Myth and hero, Josephine Baker

JOSEPHINE BAKER

Introduction :

A myth is above all an attempt to understand the world. Every culture has its myths in order to define itself. They may or may not have an anchor in history.

To understand a myth is to take an interest in the heroes and tales that are the foundation of our collective identities .A hero might be a fictional or real character who has left his or her mark on our traditions, history or day to day life.

Popular culture and counter-culture never cease to produce their own heroes (folklore, comic strips,..) because we have a need, as human beings, to look up to or identify with someone who represents an ideal for us.

What makes a hero : if we talk about a fictional character, a hero is someone who has superpowers and who saves the world. If we talk about a real person a hero is someone who improves another person’s life. Who give’s advice or who helps someone to change his or her life in a positive way. In our current society hero is often compelled to violate the law to achieve his or her goal. IMPRISONMENT-DEATH

My hero is Josephine baker.

Plan :

1. Why did I choose Josephine Baker ?

First, I dicided to choose JB because :

• She was a woman and when it comes to heroes we always think of men.
• She was black and in those days it was not an asset : she was indeed black during the segragation in the USA.
• Despite her tormenteous childhood, she became sucessful becoming a Dancer in a cabaret.
• With her growing fame, she came to France. Under world war 2 she became an activist and helped the restistance fighters to pass important messages through the German forces.
• She was a selfless and brave person, who was committed to a lot of causes (such as the civil right movment).
• She was a caring woman because she adopted 12 children and created an association to shelter abandonned children.

1. The relation betweenTrue Brits and Josephine Baker

We can acknowledge her qualities to be the ones of the True Brits ‘cause it was a woman who fought for sex equality, for the awareness of the Black community and helped the resistance fighters.  

As in the Old Code, Josephine Baker decided to follow her instinct, fighting for human rights in her adoptive country (France). She was indeed very brave to risk her life for a great cause following the chivalry spirit in the medevial time.  

Another fact that prooves she is the decendant of the True Brit is that no matter what people said at the time, she fought for improving the image of black people (espacially about Woman), in the society.

Last but not least, the fact that she decided to adopt a « rainbow tribe » makes her really close to the chivalery spirit from the Old Code because it proves symbolically that she is the shelter of the world (Gaïa, Héra).

Even if she respected the notions of the Old Code, she had a much more modern image ‘cause she danced naked on stage in a cabaret show. She was also famous for dancing with a banana belt : what is interesting is that she made fun of the racist cliché which said that banana equals monkey equals black. She used that traditionnal image of black people to destroy and change it.

Conclusion : 

We can link Josephine Baker with the notion of hero, ‘cause as we saw in the definition, a hero is a person who makes a positiv change in someone else’s life and that’s what she exactly did. She was indeed part of the resistance, of the acknowledgment to the right of black people and represented the image of « nursing mother ». She is considered as part of a legend because, as Martin Lutter King to whom she wrote a letter, her name remained a symbol for the next generation.

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