Wonderings of a Wonderer

Are the members of the Bundren family heroes? That's a question I asked myself many times over the course of the novel. It really didn't feel like they were. They just kinda stumbled around and did stupid things. They certainly weren't very heroic. Anse was selfish, Darl was crazy, Jewel had anger management issues, and the rest of the family had their own problems. To write this blog post, I decided to not only view the characters from my perspective, but from other characters' perspectives, starting with Cora Tull. I found it fitting to interview Cora first, which is fitting because she was the first non-Bundren to have a chapter in the novel. Cora has mixed opinions about the Bundren family. While she is a long time friend of Addie, she can't say she has the same feelings towards Addie's children and husband. When asked about how Anse and the kids will do without Addie, Cora responded, "I don't know what he'll do. I just don't know" (Fau...

How well does The Lego Movie fit the Hero's Journey narrative? Emmet is told he is the Special (the Hero), but like Star Wars , The Lego Movie  is missing several of the final stages of the Hero's Journey such as 'freedom to live' or even 'crossing the return threshold.' As we saw in Star Wars , though, that apparently doesn't matter too much, so I won't worry about it here.  I think the first moment where it becomes obvious in The Lego Movie  that it is following the Hero's Journey is when Emmet touches the Piece of Resistance and is thrown into a completely new environment. He sort of experiences a Call when the Piece speaks to him, but the first clear stage is when Emmet crosses the first threshold and enters the world of master builders, characters from all over the Lego universe that don't use the instructions. It's a really distinct threshold, and the movie even shows Emmet breaking through what appears to be the sky to cross said thr...

Where can the line be drawn to determine if a work follows the Hero's Journey? As we have seen in class, the key example of Star Wars: A New Hope did not not include several of the final stages of the Hero's Journey including master of two worlds or even crossing the return threshold. Siddhartha  appeared to have every stage, but some of them were a bit of a stretch, and the stages in Siddhartha did not all appear in the same order as they do in the Hero's Journey. If these both are still considered to follow the Hero's Journey, then what needs to happen (or not happen, as the case may be) to consider something to not  follow the Hero's Journey? I am going to look at another title, outlining steps of the Hero's Journey in it, and leave it up for the readers to decide whether or not it can be considered a Hero's Journey story. The Hollow Knight Hollow Knight is a video game, but considering that movies can follow the Hero's Journey, I do not see why vi...

 In George Lucas's Star Wars: A New Hope, we follow the beginning steps of the hero's journey with Luke Skywalker, our protagonist. In this blog post, I will specifically be talking about step 6, the road of trials. In A New Hope, the road of trials takes the form of the Death Star, Darth Vader's battleship. The Death Star scene is probably one of the longest and most memorable parts of the movie aside from the destruction of the Death Star.  The Death Star road of trials allows for us to see how Luke rescues Leia from imprisonment and also see how well the crew of the Millennium Falcon can take on the forces of the Empire. Many obstacles are present in this scene. Such obstacles include masses of Storm Troopers, a garbage disposal filled with dangerous aliens and crushing walls, and Darth Vader himself. Taking place after the Cantina scene, the belly of the whale moment, Luke, Obi Wan, Han Solo, Chewie, and the droids head off to Alderaan, getting intercepted and landing o...