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Thuc Nguyen
Period 3 English
04/08/lL
Heroes, Mythology, and Religion
Joseph Campbellwas a renowned expert on mythology and religion. Bill Moyers began the film,
The Power of Myth, by asking Campbell's opinion on mythology and heroes. Campbell compared
mythology to a "song" and that we, as humans, "dance" to our theologies or ideologies. His opinion was
very interesting to think over; I thought of hardworking ballet dancers when he used this metaphor. I
agree with Campbell because religion helps people find meaning in their lives,
just
like music. Like
repeated rehearsals for a better ballet performance, one repeatedly practices religion to become a
better follower.
Joseph Campbell defined a hero as "someone who has found, achieved, done something beyond
normality." Many heroes l've read about or discovered have followed similar principles,
but I slightly
disagree with Campbell's definition. A hero does not always have to find, accomplish, or do something
extraordinary; in my opinion, a hero can be a person who does something, amazing or not, that has
made a great impact on their or someone else's life. For example, a man can plant a tree in a park; this is
an ordinary action that anyone can do. However, an onlooker who heavily stresses on having a green
planet can categorize the man as a hero. The reason i only slightly disagree with Campbell is that to the
man, and to other people, he may not be doing any heroic acts. But to the onlooker, the man has done
something amazing.
During his explanation of a hero, Joseph Campbell also talked about how a child can technically
become a hero, through an "initiation ritual", becoming an adult. He said that a child goes through a
During his explanation of a hero, Joseph Campbell
also talked about how a child can technically
become a hero, through an "initiation ritual", becoming an adult' He said that a child
Soes
through a
change,
where his "psychological dependency"
transforrns
into "psychological
responsibility'"
Campbell
believed a hero
goes through an "initiation ritual", and as a child matures, he also becomes a hero' I can
see where campbell
is coming from, and I can understand
how a child's transformation
into an adult is
similar to a hero,s rite. However, I would like to add more to his statement; a child does
go through a
,.ritual,,,
but that does not mean that the child willgrow up to be a
good adult' An adult's
personality
and overall heroic characteristics
is largely determined
by how he/she was raised and the environment
they are in. Anybody can
go through a ritual, but not everyone
can become a better
person' a hero' as a
resurt. Heroes themserves
have a certain morar or
principre they foilow, and that
principle is usually
basedontheirupbringingandtheirinteractionswithothers.
Furthering
his definition of a hero, Joseph Campbell stated that the
,,moral
objective [of
the
herol is saving an idea or sacrificing
himself for something"'
I agree with this' and I understand
this is
true of all heroes, but I dislike this definition.
Earlier, I described how a man who
planted a tree could be
calledahero;heusesuphistimeandenergyinordertoplantthattree,andthusisanexampleofthe
sacrifices
a "hero" makes in order to Obtain such a title. lt is very unfair, in my opinion'
how heroes
always have to make sacrifices in order to be called a hero. Numerous
heroes suffer
pain' loss' or even
death to save something,
and this theme of sacrifices doesn't
seern changeable'
I strongly
agree with campbell's opinion of how the "hero evolves over time as the culture
evolves,,, As
you go through the history books, there is always recorded data on
people,s heroic acts and
the heroes of a certain time
period. lf you look closely at a hero's actions,
you can see that each act of
every hero corresponds
with a certain morale in their time
period. For example,
during the days of the
Vikings, if a man killed an enemy and took that enemy's
wife home as a prize' he would be
pronounced
a hero. However, if someone were to do that nowadays, they would be sentenced to
jail, possibly be
executed. This is an example of how heroes change along with culture.
When Joseph Campbell was asked about his opinions on religion, he compared Jesus Christ to
Siddhartha Buddha, and told the Moyers and the audience of how each religious "hero" had to go
through trials in order to obtain something. At first, I wondered why people didn't
just
accept Buddhism
but instead created a new religion with a similar leader. I then thought to myself and realized that
without religious diversity, humanity wouldn't be as complex as it is today. I also realized that religion is
a part of life, and it changes according to how a certain
group of people live their lives. The Protestants
had different views on life as the Christians did, so they created a new type of religion to better
go along
with their lifestyles. I would have liked Joseph add more to his insight on religion so I could better see his
viewpoint on the subject.
While I agree with Campbell on a hero having to lose a sense of himself in order to prove himself
worthy, I really don't like that concept. Again, I don't think it's very fair to heroes when they have to go
through a difficult trial in order to save what they love or care for. l've always wondered, whenever l'm
reading a book or watching a movie with a hero in it, why can't the hero
just be left alone to go on his
journey
unscathed? lt isn't impossible for a hero to
just
accomplish his goal without any hardships, but
you don't see a lot of books or movies with a plot like that. Some
people would argue that a book/movie
as such would be boring, but I would be highly interested in a book/movie if they had a storyline of such.
I get bored of all the hardships heroes have to endure and all the pain and loss they have to go through,
and I would appreciate a booklmovie with a hero that
just accomplishes something without any
obstacles at all.
joseph
Campbell's analysis of a man being eaten by a whale and then escaping was extremely
fascinating to me. I loved the fact that he compared the whale and the water it thrives in to your
consciousness, and how you need to "escape"
your consciousness and not be controlled by it in order to
be at a higher level. Campbell also explained how your "creative spirit rages outside of normal
boundaries"; I strongly agree with his viewpoint on creativity. I can also relate to his opinion, because
my beliefs and interests greatly differ from those belonging to people I know. I get categorized as a
weird person just
because I think and behave differently from normal people. However, I prefer being
different over acting like a typical teenager, because that would be boring and my life wouldn't be as
meaningful. I think what Campbell means by creativity being outside of the box is that you have to let go
of some things, like a part of your conscience, to be able to grasp your creativity and live a fuller life.
Joseph Campbell describes Nirvana as a "place of rest in yourself (psychological state of mind) in
the middle of turmoil, when you aren't compelled by desire, fear, or social excitemenf . I can
understand a bit about what he's saying, but I don't get why we can't have desire or fear in our lives.
Without fear,
you would not know true bravery, and without desire, you wouldn't be able to procreate.
Why would we have desire and fear firmly planted in our minds if we weren't supposed to have them in
the first place? Why do we have to go through such a trial to get rid of these "sins"? ls it so wrong to
have fear in your life? Campbell himself said that we should live our lives knowing that "life has its
mysteries". I am scared of not knowing what something is; for example, if I were in a new country and I
needed to
get some food, I would not know what to eat nor where I should find it. I would be scared to
death because I couldn't be able to understand the situation l'm in and I wouldn't be able to find a
solution to it. But Campbellsays that we must live life with its mysteries; how could we accomplish that
without fear? lt would be hard to achieve that goal without desire, too. ln movies, books, and real life,
mysterious men and women are always sexier than those the main character already knows. Desire is
natural for all life, but if we were to achieve Nirvana, wouldn't that mean going against our nature?
one of Joseph campbell's last points
is that myths and dreams come from realizations
of some
kind' I found this very interesting
and true. ln a book I read, called sophie's world. a short section of it is
about dreams' The main characters are discussing how dreams actually portray
hidden desires; they use
an example of a man lusting for his cousin but hiding that fact behind a dream. This situation with
dreams can be reproduced in real life as well; I could read books and watch movies about spiders and be
perfectly
fine with them. However, when I dream about spiders, they are always biting me in dozens or
swarming over everything I own- These dreams come from a hidden fear of spiders, and they make me
realize that I have a arachnophobia,
Myths act the same way; back in the old ages, people
did not have
science, and therefore could not answer some questions
considered to be very simple now: why is the
sky blue? why do we have earthquakes? what makes the sun rise and set? They realize they cannot find
the answers to these questions,
so they create myths in order to find a sense of calmness in their lives.
All in all, the section I watched in The Power of Myth was very short, but it provided
me with a
lot more insight on my life than most films I had watched. Joseph campbell opened up a whole new
world to me and helped me understand a lot about religion, mythology,
and heroes. some parts
were
hard to understand, and others were just
mind blowing, but I really enjoyed watching this video. I would
not mind watching the other parts
of the video to broaden my viewpoint on Joseph campbell and his
beliefs.