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William Faulkner Repetition Era

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       One prominent theme throughout As I Lay Dying is Faulkner’s use of repetition. For example, there are several mentions of the vultures in the sky circling Addie’s coffin. In the first few chapters, we also see the repeated auditory image of Cash sawing Addie’s coffin and Anse massaging his legs over and over again. I think these repeated, almost hypnotic sounds and movements, and the repetition of repetition itself throughout the chapters, are characteristics of the presence of animal magnetism in the novel.      If you recall the Mental Floss article on animal magnetism we read in class, animal magnetism "exists in all of us as a magnetized liquid—one that empowers us, of course, but that can also form dangerous clots that will give your cosmic alignment the spins” (Burns). Animal magnetism connects all living things, and when a person’s magnetism is blocked, they are said to be prone to various forms of physical and psychological distress. Tre...
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Heroine’s Journey Through the (Lego) Looking Glass

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 In  class, we have examined the Heroine’s Journey as a journey to self-discovery and the heroine understanding her place in the world. In our discussions of the Heroine’s Journey in comparison to the Hero’s Journey, stories that follow the Hero’s Journey seem to follow less of a self-discovery narrative and more of a saving-the-world narrative. However, despite the differences we’ve pinpointed between the two templates, I think the Hero’s Journey is just as much a journey through self-discovery as the Heroine’s Journey. Let’s take a peek at the steps of the Hero’s Journey in comparison to the Heroine’s Journey. At the top of the Hero’s Journey cycle, we see “Freedom to Live '' before the real adventure starts. This stage refers to a period of peace before our hero realizes something’s amiss and starts saving the world. These parts of the Hero’s Journey resemble the “Illusion of a Perfect World,” “Betrayal or Realization,” and “Awakening” steps of Victoria Lynn Schmidt’s Heroi...
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Rapunzel: The Heroine’s Journeys are Tangled

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We’ve examined Victoria Lynn Schmidt and Maureen Murdock’s Heroine’s Journies separately and how they relate to different stories, but there is also overlap between the two templates. In fact, many stories featuring a female main character seem to fit with both Murdock’s and Schmidt’s versions of the Heroine’s Journey.   One example of a movie that can fit both Heroine’s Journey templates is Disney’s Tangled , following the story of a girl named Rapunzel, a princess born to the king and queen of the kingdom of Corona. The queen nearly dies of illness while pregnant with Rapunzel but is saved by a magical healing flower that blossomed from a drop of sunlight hitting the ground. Unbeknownst to the king and queen, an old woman named Gothel had been using the flower to restore her youth for many years and is no longer able to use it now that it was taken from the ground to save the queen. Rapunzel is born with golden hair that holds the same magical powers as the flower, and Gothel, u...
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Grumpy Old Trolls vs Mentors

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There are a few people throughout “Siddhartha” that can be seen as mentors. As we’ve discussed in class, there are several stages of Siddhartha’s life, or mini-journeys, and in each one, he seems to have different people guiding him. The first person Siddhartha encounters that could make sense as a mentor/supernatural aid is Gotama, who gives him a sense of self and allows him to continue on his quest for inner peace without looking back. However, I don’t think Gotama is Sid’s main mentor/supernatural aid in the story. In Joseph Campbell’s explanation of the steps of the Hero’s Journey, the hero will encounter a “threshold guardian” at the entrance to a new realm. In other words, threshold guardians are people Siddhartha must be able to move beyond to cross each new threshold and begin the next stage of his journey (like the Grumpy Old Troll that guards the bridge in Dora). I would argue Gotama is a guardian Sid must learn from before he is able to become his new, awakened self, thereb...
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