Author Archives: Josh

Iliad

1.  Both Achilles and Hector were the best warriors of their nations. Hector the greatest warrior of for the Trojans and is very well thought of by the people of his nation. Hector fights before his beloved wife and kids. Within the battle he makes many costly errors resulting is the death of many warriors behind him. Even though numbers are low he continues to face Achilles. Achilles fighting for the Achaeans seems to have major flaws in his character in turn leading him to be weak when it comes to battle. He basically turns away from his fellow warriors and hopes that they die in battle so he can be the hero. At the end of the war these two great warriors were killed by Ajax. The original plan between Hector and Ajax was to have Achilles killed but turns out Hector didn’t come up with his end of the deal so Ajax had his way with him. One of the main differences between these two great warriors is that they fought for different reasons. Hector was full of love and pride fighting for his people where Achilles was more about personal pride and didn’t have pride in his nation so he fought to the death.

2.  After Achilles berserk episode Priam, Achilles father is the one who brings him back to balance. Achilles delivers Hectors body to his father so that he can forgo a proper burial. Achilles flaws are shown again as his anger problems cycle again. Both sides of the battle lost loved ones that were well known and well liked. The message that we find is that death is everywhere, it happens all around us. The one thing we learn is that one must find a way around the thought of death and see past it and live life to the fullest battle hard like these warriors did. Because one day life will be there for us.

3.  The Warrior Code and The Familial Code are not mutually exclusive. They instead seem to clash. We see this with Hector he is a family man who passionately loves his wife and kids. Without a doubt you can see tell that he would much rather stay with his family during battle to keep them safe. Fighting the war was far more honorable and heroic than the latter. Achilles is in the same boat, instead of staying back with his aging father who he might never see again. Both warriors show a great deal of honor, pride, character and bravery to their respected nations in the action that they took in taking part in battle.

Gilgamesh

 

  1. The story of Gilgamesh does contain some aspects of A Hero’s Journey. Gilgamesh left as a young immature man and came back as a mature man due to the obstacles he encountered. Granted he had some supernatural abilities Gilgamesh indeed learned many things from the path that he took. Lets take the death of Enkidu a friend of his that passed away. Gilgamesh faced the hard task of letting go and in turn it helped him find his place in search for eternal life.
  2. It is clear that the functions of mythology exist in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The characters throughout their journey find out who they are and what they are suppose to due, much like any other hero. We see this as Gilgamesh’s character grow throughout the journey and he finds himself questioning some of his actions along the way of his quest to find eternal life. When looking back at the story it is evident that the story was not just written for the journey but also for lessons in life, things that you will run into like death for example. Often times people will grow from the loss of a loved one just like Gilgamesh did.
  3. The journey of Gilgamesh’s was far and away a success in the fact that he grew as a person, he found who he was along the way. This was not one of my most favorite pieces of writing but it caught my interest and made me use the right tools to find the similarities from a Hero’s Journey.

The Hero’s Journey

  1. “The Hero’s Journey,’ is a good read that makes me think of a couple different movies but one in particular: Kung Fu Panda. This comedy illustrates heroic acts from a different point of view. It starts with a lazy panda that is infatuated with Kung Fu but doesn’t have a lick of coordination or athletic ability. As he is working in his families’ soup he practices his martial arts moves. Po is randomly chosen to complete an ancient prophecy. His dreams have come true. Po joins the Furious Five in training. Po is no match to these guys they can run circles around Po. The master trainer, Master Shifu has his work cut out for him, he fully doubts that Po will be good at anything other than eating. Po puts in long days of training that ends up working to his advantage. The Five must fight Tia Lang a bad previous student of Master Shifu. Tia Lang fights and beats all the other Five and this is where Po comes in to save the day. Po uses his girth to help him beat Tia Lang and becomes the hero.                                                                       Po takes quite the journey during his training with Master Shifu. He gets around many obstacles that he finds with his size and stature. Po’s dreams were coming true pushing him to continue his training even when things were not going well. For the most part I believe that this movie follows “The Hero’s Journey,’ Po learned a lot about kung fu and at times thought that his dream wasn’t for him but with perseverance he pulled through eventually being the hero defeating Tia Lang.

 

  1.  I do not believe that current cinema meets or follows the points expressed in the Four Functions of Mythology. In order for cinema to reach the guidelines movies need to be from a piece of written work. As seen in many other students’ discussions I believe that movie producers are more focused on what people want to see which is what makes them money. The technology these days gives them many different options creating a tough environment for movie producers. If the producers were to go off of the four functions of mythology the movies would more than likely be super boring and no one would watch. In the third section of the mythology it talks about morals and social norms but the problem with this is that everyone has a different view on that these days.

Introduction

Hello all! My name is Josh Erickson, I am a sophomore student here at UAF. I hail from Roseau, Minnesota a small town in the northern most part of the state so I am no stranger to cold weather. I enjoy Fairbanks for the most part there are of course faults that we all find in a places we live but I find the good out weighs the bad. I am a student athlete which is one of the reasons I decided to come here.

I am currently studying business. I have a great deal of passion for the outdoors and hope to one day own my fishing guide service/ resort on Lake of the Woods back home! I am not the greatest at math but I am a determined person so I will find a way to get through the tough math classes. I currently help run a hockey training program with my sister where we train young aspiring athletes to be the best they can be. In doing this I have learned first hand ways to go about a business which I believe   will help me   down the road.

I am enrolled in this class because it is a requirement I am not the kind of kid who likes to read a lot. I enjoy reading things that are interesting in this class I hope to expand my reading skills and work on reading   new material and finding new interests. The biggest thing I hope to take out of this class is learning how to write about what I read. Good luck to everyone this semester!