Ancient and Modern Hero’s Characteristics and Journey

The major steps of a hero have been around for thousands of years, starting around the time of Homer, who wrote The Iliad and The Odyssey. Most stories with a hero follow the same general steps shown in Homer’s Odyssey. The steps of a hero start with the hero in his main world and eventually they find a mentor, in the end of their journey they use everything they learn to find or defeat anything they were after. The hero also has many of the similar traits found in the Odyssey, traits such as wisdom, selflessness, courage, and self sacrifice. Harry Potter is one of these stories that follow the steps of the hero also found in The Odyssey, a book written more the two thousand years ago.

            In the beginning of the famous book series known as Harry Potter, the main character, Harry Potter, begins in his hometown in England and he is called to the wizard world by a character named Hagrid. In the Odyssey, Odysseus had just left the Trojan War and tries to make his way back home, but enters a “world” of gods. Odysseus also faces challenges of trying to get home. Harry also faces challenges of defeating and fending off dark forces. Harry also faces death many times trough his journey, he faces it in every one of the seven books as he tries to stop the Dark Lord Voldomort. Odysseus also faces death when he is fighting. The stories may change with the concepts and the plots, but the general journey the hero goes on is the same.

            Traits of the hero have also remained the same for more than two thousand years. Both Harry Potter and Odysseus are wise in there worlds. The hero’s also put others ahead of themselves. In the end of the series Harry sacrifices himself to save the wizard world. In The Odyssey, a different kind of sacrifice occurs; the sacrifice of animals is to the gods to keep them happy and not interrupting with his journey. Most heroes from Homer’s time until now have all had the same traits from selfishness, sacrifices, and wisdom.

            The first epic poem was written by Homer more than two thousand years ago named The Odyssey. The main character, Odysseus has traits such as wisdom, selflessness, sacrifices, and much more. He also follows steps in his journey to wherever he is going. Some of these steps are leaving the ordinary world that the hero knows; the hero also faces challenges on his journey. The hero also faces eleven more general steps in his journey. Stories such as Harry Potter still follow these traits and steps more than two thousand years after Homer wrote The Odyssey.

Odyssey from Penelope's Perspective

Penelope's husband, Odysseus, left for the Trojan war. before he left Penelope gave birth to her first son known as Telemachus. "Do you have to leave?", Penelope asked Odysseus. He responded by saying, " I will only be gone for while, you will not even notice that I am gone." As time passed while Odysseus was away. Penelope raised her son Telemachus by herself, waiting every day for Odysseus to return. As the years progressed, and Odysseus was still away, a brief thought came into Penelope's head saying that he will not return. Suitors began to live in her house, ate her food, and spent her money. The suitors encouraged her to marry one of them but she resisted. As Telemachus became older, he took his fathers place and the suitors became mad and wanted him to step down.

The Adventures of Jimmy

A boy named Jimmy lived in the city of Los Angeles and was an average person who lived in an apartment building in the middle of the city. He was the smartest in his class and was detained for a full college scholarship. There was one girl in Jimmy’s grade, named Julie, who he had a crush on; he was so nice and chivalrous to her. Jimmy lived with his step mother and his father but he was away for one to two months at a time because of his job. His mother was not the nicest of person; she makes Jimmy do all the chores while she sits around the house doing nothing. When Jimmy’s father returns home, he does not believe Jimmy at all, the step mother just acts so innocent.

           One day, in the winter, Jimmy went for a walk in the city of Los Angeles when an earthquake began. Jimmy was scared as he was running back to his apartment. The ground in front of him began to split and he fell into the gorge. The next thing Jimmy knew, he woke up in the middle of a forest with pine trees lightly covered in snow, and a blanket of freshly white snow around him on the ground. He walked through the trees for an hour and ended up at a castle emerging from the fallen snow. He walked into the castle and walked around discovering there were thirty rooms of every kind. As Jimmy walked through the castle, the king showed up and said in an angry and loud voice, “What are you doing here, for trespassing on my land I will put a spell of obedience on you.” Jimmy could not help himself now; he had to do anything that anybody told him.

            The king heard footsteps echoing from down the hall and fled. From down the hall a girl appeared and it looked like Julie, Jimmy’s crush. The two instantly recognized each other, and Julie invited him to the ball that night; because of the spell recently bestowed upon Jimmy he had no chose but to accept her invitation. As Jimmy retired to his bedroom, that was set up for him in the castle, he said quietly to himself, “how am I going to get through this ball tonight.” As he was saying, a floating ball of light appeared from nowhere and turned into a fairy god mother. With a wave of her magic wand he became dressed like a prince. As the ball progressed and Jimmy was acting weird in Julie’s eyes because he had to do anything he heard anyone ask. As the king walked by he said, “Kill her.” Jimmy grabbed a knife and began to raise it in Julie’s direction. As Jimmy was about to kill her, he overcame the spell and dropped the knife. Jimmy told that the king put a spell on him, and he was band from the kingdom and was stripped of his kinghood. The next thing Jimmy knew he woke up in his room back in Los Angeles, with nothing more than a bump on his head, making the entire thing a dream.

The Shadow Archetype in Movies and Books

An archetype is a symbol recognized by everybody around the world. Archetypes come from within us, and they speak through us. People learn to recognize archetypes at a very young age. People learn to recognize archetypes a very young age unconsciously, They are almost born within us. A psychologist who has studied archetypes said that humans have a psychic disposition and that we recognize archetypes unconsciously.

There are many types of archetypes within us and they are featured in a wide variety of books and movies. One type of archetype known as the shadow archetype was featured in the famous book and movie known as Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban. The shadow archetype exploits a persons fear but allows them to be stronger. In the movie and book there fears are shown to them in the form that will not hurt them. They use these fears to practice fighting them. When the time comes, the main character, Harry Potter uses what he has learned from his fear and is able to fight away the dementor and survive. Even if we are scared of the shadow archetype which is the fear within us, still gives us strength.