Myths and heroes : myth is something universal, but does everyone read into it in the same way?

 Myths and Heroes

I am going to talk about the notion of Myths and Heroes. First of all, I’m going to give a definition about this notion.

A myth is a story that may or may not be true. All cultures have myths and this mythology has been developed over time. Mythology includes the legends of our history, our religions and stories of how the world was created.

A hero is a person who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. It may be also a superhero, a role model or an icon. He is the main character in the myth.

To illustrate this notion, I chose the theme of the American Dream. It illustrates the notion because most of the Mexicans who lives behind the poverty line would achieve the American dream crossing the US-Mexico border illegally but it's complicated to get there.

A myth is something universal, but does everyone read into it in the same way? For that, we will see different points of view of the American dream. Firstly, we are going to talk about the point of view of Mexicans with the testimony of Maricela and with the awareness campaign about illegal immigration called One Story and which recounts the journey of Nelson Omar Chilel Lopez and his family.

Secondly, we are going to talk about the points of view of Americans: the opponents of the immigration with a cartoon composed of six frames and made by the cartoonist Joe Heller and the point of view of Barack Obama, the former president of the USA, through his speech delivers the 15th of June 2012 at the White House.

Mexicans want to reach the American dream to flee poverty and try to have better living conditions. But it's very difficult to cross the US-Mexico border you have to cross the Arizona desert at the peak of the summer heat. Omar's trip illustrates this first aspect. He grew up in Guatemala with his mother and his two siblings. He picked coffee beans for about 8 cents a pound. In search of higher-paying work, his family went illegally through the United States and left him behind and alone. Four years later, at the age of 13, his mother pays a coyote to cover his journey but he died in the desert.  Then, if Mexicans manage to settle in the USA, they still undocumented, so they can't live as Americans citizen. For example, Maricela, a Mexican woman who crosses the border at the age of 3, was a brilliant student, she graduated in the top 5% of her class, moreover, she was very involved, she was the treasurer for National Honor Society and the cross country captain. But despite all her degrees, she will never manage to use them to get a job because she is undocumented. She worked hard for nothing. For most of Mexicans, the American Dream stilla dream.

The opponents of immigration think that immigrants are taking away jobs from American citizens. For this reason, they are against the American Dream. The cartoonist Joe Heller criticizes this idea. He points out that the jobs that immigrants ''take'' are jobs that Americans would be unwilling to do, like cleaning woman, slaughterer, dishwasher, gardener, seasonal farm worker and sheriff badge witch are low paid and unrewarding jobs. In the last drawing, we can see Uncle Sam who is an American hero, he's the common national personification of the US. He is holding an anti-immigration law in order to drive immigrants out of the country. A part of American are against the American dream because it attracts immigrants who ''take''their jobs. But, the former president, Barack Obama is in favour of the American myth and he decided to created a new law ''The Dream Act'' witch helps immigrants to acquired the American citizenship.

...