The Hitchhikers Guild to The Galaxy follows Arthur Dent, an earthling, paired with his alien friend Ford Prefect. The two manages to escape the earth before it is demolished to build an intergalactic freeway and set upon their journey. Hitching a ride on a Vogon spaceship the two start their adventure. Unfortunately, the Vogons don 't like hitchhikers, so Arthur and Ford get thrown out of the spaceship to die in the cold void of interstellar space, where not even Starbucks exists. Meanwhile, Ford 's semi-cousin Zaphod Beeblebrox and his human companion Trillian steal the Heart of Gold spaceship, which has an amazing engine that can do all sorts of improbable things, such as get through LA without dealing with traffic. Also on the spaceship …show more content…
Where both films suggest that the Hero’s act upon their own freewill; true freewill does not exist but is a synthesis constructed by the ego of their companion character. This creates justifications for any crime or action taken by the Hero characters as they act in “the name of justice” and believe they are acting freely.
Both the Hitchhikers Guild to The Galaxy and The Matrix has Myth Criticism complexes in nature. They follow a hero that must fulfill a quest to discover himself and woo a female interest. In either case the universality of their stories are evident as they are conflicted by the same dilemmas.
Carl Jung suggests that regardless of culture or historical period a part of the human mind contains a collective unconscious shared by all members of the human species, a sort of universal, primal memory. Myth Criticism considers this within its teachings by explaining that all stories follow a universal trend called the Hero Cycle. Within this cycle the hero of the story follows each of the steps to fulfilling his/her task. Along with the Hero Cycle, Myth Criticism explains there are archetypes found in each piece of literature or art that are universal in nature. Overall, it is found that the Myth Criticism base is used frequently as we as humans find solace in the comforts of the Cycle, as it is familiar to us. In The Hitchhikers Guild to The Galaxy, the Hero is portrayed as Arthur Dent. He is set into this role at the
This paper aims at using Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung’s collective unconscious and archetypal theories to interpret the archetypes of characters, natural scenes and themes.
In the instance, the man kills himself due to reasons whose immediate impulses are internal but those impulses were formed due to some external causes. One such external cause might be that his daughter was kidnapped and the kidnapper called and said that if the man did not shoot himself by sun down today, then his daughter will be killed. But if the man kills himself by sun down, then his daughter will be safely returned to her mother. So in this case the man kills himself due to an internal impulse which is generated by an external cause. And in the instance where someone comes and shoots him, the cause is external as well. So in neither of these cases man is free. In the first instance when the man kills himself, he is bound by his love for his daughter and therefore does not really have a choice and in the second instance, he does not have any choice either. The conclusion is that choice does not really exist and even if it existed, it would not mean existence of free will. And complexity of the brain’s thought process when reconsidering a first impulse should not be confused with free will either.
Countless cultures and religions gather around campfires and even hold ceremonies to hear a good hero story. But little do they know that these traditional stories that they are oh so eager to listen to, are all alike someway, somehow. All heroes in all cultures, dating from the earliest hero-story written, miraculously follow a sequence of events called a mononmyth/heroes Journey. The ineffable spectacle of the mononmyth is that despite the thousands of miles between ancient civilizations it was subconsciously present in the psychology of all the hero-writers. Joseph Campbell, an established psychologist stated his identification of the monomyth in his book, A Hero with a Thousand Faces. But, Campbell not only explained the monomyth in great detail, but he also elaborated into the psychology of humans. He did this by elucidating the exact steps in every hero’s journey, and providing factual proof. The initial belief is that no matter what the circumstance is, No matter past or present, man or woman, the heroes all have the same initiation. Here Campbell states that, “Whether hero ridiculous or sublime, Greek
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 the late 1940’s a man named Joseph Campbell shared his Mythic principal with the world. He explains that there is a three-stage formula that he calls a Hero Journey which is the structure of every story. Though most stories are completely different on the outside, the stories are almost structured around these three stages. Stage 1 is the hero leaves the everyday world and enters another world. While Stage 2 the hero is challenged by opposing forces and must pass a series a test throughout the movie. That will then determine who will be victorious, either the hero or the opposing forces. Stage 3 is tied into Stage 2 because if the hero is victorious, they will return to the ordinary world with a gift for the world.
The Underworld—an ultimate challenge, facing the darkest parts of human nature or dealing with death
In almost any story, whether novel or poem, lies a hero. Depending on the path, a variety of archetypes usually accompany the hero. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines “archetype” as “the original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies.” Joseph Campbell’s A Hero With A Thousand Faces introduces the common archetypes often found in various pieces of literature, explaining “The parallels will be immediately apparent; and these will develop a vast and amazingly constant statement of the basic truths by which man has lived throughout the millenniums of his residence on the planet,” in his preface to the 1949 edition. To summarize, after learning of the different archetypes found in a story, one
In life, heroes are everywhere. They fight crime, save lives, and basically just do good deeds. Heroes follow their journey, which, when written, is actually very cliché. A hero follows a set of events in their journey that are rarely changed. In this essay, two hero’s are examined, Santiago from The Alchemist, and Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. These two stories seem very different, but in the end, are actually very similar. When examined closely, one may find that their journeys are very similar, following the events of a hero’s journey. This seemingly simple set of events is found in almost every heroic story. First is the problem. The hero is in a not quite perfect way of life, and needs to fix it. Then there is the refusal, the hero is called up to fixed the problem, but refuses for whatever personal reason. Then they are forced to go, and meet a mentor. This mentor gives them the wisdom that they need to get through the journey. It may even be what the hero is striving to be. Then they cross the threshold from their ordinary world to the new special world. The fifth and sixth parts can be interchangeable. Trials and allies/enemies, either can come first. Then they reach what they have been striving for, the liar, the cave, the final destination as a normal person. Once the hero reaches this part, they will be forever changed. At some point in this final destination, they will be killed and reborn, whether it is metaphorical or literal. After this they will fight
Myths and stories about great heroes serve to let people realize the hero potential that they have in themselves. “It has always been the prime function of mythology and rite to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward, in counteraction to those that tend to tie it back.” (Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces) Joseph Campbell, an American mythologist, developed the idea of monomyth, which is the theory that all myths are variations of the same story. He believed that everyone has the potential to be a hero, and that heroes all follow the same journey described in the monomyth theory. The idea of monomyth states that no matter what time period, the journey for a hero will be very similar.
Jung defines archetypes as, “Universal images that have existed since the remotest times. As a figure that repeats itself in the course of history wherever creative fantasy is fully manifested” (Jung, 7). Regarding the idea of archetypes, Northup Frye was a prominent theorist who contributed to the study and progression of archetypes; he applied Jung’s theories about collective unconscious, archetypes, and primal images to literature. Through Frye’s proposition of four mythoi type plots, “He formed a strong basis for four major genres that associated with each season of the year: comedy (spring), romance (summer), tragedy (fall), satire (winter)” (Frye, 45). According to Carl Jung the goal of humanity is to achieve individuation, the goal is to reach a state where the unconscious is known and integrated into the conscious mind. It is collective in nature from our human ancestors, predisposed human ways of perceiving, responding and reacting.
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
hero's journey is not solely “applicable to fiction but also to the journeys that everyone goes
Whether we have free will is widely controversial. The absence of a universal definition poses a primary problem to this question. In this essay, I shall base my argument on a set of three conditions for free will: 1) that the actor is unconstraint in his action, 2) the actor could have acted otherwise and 3) the actor must be ‘ultimately responsible’ (Kane, 2005: 121) for his action. After I have explained them, I shall apply these conditions to three scenarios that cover most, if not any, circumstances that occur when taking choices. The purpose of this essay is to show that if my conditions are true, none of the scenarios is based on free will and thus we do not have free will.
In his renowned work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell defined the essential stages of the Heroic Journey, using examples from a wide range of myths and stories. His objective was not only to establish the framework for hero tales, but also to convey why these elements of the monomyth prevail in so many different works. Campbell’s view states that “the hero myth is really written about every human being: we are all heroes struggling to accomplish our adventure” (Whomsley, 185). From this perspective, it seems justified that these patterns continue to appear in so many stories adventure and heroism; we all want our
is a pattern of narrative that appears in drama, storytelling, myth, religious ritual, and psychological development. It describes the typical adventure of the archetype known as The Hero in twelve stages.