The Quest: An Archetype in Various Cultural Myths Essay

Unique traditions, language, beliefs and values all comprise Indigenous culture. It is critical that a meaningful appreciation of their culture

The concept of knowledge in many ways has opposing forms within the Native American context in comparison to the western context. The mutual area of which these two branches of philosophy meet is in respect to phenomenology. Phenomenology relates to science and truth prior to modern science and therefore has more of a connection natural existence of the world. The ideology of knowledge natural existence is key to Native American philosophy of knowledge

Every character that travels down a path, that encounters obstacles on their journey, that makes sacrificial decisions faces each of these components as they undertake a life-altering quest. Often times the hero ventures out to save someone or solve a problem, but in fact, their true journey is a search for self-knowledge. Through every obstacle and road-block along the way, the character discovers more about themselves and their true identity. Though they may have journeyed across great lands to accomplish their mission, the thing they were searching for was inside of them all along; the journey and challenges only helped to reveal their real character. As explained in Thomas C. Foster’s literary criticism, How to Read Literature Like a Professor,

There are a number of many different archetypes found in works of fiction and nonfiction that bestow upon the hero his true role in a work of literature. In the Middle English, chivalric romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain’s role as the hero emboldens as the story describes more and more archetypes of the quest. The monomyth can be described as the three step process that the hero takes in completing the quest motif. The basic template is supported by “separation, initiation, and return: which might be named the nuclear unit of the monomyth” (Campbell 28). Each of these three categories contain other subcategories, which help understand the different archetypical situation within the work itself. An understanding of three key archetypes -the magic weapon, the boon, and the unhealable wound- reveal the essence of Gawain’s role within the archetypal quest motif.

    Most people think of a hero as a strong, superior, good-looking person that could never make a mistake. However, in a story called The Odyssey, a connection to real life reveals imperfections to be common in heroes. Each person has their low points and highlights, regardless of their “rank”. The author and epic poet, Homer, exemplifies our main character, Odysseus, to take on this idea of a hero throughout his writing. The time period took place in Ancient Greece, allowing Greek culture to relate to the poem. Different aspects of such culture and history may have influenced the works and creativity of Homer as well. A major point includes The Trojan War because it focuses in on Odysseus’ journey to bring Helen back home by devising a plan to destroy warriors in the city. Acknowledge this factor when reading The Odyssey, for not only evidence of heroism, but also other major points of archetypes, in which the device reflects the insights of readers in modern time and what is seen from Ancient Greek culture.

The main features that identified the traditional society are sustenance depended on the natural environment as climate, soil, natural resources and area’s carrying capacity and their consistency in traditions. Moriori, The Dokota Sioux, and the Yir Yoront people all live with hunter-gathering life style, people live in their milieu and accepted little outer technology, idea, and belief. As an example, Yir Yoront people refused to accept canoe to their life, even though they are very well aware of it existence and its benefit. They had always based their cultural system on totem ideology that everything they owned is passed down from their ancestor and believed that their future will be an eternal continuity of present. People rather rely on

Before registering for this class I had little to no knowledge of indigenous people. Growing up with the limited teachings and history of indigenous people I believed they were very primitive, outdated and dying race. I didn’t really know about their culture, their language or their way of life, so learning about them more was every insightful. The one thing that really amazed me and stuck with me was the fact that Carolinians were able to navigate through the waters even before and European voyagers and their method of doing so was way more accurate. At first it was pretty difficult for me to wrap my head around the indigenous people’s methods of voyaging viewing the land as traveling towards you and not you towards it did puzzle me at first but the more I thought about it the more I began to understand it. Another method that opened my eyes was the star compass, it was pretty simplistic yet it was a very accurate tool in navigating through the waters. To be able to come up with such genius methods of voyaging went against my thinking of indigenous people being primitive. Another thing that surprised me was how spiritual and good willed they were. In schools and media indigenous people were portrayed to be savages/ mindless beasts but this clearly was not the case. I had a deeper understand of indigenous people’s relations to earth and all life. They treated everything with respect. The grand take away from

Webster’s Dictionary defines an archetype as a “a perfect example of something.” Mrs. Pettus defines a questr as a character in literature who engages on a quest to ultimately find self-knowledge (Pettus Lecture). There are certain elements that must be present in literature for a quest to occur. There must be a questr, and the questr must have a place he or she is going. There will be a stated reason for going, and a real reason for going, which is always for the questr to gain self-knowledge. Finally, the questr must also face obstacles along the journey.

People often find the need to seek for the meaning of life. They do this after realizing that there has to be more to life, than what they are currently experiencing. Individuals use different means to find out the meaning of life. Some seek enlightenment, and they travel on journeys, which they hope will give them the experiences and wisdom they need. This is the case of the main characters in Siddhartha and Into the Wild.

In Greek Mythology, the story of a quest came in the form of Hercules’ 12 Labors. Hercules had gotten into a blind rage and he accidentally killed his family. Because of his transgressions against his family, he was made to do twelve impossible labors to redeem himself including slaying a lion. His bravery and determination drove him to be able to complete all of the labors and become immortal. This shows that if you are brave and determined, you can do everything that you set your mind to.

Life will always be a mystery, society will always be "evil, sorrowful and inequitable" (Campbell, Myths 104), and the energy of the universe will always flow through our hearts, minds and bodies while we are alive. Consequently, for us to live peacefully on earth, each of us must be born anew by taking the hero's journey, and as Joseph Campbell has shown, this has been the case throughout time as evidenced metaphorically and symbolically by all myths, religions and folk tales. We must depart, wander through the wilderness of our unconscious, and return to society self-aware and strong in spirit. The process can be called maturation, salvation, or quest.

Within the hour they were trudging through back issues of outdoor life, looking at outdoor games. As the evening wore on, Maliki’s mood grew more brooding.

You know that old mythos, the one where if you remain a virgin until thirty then you become a wizard? Well what if I told you that there was more fact to it than originally thought. Huh? Are you calling me a liar that’s spouting out bullshit? Well I do understand where you’re coming from, after all even I didn’t believe in such things back then. At least not until it happened to me.

A couple of months ago, during a seminar in my philosophy class, my teacher asked the class if we believed race was biological. Prior to this encounter, I never truly pondered the validity of considering race as something based off distinct genetic differentiations. Some students tried to make an argument that race was biological based off the presence of certain traits that are seemingly specific to different races such as skin color, hair type, and the prevalence of certain diseases. Originally, these arguments appeared to be logically sound. Nevertheless, after further discussion, my class realized that these arguments did not provide solid proof of racial markers. Black, Asian, and Hispanic people all have a variety of skin colors and can be just as light or dark as someone outside of their race. There are many black people with “white features” such as naturally blond hair. Certain diseases, such as sickle cell anemia, may be prevalent amongst people of African descent but it is not exclusive to black people. Researchers have also found that the purpose of sickle cell anemia is to prevent malaria which makes it a genetic adaption based off geography rather than race. My experience in my philosophy class that day opened my eyes to the irrationality of describing race as something that is biological. Prior to watching Race: The Power of an Illusion, I had a fairly solid understanding of why race was a social construct. With that being said, although I

The myth is the belief that some languages just aren’t good enough because they do not fulfill certain criteria. Criteria such as not being able to act as a medium of speech to express new ideas, to speak of science, to speak of high literature, and to be used internationally without having to borrow vocabulary from other languages.