Female Archetypes

While searching for female archetypes, I found a table of archetype characterization from the book "Heroes and Heroines: 16 Master Archetypes," by Caro LeFever, Tami Cowden and Sue Viders.

It lists 8 heroines as well as a description and a pop culture reference. The archetype we've seen in our readings recently have been The Free Spirit/the Spunky Kid. Little Red Riding Hood and Where are You Going, Where Have you Been? are good examples of the spunky kid. Any form of the seductress in out mythological readings have been filled by Goddesses.

Class Notes 2/22, 2/24

For those of you skipping class, you might be reading my blog in particular. Our professor has kept on hinting that in the long run, if you keep on your own blog and read other student's blogs you won't need to worry about the quizzes.

-We talked about Don Quiote and his zany observations

-Discussed Hamlet and his habit of thinking without doing anything

- Understand the term epiphany

-a sudden realization

-a common occurrence in MANY of the stories

-Discussed the Cathedral story and the irony of the blind man teaching the ignorant man to "see"

-Oedipus and other stories follow the blindness theme

-Discussed Arabe by James Joyce

-The story is not about nothing, readers must pay attention

-Joyce drops subtle allusions to the Garden of Eden story

-Discussed Erin's dorky crushes from high school

-Two most important words that should be tattooed to the head regarding reading: PAY ATTENTION

-Discussed male and female archetypes

-the male is either the hero or the villian

-the female can be the temptress or the devourer as well as others

Readings/Homework

-Read Arabe, Cathedral, The Lady with the Pet Dog, and Lady with the Pet Dog by Joyce Carol Oates. Finish book 2 of Brothers K by the end of this week

-Find female archetypes online and blog about them

Battle Moral

I respectfully disagree with Mr. Sexson. Again.

Today in class we read a story of a blind man teaching an ignorant man the ways of life. It was clear that Mr. Sexson really liked the story's moral: in order to fully understand a story or experience, one must interact and fully understand it instead of getting snippets or "morals of the story". You can't skim the Brothers Karamazov and expect to learn anything from it. You can't pull up a Spark Notes summary of it and expect to ace the test. Supposedly. Unfortunately our society is growing with increasingly shorter attention spans and morals of the story seem to be the major parts of stories that people are remembering. We can have the saying of "don't fly to close to the sun" or "don't let the cat out of the bag" without having to read the stories because it's a simplified version for short-attentioned zombies to understand. Don't fly to close to the sun means: don't overdo whatever you're doing.

I wish I had a larger attention span and maybe if I force myself to read every chapter, every paragraph and every word of the Brothers Karamazov it will elongate it, but I find that may not be possible. For instance as I write this, I am thinking about visiting another website or catching up on some reading for another class. I am getting text messages as I write and it is taking all of my concentration to avoid these distractions in order for me to finish this post. These distractions haunt me and every other 21st century college student throughout the day and even more so when I read the 900 page behemoth that is The Brothers Karamazov.

Anyway, the moral of this post is that the battle between morals of stories and experiences through reading is a battle that is far from over.

Class Notes 2/17

Quiz questions (answers in red)

1) Arnold Friend is...

the devil

a demon lover

the imagination

All of the Above

2) Compare Perrault and Grimm's stories of Little Red Riding Hood

Grimm's version is grotesque

3)What is the definition of grotesque?

Bizzare, gross, obsene, macabre

4) What's the difference between the endings of Joyce Carol Oates version of Where are You Going, Where Have You Been? and the film version Smooth Talk? The short story has an ominous ending that leaves it to the reader's imagination while the film extends the ending and puts a much lighter and less mysterious ending.

5) What does the girl in the Demon Lover have in common with Connie from Where are you going where have you been? They're archetypes

6) Define Archetype An original idea or person passed on from story to story

7) Who did Joyce Carol Oates dedicate her story to? Bob Dylan

8) Why did Lot's wife get turned into a pillar of salt? She looked back at the destruction of Gomorrah

9) Who said, "Tell the truth, but tell it slant" Emily Dickenson

10) Describe Death in Dickinson's poem, "Because I could not stop for death" An elegant, gentle suitor

11) Whose memory in the Brothers K had the slanting rays of sun in it? Alyosha

12) What are the difference between the brothers in the Brothers K?

Ivan is the intellectual, Dmitri is military-minded, and Alyosha is a man of faith

13) What do the brothers have in common? The Curse of Sensuality

Class Notes 2/12

Defined grotesque

-odd or unnatural in shape, appearance, or character

-fantastically ugly or absurd

-bizarre

Quick Biography of Flannery O'Connor

-She died at a young age

-Had gothic style writing

-Had grotesque characters

A Good Man is Hard to Find

-Grotesque family is "normal" for the south

-Do they deserve to be murdered?

Homework:

Pick favorite simile and write about it

Read A Very Old Man With Enormous wings

The Misfit Sprang up as if a Snake Had Bitten Him

My favorite simile of A Good Man is Hard to Find, was the very last simile:

She reached out and touched him on the shoulder. The Misfit sprang up as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest.

When I originally read this, I was confused. I thought the Misfit had been bitten three times in the chest. O'Connor craftily placed a key plot element so close to a simile, that the readers who weren't attentive were completely blindsided. They were just as blindsided as if a snake came up and bit them. It's also fitting for the author to compare the grandmother to a snake since much of the class saw her as a slimy, low-level vermin. The Misfit even overreacted like one would to a snake by shooting her not once, not twice, but THREE times. If O'Connor really wanted to be poetic, she could've depicted the Misfit cutting off the grandmother's head to make sure she was dead.

Class Notes 2/10

The film version of The Brothers Karamozov is terrible, according to Professor Sexson

-William Shatner played a brilliant Alyosha though

- Alyosha had a great memory and his earliest memories were when he was a year old.

-He remembers his mother holding him and crying

Finishing up Garden of Eden

-In scripture the forbidden fruit is just that, a piece of fruit.

-The apple detail was added in later

- The serpent told Eve to eat the fruit and then was punished by God to slink around on his

belly.

- Adam and Eve realized they were naked AFTER eating the fruit, so they made some fig- clothes and God was upset

Finishing up Psyche and Eros

-Psyche was told not to look, but she did and pricks Eros. He went to his mommy and whined. Psyche went to the mother-in-law to seek forgiveness and the mother-in-law sent Psyche on a mission to Hell.

-Psyche retrieved the box from Hell and was told not to look, but she did and passed out because of it. Hermes the messenger God picked up Psyche takes her to Mount Olympus for some emergency herb magic and Psyche and Eros live happily-ever-after.

Finishing up Icarus and Daedus

- the moral of the story is the story

Read: The Lottery and A Good Man is Hard to Come By