Put your own life into the Hero's Journey. Identify archetypes and some of its stages.

In this past week, we saw in class a narrative pattern of an American scholar named Joseph Campbell. It was very interesting to see how this pattern repeats on a lot of stories and movies, even if they are different from each other. There are certain archetypes that Campbell uses in his theory or narrative pattern in order to identify easily the different characters that are going to obstacle or help in the story. This pattern is not only on stories, it can be in our own lives. For example, I will make an analysis of the "story" of my life identifying some Campbell's stages and archetypes. Maybe not all my life because it will be too long, but from an event that I consider was the start of a new stage of my life. 
 If we apply the Campbell's archetypes in my story, I would be the heroine. I am the central figure in what is my story. Well, the story that I will tell here stared two years ago. Since I remember I lived in Monterrey, Mexico. According to Campbell, this would be my ordinary world. One day, my dad told me and my mom that we were moving to Mexico City. My father, with the news that we were going into a new city after living all my life in Monterrey was like a herald and that event was like "a call to adventure". Obviously, I refuse to go (refusal of the call) because all my friends and special moments of my life were in Monterrey and leaving for knowing a new city scared me. After a couple of days I accept to go. Maybe in my story my mentors are my parents, because they guide me to keep going on no matter the situation; so I think meeting a new mentor or something is not in my story. 
Well, by August 2011 we moved to Mexico City. Leaving my home, the city that saw me growing, and my friends was a very difficult moment for me, but I was excited to go on this new "adventure"(this moment I identify it as Crossing First Threshold). When we arrived to Mexico, I was very scared to go into the last year of Junior High School. But I knew that this change was inevitable(Belly of the Whale)and I was not in Monterrey. I identified my fears and doubts about me as threshold guardians, because if I do not know how to "open" them, I would be alone in my new school and without friends. I think with time I start to break that fears, with the help of my new friends. Even that I was very happy in that new school, there were a couple of girls that were like double-faced and believe that I do not noticed that. This girls, I identified them as shapeshifters, because they were sometimes good with me and proving that they were loyal friends but on other situations they used to temptate me about getting into alcohol, cigarettes and other weird stuff. Obviously, I do not accept that things because my objective was to enter to Tec High School and not to get into that things that would damage me. 

When I enter to High School, I fall in love with a boy of another program different than mine. This boy can be an allie for me, according to Campbell's archetypes. Also, this point is when have a love that I have never experienced before. This boy will help me through my story to keep going on and to advise me when possible. As I am in the IB program, the IB can be represented as a trickster or shadow. Trickster because it was absurd that we, as teenagers, get into a very hard program even if we know that in this stage "normal" teenagers go to parties, do not study,etc. Also is identified as a shadow because sometimes IB do not graduate some students because is very strict in his exams. This stage of my life has not finished, I have to fight against bad persons of things in order to reach the IB diploma and the High School certificate. Maybe, the moment that I get this diploma, May of 2015, I can get back to Monterrey or live happy and without a lot of stress of this program and the adventures that I am facing on High School.
As we can see, making an analysis of our own life stories is not that difficult. I am sure that everyone of us has someting to tell to the world. In most stories we find a hero or heroine that has to make a lot of tasks or tests in order to reach their goals and live happy at the end with new knowledge. This narrative pattern can help us identify special moments in stories as well as the characters for our easy comprehension of any story or movie. 

What did you discover about yourself while writing this week? What did you discover about your classmates as we read their writing?

This past week our class got inspired and thanks to our imagination and creativity, we made either a poem or a short story based on an instrumental song. At first when our teacher told us about this activity, I was a little bit nervous because I thought that I do not had any imagination for making even a short story. Sometimes we read novels, articles, essays or even short stories but we do not realize that making even a short story takes time and a lot of imagination for creating something original and entertaining for any reader. This week, I discovered that when a heard a certain song I start to imagine a whole story that relate to the music. Some songs where very joyful and I created little stories according to that songs. The story that I decided to write was based on the song Kiss the Rain by Yiruma. I discovered that I can create a whole story based on a three or four minute-song. I liked how my imagination flowed and how I change certain events of the story when I re-read it.I found out that writing it is not easy, but it is a challenge and when my story was done, I felt happy and satisfied.

 While I was having a good time at the end writing and hearing my story, I was surprised on the stories of my classmates. Most of them, like mine, where sad or tragical stories. I found out that most of them where based on suicide or sad stories. Some of them where love stories, some where stories based on friendships or family. Some of the stories of my classmates where very short, while some others where very long stories. Even some of our classmates had more imagination and create stories based on objects or animals. Others placed their stories in different places out of Mexico. Sharing our different writings and reading them were a good activity for us to know better from each other and to realize that we can make great stories if we take out sometimes a little or a lot of our imagination. 

 

What do you think of the characters so far (Faust, Maphistopheles, Margaret)? What are their faults? Their virtues? Can you relate to any of them? Why?

 I am about to finish Faust part 1 and I have noticed that there are three main characters until now: Faust, Mephistopheles and Margaret. There three characters are making the end of the first part of Faust interesting and entertaining to read. There are certain aspects (virtues and faults) between the three of them that are important in the novel's plot.


 First we have the play's protagonist, the main character: Faust. This man is a German intellectual and a doctor. One of his virtues is that he has a lot of knowledge, but he seems to not be satisfied and wants to know more about more life's meaning ,like magic, nature and the universe (macrocosm). That is why in the beginning of the story tries to invoke the Earth's spirit. I think that he wants to have more power through knowledge, that is why he accept the bet that the devil made him. However, one of his faults was to accept that deal because it will bring him trouble and disappointments. He starts to change, in a way that we will try to seek for lure and start making sins. One of the virtues of Faust is that in some parts of the story he thinks about his actions. Right know I hope Faust reconsider about what he is doing and think about a way to get rid of the devil. I think Faust is a representation to all of us, because we know many things but we want to seek for things that are beyond ourselves and we do whatever it takes to have that knowledge. 

The play's antagonist is the devil, Mephistopheles. Is the antagonist of Goethe's play. At the prologue of the story he makes a deal with the Lord to tempt Faust and make him his servant in hell. I think that the devil even if he is the antagonist, it represents the bad or dark side that God has to have to make a balance with heaven and himself. Mephistopeheles' virtues are that  he is fearless and bold, he makes a lot of tricks for Faust to accept the deal and to start tempting him. He is quite funny in some parts of the story, but he does not care about feelings, are indifferent to him. This makes me think that he cannot understand human feelings like love, maybe he only knows lust and desire. Besides that, one of his virtues is that he knows a lot of things about humans and how they behave, but sometimes in the story is difficult for him to understand some actions of Faust and in general all the humans. 

Margaret or Gretchen, is the little girl with whom Faust falls in love immediately. She may be the representation of religion and moral. She tries to make all the good things and by what I got know, she doubts about Faust's friend(which is the devil)because she tells him is an evil person inside. One  of his virtues is that she is a beautiful and young girl and tries to make all things related to the religion and God. She is madly in love with Faust and tries to protect it, but one of her faults are that she is so innocent and sometimes Faust tries to tempt Gretchen. Maybe the love that Gretchen has for him can be the clue for Faust to stop commeting sins and for Mephisto to leave him alone. 

In my case I think that I relate a little with the three of them. First with Faust because as a human being I sometimes want to more know things than usual and want to have more knowledge to gain more power against others. I can relate to Mephistopheles because well, I am not an angel I commit bad things sometimes and therefore for my religion I make not mortal sins but sins that everyday people can make. Finally I can relate to Gretchen because I am a very spiritual person and most of the times I think twice before making a bad action and advise my friends or family when I see a certain person that is suspicious and maybe evil in certain things. 

As you read along this week, what did you discover in Faust? What are some of the motifs and themes that Göethe uses and discusses?

In this past days and in the week-end that I have been reading Faust, I am starting to get more interested in this book.I know it is kind of difficult to read it, because there are many words that we do not are familiar with, but researching them we get the meaning of the words. 

In Faust I have discovered that first of all, the name of the book is the name of the principal character, which lead us to a protagonic title, eponymous. I have discovered that Faust is a character that is not afraid of the devil or Hell, and even he has a lot of knowledge, he is unstatisfied because he has no material or "earthly" rewards becuase all of his knowledge. This character is not young, but not too old. Is in the middle of his life.
 Another character that is like Faust's assistant is Wagner, who maybe Gothe put him as a bad imitation of bourgeois. Well, Faust in one Sunday Easter decides to go to town with Wagner and they saw a lot of young people dancing and dancing, which made Faust trying to enjoy compared to Wagner that he was no happy at all. We can say that Easter for Fasut was the perfect time in which everyone "rebirth" from the bad things to become a new one like death. 

In the point of the reading that I am right now I think I have found three motifs and with them I am taking one possible theme. 
First, the three motifs: one is in the begginning of the story with the old magic book that Faust had in his room. This can be because he is searching for more knowledge but because he already has a lot of wisdom, he is in search of something more interesting for him that will be studying that old magic book. Another motif is when Faust explains to Wagner about the two currents of the soul, one tied by pleasures and another reaches to the stars. This can be analyzed in a way that everyone has two different persons inside him or her. The first one is like the bad side, that is related maybe to the Devil and to Hell. The second one we can infer that "stars" can be in the sky with the angels and God in heaven, if we only think about. The last motif that I found that maybe can be something important and a key piece in the future will be the dog that chases Faust and stays with him. This can mean that the bad things ( the Devil and Hell ) were chasing him. Also we need to remember that Faust kind of believed in spirits, so it can be that after this motif about the dog he will meet Mephistopheles.
This three motifs relate to one thing: Faust was in search of something different, something that he have never experienced before: pleasures, commit sins, madness, power, youth, and many others. Getting all of this things could be only by one type of power, the Devil's power. The theme that I will choose or put will be the despair of man for getting material things and power to know everything. 

Well, even if it is a little complicated to read because it is written like a play, I am liking it. I hope that Mephistopheles can appear soon and with his appereance, I am sure that many things are going to change in Faust's life. I will post next week what happened and a reflexion about the first part of Goethe's Faust.

How do you think formalism will help you understand literature (and Faust) better? What have you liked/disliked about Faust so far in your reading?

I think it is time for our class to start knowing new things like literary theories and literary terms. For this second and short partial, in our class we are starting to see about a literary theory named Formalism. Formalism is a literary style that focuses on only the literary text, taking out the historical, social, and biographical context outside of the story or novel. The meaning of why it is called Formalism is because it is essencially the form of the work of literature itself that can be analyzed in a good way.  

 In the novel that we are reading, Faust, I think that Formalism will help us to understand it better, because for understand it, we will need too see only the literary text with its literary terms that there are in the novel. We do not need necessarily to search for the historical and biographical context because for us is easier if we analyze the novel from what elements does it has inside so we can understand it a lot better. Not only for Faust, also for writings that we cannot understand very well or readings that are causing us trouble to understand. 

 Talking about Faust, what I do not like is that I have to search while I am reading a lot of words that are not familiar to the english that I have. Is one of the things that I dislike. I knew that this novel was not going to be in a easy reading because it has to rhyme with the original german version and it has to have the same words that Goethe put on this story. One of the things that I have liked is the way the story is presented. It is presented as a play, so in class I hope we had the oportunity to represent short fragments of the novel. More about characters, I like a lot the devil Mephistopheles, because Goethe represented him as a real "devil": evil and mocking. Even if I have to search a lot of words while I am reading, I am liking a lot this german story. 

What do I expect to learn next term?

Hi people! I hope that you are having a good week-end and enjoying it. For you to know it yesterday our classroom decided what novel we are going to read for second term. The novel is named "Faust" and it is German but we will see it in English because first, most of our classroom do not know German and second, we are seeing translated words. 

 Why do I told you about what novel me and my class are going to read this partial? Well, because I will tell you what do I expect from this novel and this classes of this partial. I know second partial is not long, it only last two weeks but I think that if we work together and in order, we will read the book and comment it in class.

 I expect to learn this partial more about elements that are in novels and what we need to take in consideration. Also, I want learn about German culture and the historical and social context of that time to know and analyze better this novel. Finally, I expect to learn about how to make and write more academic works that will help us in this Literature class and for our future works. I know that we have little time, but I do not see it as a difficulty for us to learn and apply all our new knowledge of this future partial for our works. 

 

What have I improved so far this semester? How did I improve?

Just yesterday I have finished my first partial exams and with that, the first partial is over. I have never been in an English literature class, at first I was nervous because literature in my language(Spanish) for me is pretty simple, but reading literature in another language and try to understand it is a challenge. I am in English A1 and I have learned new things and thanks to that, I have improved my writing skills and grammar during this classes. 

 In my Literature class, thanks to my teacher and classmates I have improved in two specific things. The first one is to read a lot without seeing it as an obligation. Before this semester, every time people invited me to read a book or every time teachers in school made me read one, I was not really content. I did not had seen reading as a pleasant thing to do. But I think that reading during this first partial a manga, that is popular literature, was a good start for me to start reading more and not seeing it as a duty or as a homework. I have seen that reading is more than that, reading can take us to different worlds and places with our imagination. Maybe seeing that I have improved in this for many people will be silly, but for me it was a good way to start changing my way of thinking about reading.

 Secondly, I have improved on my writing skills and organizing my ideas. This was due to our teacher that help us during this partial to arrange our ideas with certain rubrics and writing outlines. Specifically I have improved on writing essays. Before this semester, I had no idea on how to write and essay. I didn't knew what things were necessary in an essay, but thanks to the the notes and tips that the teacher gave us and the essay I made, I know better what an essay is and how to write it. Obviously, I have to keep practicing and write more essays to be improving and with time, to know perfectly what I have to put on an academic essay. 

 I think that for being the first partial, I have improved in little things that for me are very important. With this two certain improvements I can progress in my academic works and in my literature classes. Not only in school, but I hope that my improvements that I have made this partial will help me in future situations and to make new habits and will be good for me in life.