Heroes have fascinated the masses for years; this is displayed in comic books, movies, and myths that trail back farther than five thousand Before Common Era. The question that goes through all minds at some point, however, is what makes a hero? Joseph Campbell wrote his theory of "The Hero’s Journey" in which he describes the path the hero will tread and the trials and tribulations ahead of them. That is not to say that there are not multiple ways to go about a hero tale, there are various kinds of heroes, which all change the story. There are tragic heroes, classic heroes, epic heroes, and more. In the film The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jack Skellington fits Campbell’s archetype of the Hero’s Journey tragically, as he enters the …show more content…
His fatal flaw was his ambition. He reached for unattainable goals even when all the odds were against him, and even when he was given warnings of dire trouble he carried on.
Within his text, Campbell writes about the hero crossing the first threshold and entering a Special World. Taking this action signifies the beginning of the journey and the hero’s commitment to it. When related to Jack, the Special World he crosses over to is Christmas Town, where he begins his journey toward making people happy rather than scaring them. After being celebrated by the town for the best Halloween yet, Jack sneaks off by himself toward the outskirts of the town into a twisted hill above a pumpkin patch and graveyard, it is there he sits and ponders what he is feeling, and thus he begins singing "Jack’s Lament". Within the song he sings about how others view him as terrifying and displays a few the scare tactics he has, but the chorus of the song is what reveals the crux of his dilemma, "oh, somewhere deep inside of these bones, an emptiness began to grow, there’s something out there, far from my home, a longing that I’ve never known" . Jack is unhappy with the life he is leading and as a result has become massively depressed. Zero, his ghost dog, even tries to cheer him up to no avail. This leads to Jack wandering the forest until dawn when he stumbles upon a place he has never been to before.
As a result, he comes
Some people think The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Christmas movie, some think it’s a Halloween movie. I think The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Halloween movie because all the major characters are from Halloweentown. Such as Jack Skellington, Sally, Dr. Finklestein, Oogie Boogie, the Mayor, and Zero.
Halloweentown is a fantasy land overflowing with ghosts, vampires, and witches. Jack is the leader of this town and is known as the “Pumpkin King”. Jack realizes he has grown tired of the same routine, and is faced with an identity crisis.
The Grinch is a Prude, Obnoxious character which is due to traumatic events while growing up, now has a intense grievance towards Christmas. After this experiences he decided to run away and live on Mt. Crumpit. The only times he would come out of his cave would to steal food from the Who’s or just to annoy everyone. In the movie, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, the plot of this movie is essentially is that there is more to Christmas than just decorations and presents.
One of my all-time favorite Christmas movies is How the Grinch Stole Christmas and it just so happens to be a Dr. Seuss book. In this story we see this grumpy character who cannot stand the thought of happiness and giving to others who eventually learns to love the idea. The biggest lesson I believe it teaches however, is just how important it is to learn from your mistakes. At the end of the book, the Grinch as stolen everything from the Who’s, their trees, presents, decorations, etc. yet, they still all wake up the next morning excited for the day because it is not about the gifts you receive.
The meaning Dr. Seuss implied was focused on the Grinch's materialism. As mentioned by you, the Grinch's "moralistic superego" was the reason for correcting the Grinch's actions (Wong). However, I propose the Grinch's hatred spanned from his focus on materialism, which ultimately distracted him from the true meaning of Christmas.
“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”(Joseph Campbell). Joseph Campbell showed how important hero’s are by creating the Hero’s Journey and that you can be a hero just through writing and showing it through different characters. A hero shows that you can help other people to make the world better
When people think of a hero, they do not understand you don't need to be just like superman, you don't need to be able to fly, or be immortal and never die. There is no need to wear a mask, save the world, or have special powers. To me, any regular person can become a hero in their own way. I believe a hero can be found in any piece of literature, most main characters are all heroes, but they are all heroes in a different way. To me, in order to be a hero, all you need to do is put someone else's life in front of your own, if you can change someone else's life you can then call yourself a hero. Aristotle once said that a tragic hero is "one who does not fall into misfortune though vice or depravity, but falls because of some mistake".
The poem “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” written by Dr.Seuss, is evidently Marxist-based. The underlying element for the theory of Marxism is “class struggle”. This is exemplified within the poem when Dr.Seuss outlines the distinction between the upper and the lower class. The “Who’s” are seen as the upper class, due to their wealthy lifestyle and an immense celebration during Christmas. On the other hand, the Grinch would be classified as the lower class, due to his lack of a home, food, and materialistic items. The Grinch believes that the Who community deserve to experience the way that he feels during Christmas time. In result, the Grinch attempts to ruin Christmas for the Whos by stealing all of their possessions. It is then brought
Sigmund Freud believed that personality consists of three parts: the id, which is motivated by desire and looks for immediate satisfaction; the ego, which deals with rational decisions; and the superego, which makes moral judgments (Acacio). This is psychoanalysis, which can be used to analyze The Grinch Who Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss. According to Freud, the mind consists of only the id when we grow up. As we age, we transform part of the id into the ego and superego (Acacio). In the case of the Grinch, he grew up in a situation where, due to his isolation, he had no one to guide, reprimand, or praise him. He had no influences in his life. In the poem, there is a line that states, “It could be his head wasn’t screwed on just right.” (Seuss
I will be using the Maximist school of criticism to analyze the poem, "how the Grinch stole Christmas". this school of maximise is based on the comparison of the higher and lower class of society by the theories of Karl Max . In analyzing the poem, readers can notice the many differences in the characters spot in society. The Grinch represents the lower class and symbolizes the struggles of being less fortunate and represents the lower class of society. The citizens of whoville, the rich isolated upper class citizens represent the higher class. Firstly, the settings of each character makes it very obvious of the difference in economic class. The Grinch lives in a cave, the "whos" are living in whoville which is known as the area in which only
It is easier to understand “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” by using the Psychoanalytic school of critic to analyze it. Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory actually helps with understanding why the Grinch hates christmas and why he behaves the way he does. Freud believed that our unconscious mind was influenced by childhood events. Freud believes that our personality is made of three things; the id, ego, and superego. The id is the unconscious part that has our needs, and instincts. The ego is the part that stays in touch with reality and tries to suppress the id and superego so they are socially acceptable. Finally the superego is the personality that completely cuts out the socially unacceptable instincts of the id. As you begin to read
What makes a hero? Does a hero need to be a replica of the heroes that are in Marvel and DC, a person that was granted unnatural abilities and has a strong sense of moral duty? Joseph Campbell, the creator of the hero cycle, and a multitude of cultures believes that it is something else. According to these aforementioned sources, who undergoes the three main stages of the hero cycle: departure, initiation, and return. In all of these stages there are sub-stages that need to occur to drive the plot. Alan Grant, the protagonist of the movie Jurassic Park, is a hero because he goes through these stages.
As P.L. Travers once said, “Could it be … that the hero is one who is willing to set out, take the first step, shoulder something? Perhaps the hero is one who puts his foot upon a path not knowing what he may expect from life but in some way feeling in his bones that life expects something of him.” It’s true because if there was a war outside my house the hero would take the first step and take the bullet for me - “not knowing what he may expect.”. P.L. Travers was an author and a writer who wrote Mary Poppins. She is an icon because people still sing this song A hero is a person who save people and saves the day…
One night on Halloween, when Jeannette was only ten years old, she felt someone run their hand over her private parts. At first she thought it was Lori moving in her sleep, but then she heard a man speak. She yelled and Brian came running into their room with a hatchet that he kept by his bed and the man ran out the unlocked door. Their dad was not home that night and their mom was a very deep sleeper so Jeannette and Brian chased him down the street. A few weeks after the Halloween incident, their dad thought that the kids were getting used to city life too much so he took them all to the zoo for the first time. They made their way over to the cheetah exhibit. The author’s dad stepped over the chain and went by the fence opposite
Marxism is a method of socioeconomic analysis. This theory includes the belief of struggle by class, indicating those of higher class have more power. Marxism views the aspects of socialism in regards to capitalism, in the belief that eventually all capitalist society’s will become socialist society’s. Dr.Seuss’s, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, is a great example of Marxism. This poem was published in the decade of the 50’s, the time that Christmas was becoming a commercialized event following Santa Claus becoming the new face of the Christmas edition Coca Cola advertisements. Reading the poem there are strong elements that distinctly tell the reader that it’s the Who, who have all the power and are of higher class in comparison to the Grinch.