Myths and heroes

MYTHS AND HEROES

I am going to talk about myths and heroes.

First of all, i would like to define this notion. So we can say that unlike a dream that can potentially become true, a myth will always remain something fictitious.

A myth can be defined as a story about gods or heroes, it can be a popular belief or a tradition.

A hero can be a mythological figure, a person who is admired for his or her achievements, a superhero or maybe a role model or an icon.

We will see here to know how myths and heroes influence our behavior in society? For this we will first see the representation of a character in a myth and its interpretation in this one.

To begin, we will study two characters of myths.

First, we will talk about Narcissus, a mythical character defined by Ovid. This character with a divine beauty was someone very pretentious and rejected all the people trying to make contact with him, because he loved only him. Narcissus was an eternal man and his death would only be pronounced according to Tiresias, a diviner, if he saw his reflection. Echo is a nymph who fell madly in love with him but like all the others, was rejected. She could not speak but only repeat bits of sentences due to her grief. Her revenge was such that she sent him one day to a river to recharge. Despite himself, Narcissus fell into the trap and saw his reflection in the water. He was immediately hypnotized by his beauty and fell into the river thinking to catch his reflection. His body then disappeared and a flower grew in this place and took his name.

Second, let's define the character of Dorian Gray, in "the portrait of Dorian Gray" written by Oscar Wilde in 1891.

Dorian was an ordinary man, until the day he discovered his beauty in a painting of himself where he realized his incredible beauty.

Before that, he had never paid attention to his appearance, even though his friends told him about it regularly.

He knew that his beauty was not eternal and that as he grew older he would become repulsive, old, and deformed. He is frightened by this thought and is willing to sell his soul to stay beautiful forever. It is like a "pact with the devil" for this is his portrait that will age in its place and will be marked by years, vices and crimes. He becomes a murderer without remorse as his appearance does not change. It is his portrait that becomes disastrous. In view of this horrible picture, Dorian Gray decided to stab the picture in the heart, but it is his own heart that he cuts. He then becomes again an old man.

Finally, we will see these characters within the myth and their representations in society.

These two myths are particularly focused on egocentrism. Through these two characters, we see that the vice of selfishness leads to death.

These two young men are ready for anything to keep preciously their beauty to the detriment of those around them. Narcissus, knowing his beauty, does not speak to anyone and behaves in a haughty way with them. He is not aware of their pain, as with Echo who loses his voice because of him.

Dorian Gray, having later realized his beauty and wanting to keep it at all costs, he thinks he is immune through his pact and becomes an assassin. He is willing to be violent, selfish and disastrous with the citizens and loses all values.

In conclusion, myths influence our behavior in society by creating fictional characters. In the case of our study, these characters both have selfishness. These fictional characters are actually created to mimic real people. They allow readers to identify the character of the people and to adhere or not to their behavior. Myths and heroes have always existed, and are there to define certain vices through a fictional story.

SPACES AND EXCHANGES

I will introduce the concept of spaces and exchanges. The different spaces of the world are nowadays more and more connected to each others. An exchanges is the act of giving or receiving something in substitution for something else. Now there are different exchanges like economic, cultural or immigration. So to represent spaces and exchanges I go to talk about the immigration in Canada. We can wonder what can drive people to cross borders ?  Nous verrons dans un premier temps les facteurs qui poussent les habitants a fuir leurs pays, puis dans une deuxième partie les facteurs qui incitent a explorer a l’étranger.

To start we will see the factors that drive people to flee their countries.

First, Home Children was the child migration from 1869 through to 1939. It has been estimated over 100 000 children were emigrated from the United Kingdom to Canada to be used as farm workers and domestic servants. Believed by Canadians to be orphans, only two percent truly were. For the most part, these children were not picked up from the streets but came from intact families, who, through sickness or even death of one of their parents, had fallen on hard times. The child migration program was born during the Industrial Revolution. With the document studied in class we understand that there were some children welcomed but there were maltreat like slave. Barbara Alden's letter tells us about her youth in Canada in her foster family and the ordeal she endured. She was abused physically and mentally and was never accepted into the community, she did not share any meals, holidays with this family.

Secondly, slavery is another reason for crossing borders.

American slaves crossed the border between the United States and Canada to regain their freedom because Canda has abolished slavery 30 years before the USA did. So the unerdground railroad allowed thousands of black fugitives to escape the southern slave.

As the document "Running Away" says, Nancy was an Amerci slave, she was able to escape thanks to the "unerdground railroad" with the help of Mr. Fairhead and his friends.

Thirdly, there are the refugees from the Vietnam War.

After the war, tens of thousands of Vietnamese boat people were also admitted and became a unique part of Canadian life. After the fall of South Vietnam in April 1975, hundreds of thousands of refugees, called boat people, fled Vietnam and adjacent nations.

We studied the story of Jack Todd, an American soldier, who decided to flee the Vietnam War. He was not in agreement with the war, and refuses to participate. He does not want to become a journalist because he does not want to be dishonest.

The most difficult thing for Jack was to announce to his mother that he was going to Canada and would not come back to the United States because he would be forced to return to the war. He did not realize how difficult it would be for his mother to come back to Canada, because she did not want that for him and maybe never see him again if he can not get across the border.

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