Symbols Or Myths As A Representation For Something That Is Not Exactly True?

Rudolfo Anaya, author of “Bless Me, Ultima”, uses an analogy of a lake during one of his interviews. He states that the top of the lake is the story and as you go deeper into it, you discover several important symbols and archetypes. The archetypes he uses connects the audience to the “the collective memory” and “connects us to every human being who has ever existed”. Archetypes help authors develop their stories and/or novels with characters that symbolize something meaningful. People often can relate to certain books because of author ’s uses of archetypes.

In many works of literature, many archetypes (or symbols) are used to help the reader understand the story of a hero’s quest. In the Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, the hero has to go on a fatal journey to uphold the reputation of Camelot. While enduring that journey, Gawain has to conquer many trails. Gawain’s succession of trials leaves the hero, like Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner, a “sadder but wiser man.” With all the trials that Gawins intakes, many archetypal characters contribute to the theme of the story.

With every corner we turn in today’s culture, we become more and more aware of the archetypes that surround us. Archetypes are the works of a typical character, situation, setting, or symbol that can be found in fantasy and reality. An example would be the renowned medieval story Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Pearl Poet. The author permeates the story with situational, symbolic, and character archetypes that illustrate the profound life of Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain was apprehensive of his journey at first, but as time passes, he began to make choices that unveils to the audience the true flawed knight that he was.

Myths are one of the most important elements included in the history of not only African-American lives but also the lives of each and every one of us. Myths are inevitable human resources at times when no other idea justifies our being. As Barthes posits, for it is human history which converts reality into speech, and it alone rules the life and the death of mythical language. Ancient or not, mythology can only have an historical foundation, for myth is a type of speech chosen by history: it cannot possibly evolve from the 'nature ' of things. This study looks into the significance of "Myths" and their determining roles as semiological systems in August Wilson 's dramatic twentieth century cycle plays; Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and The Piano Lesson. In these plays, myths take the forms of individuals, rituals and even ancestral objects. It can be observed that each one of these elements performs the most important role in conveying the significance of the African-American psyche and delicately portrays the eminent influence of ancestral backgrounds in shaping the lives of each character. The works of scholars such as Roland Barthes, Henry Gates, as well as many more, have been employed to better grasp this matter.

Characters from one story to another may have different names, but their characteristics are often repeated. Applying Archetypal Theory to a text allows readers to recognize universal symbols, motifs, and patterns that appear in literature, myths, dreams, oral traditions, songs, and religions. Archetypal critics believe certain images, characters, and character types recur in literature, and all plots and characters are based on common myths, images, dreams, fairy tales, and legends (Davidson). Common character types are revealed when applying Archetypal Theory to Julia Alvarez’s novel, In the Time of the Butterflies, helping readers understand each character’s motivations. Particularly, common character types of the rebel, the ruler, and

A key to understanding his writing, says author Tom Robbins, is a knowledge of Greek myth. A particular influence on him is the life and work of Joseph Campbell, author of several books on mythology (Hoyser and Stookey 9). Campbell, in turn, owes influence to the insights of analytic psychologist Carl Jung. Jung recognized the patterns within myths --- throughout the world and across all cultures -- of characters, situations, and events, and identified these recurring images as archetypes (Harris and Platzner 40). Campbell

Throughout literary history, different themes have proven to be consistently popular for audiences. The desire to present an accurate reflection of reality has proven to be a major source of inspiration for both authors and readers alike. Reality as a theme is prevalent in literature, and the numerous ways that reality and illusion intertwine. In William Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the illusory world which the characters inhabit is enhanced by the supernatural. The relationship between Oberon and Titania contributes to the development of the play’s theme of reality and illusion; they are the catalyst by which the play’s action occurs, and their spontaneous natures are countered with human flaws, further

The traditions of storytelling have long been used as a means to impart wisdom and life lessons to others. One of the most effective ways in which this is done is through the use of archetypes. While it is possible to look at these images in a general way, one may also focus an analysis on a single tale. In this way it is possible to explore the particular images used and their significance in a given situation, (often a coming of age rite of

Things are not what they seem, even the appearance can deceive the reality. It's no wonder the phrase “looks can be deceiving” is so popular. The outside appearance can often be opposing the reality or intention. This situation is investigated in depth in Sir Arthur’s celebrated mystery short-story The Hound of the Baskervilles, where Holmes must decipher the difference between the appearance of the characters and the setting and the actual reality of the situation. In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's mystery novella, The Hound of the Baskervilles, the author uses characterization and setting to assist the development of the theme that appearance can be contradictory to reality.

The representation of deception and social oppression through the use of symbols in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House

"Theories of the gaze and spectatorship are theories of address, rather than theories of reception in which methods are used to understand how actual viewers respond to a cultural text" (p-102). On the other hand human subject is not universal, it is historically and culturally dependent. The concept of interpellation is quite significant to understand the gaze, which is not just individual's act of looking, moreover it is in between the spectator's sustained looking practice in the field of rational meaning making. The authors also explain gaze by the notion of discourse and power, "discourse is helpful to understanding how power systems work to define how things are understood and spoken about (and, by implication, represented in images) in a given society" (p-105). According to Foucault, discourse is a body of knowledge that both defines and limits what can be said about something, but in the broad social domains particular form of knowledge can change the form any particular time period and in different social context. For example, Gene is also integrated with the system of power and ideas about knowledge. To describe this authors introduces Foucault's panopticon concept, where subject are seeing without being seen. In contemporary world camera surveillance, whatever it is turned on or off we are responding

Claude Levi-Strauss’s theory of binary oppositions was extremely influential in the anthropological world and fueled the reaction seen among the other anthropologists discussed here in this paper. Levi-Strauss proposed that binary oppositions are used to give things meaning; he argues that they act as organising principles of rituals and myths and construct the thought patterns of a culture. This can be seen, for example, in the way he examined and deconstructed myths: he asserted that every myth contained one or more sets of binary oppositions, saying that “all narratives have to be driven by a conflict that was caused by a series of opposing forces” (Levi-Strauss 34). This quote demonstrates how his believed all myths and rituals were based on universal contradictions. These contradictions within a myth are what it seeks to resolve within its narrative. In

We will be drawing a distinction between three different account or theories：the reflective, the intentional and the constructionist approaches to representation. Most of this text will be exploring the constructionist approach with two

Although many people around the world are thinking of the uses they can make to use it everyday lives, some people disagree with this. The big issue is the privacy invasion, with the video recording feature in Glass has made insecurity to other human beings. There are people who wish not to be recorded in public. In recent news in San Francisco, A lady named Sarah Slocum, A local tech writer and marketing consultant was showing off her Google Glass at Haight Street bar Molotov's. Due to the show off, she was threatened and assaulted by a young man and was later robbed. She was “approached by a small group which appear to dislike her Glass”(Kurtis Alexander, SFGATE, Unfriendly Reaction) She described them that they were trying to shield themselves from the recordings and until one girl from the group went in anger to stop her from recording. Sarah then realizes she was the target that causes the hatred. This is when the young man approaches her and violently assaults her and takes her Glass and runs out of the bar while other members have taken her wallet, phone and purse. This incident demonstrates the people do not want to be exposed, and unfriendly reactions can lead to such violence in the public. In relation to the past with similar incidents, the introductions of new cameras developed in the 19th century by Kodak, and the problem was that photographs are taken of female

Myths differ from other kinds of signifiers. For one thing, they are never arbitrary. They always contain some kind of analogy, which motivates them. Motivation is necessary to the very duplicity of myth: myth plays on the analogy between meaning and form. There is no myth without motivated form. In contrast to ideas of false consciousness, Myth doesn’t hide things, it distorts them. It alienates the history of the