Posts

The Bundren Family: Hero or Zero?

  The Bundren Family: Hero or Zero? In this blog, I will be answering the question: are the As I Lay Dying protagonists heroes or clownish goobers? Spoiler: I think they’re neither. In As I Lay Dying , William Faulkner creates a story with shifting narratives all focusing on one journey. Because of this, us readers are able to see into the minds of almost all the characters, and understand just how each of them think. While this technique is commonly used, we don’t really see it in the way Faulkner uses it: where each character isn’t really representing the truth of the situation at hand. All of the characters have their own beliefs and flaws, and in my opinion Faulkner is really good at showing how each character’s thoughts and beliefs affect their portrayal of the story. For example, Vardaman, a young boy, becomes obsessed with the idea that his dead mother is a fish (Faulkner 53). While not actually true, his belief of his mom being a fish shows up in the story so much that eve...
3 comments
Read more

A Wrinkle in Time? More Like A Wrinkle in Heroine’s Journey. :|

Image
  A Wrinkle in Time? More Like A Wrinkle in Heroine’s Journey. :| By: Citlali If you’ve ever read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, you’ll know it’s a really creative story. It also uses Victoria Lynn Schmidt’s Heroine’s Journey model in an interesting way. The female protagonist’s journey is often centered on herself and her process of inner healing. However, A Wrinkle in Time ’s protagonist, Meg, goes on a journey to save her father from an evil entity, which really puts her self-healing process on the back burner. Because of this, the deviation from a common source of struggle in other Heroine’s Journeys solidifies A Wrinkle in Time as a unique representation of Schmidt’s Heroine’s Journey model. If you aren’t familiar with the story, Meg Murry, the protagonist, travels to different planets in the universe to find her father who has gone missing. She goes on a journey with her brother, Charles Wallace, her friend, Calvin, and three old ladies, Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, an...
5 comments
Read more

Coraline: How The Other World Represents Maureen Murdock's Heroine's Journey Model

Image
             Coraline: How The Other World Represents Maureen Murdock's Heroine's Journey Model The Focus Features film “Coraline” represents Maureen Murdock’s model of The Heroine’s Journey in an interesting way: through the representation of the masculine and feminine in the other world and the real world, respectively. The film starts out with its protagonist, Coraline, a curious and independent young girl who has recently moved to Oregon. Both of her parents are busy writing and editing a garden catalogue, making Coraline feel lonely and bored. An important part of the film is Coraline’s relationship with her mother, who represents the feminine side of her world. In Murdock’s first step, separation from the feminine, Coraline’s mother represents the feminine and the real world which Coraline departs from. On the other side, her father represents the masculine side as well as the other world. There in the other world, Coraline experiences the iden...
7 comments
Read more

Olaf: Frozen's Unlikely Supernatural Guide

Image
Olaf: Frozen's Unlikely Supernatural Guide In the Disney film “Frozen,” the protagonist, Anna, must reunite with her sister Elsa in order to bring her back. Throughout her journey, she meets a variety of characters, such as Kristoff, Sven, the trolls, and Oaken, that really tall store owner (I hope you know who I’m talking about). All these characters benefit her in some way, but none have the true purpose that her childhood snowman Olaf does: supernatural aid. This step in Joseph Campbell’s monomyth is crucial to Anna’s story because it provides a place of comfort and support throughout her journey. Not only that, her helper benefits her more than he seems to, although his role in her story is often overlooked. First, let’s talk about the monomyth. The writer Joseph Campbell created it to better understand the progressions and transformations in the journey of a hero, hence the name, “The Hero’s Journey.” In it are a whopping seventeen steps, each with their own purpose of describ...
6 comments
Read more