and his ultimate death. This poem originated from both legends and myths from other cultures that originally were passed down orally from generation to generation and then eventually recorded. By definition, an epic poem is a “long narrative poem in an elevated style that celebrates heroic achievement and treats themes of historical, national, religious, or legendary significance.” Some common characteristics of an epic that are obviously evident in Beowulf are the use of specific types of figurative language, the fighting of heroic battles against supernatural creatures, the unusual behavior of god-like heroes, and the array of geographical settings which are often included in a long journey (“Epic”). One characteristic of epic poems is the use of certain types of figurative language. One type of this elevated language is an epic simile, “an extended simile often running to several lines used typically in epic poetry to intensify the heroic stature of the subject and to serve as decoration” (“Epic simile”). One example of an extended simile in Beowulf is Hodges 2 the comparison of the Geats’ boat to a bird, which begins in lines 217-219 (“Beowulf”). A similar type of description, which is...
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...Grendel Literary Analyses In John Gardner's novel “Grendel,” a monster, Grendel goes on a quest and enters a war between Hrothgar and himself. During this journey, Grendel has an encounter with the dragon and ends up learning a new way to live life. Through Grendel’s encounters with the dragon, the dragon questions Grendel about the true meaning in life, and makes Grendel re-think the true meaning of life. In “Grendel, John Gardner expresses his opinion on the discourse of the philosophical topics of existentialism and heroic ideals. The dragon establishes a theory for himself that all things in the world will die and are useless. The dragon shares his advice with Grendel, by sharing, “Seek out gold and sit on it" (74). This piece of advice...
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...What is a hero? A hero is someone who is admired for their courage, bravery, and noble qualities. Heroic acts are often celebrated because they show the strength of the human spirit and the ability to overcome challenges. In literature, we often see characters put to the test in various ways to determine whether they are truly heroic. In Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey, we see the protagonist Odysseus facing numerous challenges on his journey back home to Ithaca. In this essay, we will explore what constitutes a heroic act and whether Odysseus acted heroically on his journey. First, one of the key aspects of a heroic act is courage in the face of danger. In Book 9 of The Odyssey, we see Odysseus and his men facing the danger of the Cyclops Polyphemus. Odysseus shows bravery as he devises a plan to blind the Cyclops and escape his clutches. He says, "I tied them [ram's wool] silently together, then slung a man under each middle one to ride there, shielded right and left by the others" (Book 9.). This shows Odysseus' quick thinking and bravery in taking on a giant who could easily overpower him and his men....
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...Isabelle Kim Mr. Wiegman English 1 Honors 21 May 2024 The Epic Hero Mahatma Gandhi once said, “A true hero is not defined by their strength but by their ability to inspire and lead others.” His words inspired others that heroes are not determined by being physical but also by the capacity to motivate and guide others. In The Odyssey, Odysseus shows his heroic traits of his cleverness when he stabbed Polyphemus in the eye allowing him and his men to escape the cave. Additionally, he shows loyalty as part of his traits by staying loyal to Penelope throughout the 20 years despite being offered love by Circe. Ultimately, his pride was his fatal flaw, causing his journey to take 20 years to return home. Throughout his journey, Odysseus shows many heroic traits that define him...
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...determine who the heroic protagonist is in The Iliad. That's because the audience today doesn't believe that their view, of what constitutes a heroic protagonist, coincides with the typical heroic protagonist of the Ancient Greeks. Yes, contemporary readers will all probably agree that Achilles possesses a couple of the characteristics, that would make him a heroic protagonist (i.e. being extremely brave, ambitious for honor, physically strong, etc...). However, Achilles also possesses some less thought-of characteristics, that might cause contemporary readers to arguably disagree with Achilles being an heroic protagonist. Given all criteria that makes up an epic poem's heroic protagonist, and that The Iliad is considered an epic; I'm going to have to say, that (while others display qualities of heroic protagonists) Achilles is the most heroic protagonist of The Iliad. Some of the more controversial characteristics, that make Achilles the perfect candidate for being the most heroic protagonist include: ambition driven by glory and immortality, he fights something or someone god-like, he has a known companion, he has an outward physical element that's very prominent, he is feared by a god, has many of character flaws, he makes a sacrifice, and his character undergoes a transformation linked with the journey he embarks on. Achilles' ambition for honor, immortality, and glory when he speaks of his two fates: "If I hold out here and I lay siege to Troy, / My journey home is gone,...
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...The hero, Perseus, was a compelling story to the ancient Greeks. His legend heavily influenced later ideas of heroic characters. In many ways, he was the ideal hero for the Greeks to look upon. sharing many of the same traits and mental patterns as the people, he became a way for people the people of Greece to glorify their own lives. Following Gilgamesh, and followed by the famous Heracles and Jason, the story of Perseus built a template for later stories. Perseus was seen as a hero to ancient Greeks because of how he followed the path of a hero, showed the traits of a hero, and created a hero’s legacy. The story of Perseus follows the same order as many parallel stories of heroic greatness, but with different names, goals and locations. His experience was universal given that he was not only made a hero by ancestry, but by his actions. A recurring topic in Greek mythology was people sending their opponents on impossible journeys that they are not expected to complete, but instead die from. Odysseus was sent into the Underworld on his journey, Jason was sent far east to steal the Golden Fleece from a cyclops in...
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...According to Joseph Campbell all these different heroes from different cultures had to go through a similar path of self discovery. In other words, Campbell would argue that heroes are projections of our journey here on earth. Heroes represent our yearning for guidance. While Harry Potter and the god-monkey Hanuman might be very different, both journeys are very similar and try to explain what it means to be heroic to their culture. How this heroism is expressed is different in both books. But, the underlying value is similar. Heroes can learn us help about nuance interpretations of what it means to be a hero. However, the purpose of the heroes ethos and myth would be to guide us in our journey. That is what make heroes -...
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...Every story has a person that earns fame because of their heroic traits or actions. In Star wars, Luke skywalker is a citizen of Tatooine who goes on an adventure and shows heroic traits along the way, making him famous. Similarly, In The Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus is the king of Ithaca before he embarks on a journey and uses his heroic traits, that include determination and leadership, to get him home. He then becomes famous, like Luke Skywalker did, because of his heroic traits. Similar to Odysseus, I also posses the heroic traits of determination and leadership. The first trait that Odysseus and I share is determination. Odysseus shows persistence when he is stuck in the cyclops’ cave and there seems to be no hope. He doesn’t give up and...
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...Pamplin January 14th, 2016 Essay #1 Epic heroism usually denotes to an individual of highest social class such as great kings or leaders. Epic heroes are outstanding fighters, sometimes carrying some divine powers. To show his heroic elements, the hero must confront some supernatural enemies, quests, war, or adversity. The Epic of Gilgamesh depicts most of these characteristics of epic heroism. The description about his birth to the journey and adventures in his life meets the characteristics of an epic hero. Although, at some points, Gilgamesh engages in acts of selfishness and arrogance, I believe he achieves the characteristics of an epic hero and portrays those characteristics throughout the epic. Gilgamesh is described as a son of a mortal man and a goddess, which makes him a one-third man and a two-thirds god. During his birth, Gilgamesh is marked out as a unique type of a person who has connections with both the mortal world and the divine world. The divine birth is very central and important to the various adventures and achievements to come into his life. “When the gods created Gilgamesh they gave him a perfect body…..Two-thirds they made him a god and one-third man (Mitchell, 13). Like most epic heroes, Gilgamesh embarks on heroic quests where he fights with the guardian Humbaba, which was a monster of the holy forest in order to achieve immortal status. Gilgamesh reveals his courageous nature by defying his advisers, including his own mother in efforts to accomplish...
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