Home & self identity

Page 1

The Return Home and the Quest for Self-Identity

Jeff Jamison 10/29/14 4:29 PM Formatted: Centered

Epic heroes shape their identity through the tests and the trials from the gods, their own mistakes, and the choices of others. For ten years, the great hero Ulysses was away from Ithaca—his home—while at

Jeff Jamison 10/29/14 4:51 PM Comment: Nice, clear opening.

battle in Troy. For ten years after the battle ended, he strove to return to his wife, Penelope, and his home. After infuriating King Minos and being imprisoned within the labyrinth on the island Crete, Daedalus desired to

Jeff Jamison 10/29/14 4:54 PM Comment: He was gone for twenty years? Ouch.

escape with his son, Icarus, by crafting wings to fly like birds across the sea. Why would they commit to such

Jeff Jamison 10/29/14 5:10 PM Deleted: When the battle was over,

a dangerous journey? They desired to return back to their home in Sicily. After Odysseus experienced

Jeff Jamison 10/29/14 4:53 PM Deleted: for another ten years,

temptations, he sought for “his identity as a man, not as a hero” (Breyfogle 16). These heroes were not gods. They were men: human and fallible. In the end, these epic heroes eventually left their adventures to return to their homes as new men because “the adventure of the hero” is “the adventure of being alive” (The Power of Myth . . . 163). Home, where all humans begin, also shapes a hero’s identity. But a hero leaves home, and the trials before returning home test the hero’s identity. And the homecoming is the ultimate recognition of who the hero has come to be. In Conrad’s Lord Jim and Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, both Jim and Stephen see themselves as heroes, like those in Greek and Roman mythology, but their adventures are set during the Modernist era. Critics provide various perspectives regarding the analysis of these two texts, ranging from psychoanalysis to biographical reflections. When reading literary criticism, discussions of moralism and

Jeff Jamison 10/29/14 4:56 PM Deleted: is Jeff Jamison 10/29/14 9:00 PM Comment: First names would be helpful to begin with. Then you can refer to them by their last names after. Jeff Jamison 10/29/14 5:20 PM Comment: Same here.

romanticism in Lord Jim and nationality and imperialism in Joyce’s writings are bound to come up; however,

Jeff Jamison 10/30/14 3:01 PM

there has been little interpretation regarding Jim’s immediate family and comparing the construction of heroic

Comment: Are you referring to several of his writings or specifically to A Portrait of the Artist…?

self-identity of the characters, Jim and Stephen. While scholarly opinions concerning these topics of discussion are undoubtedly imperative for interpretation, the additional analysis of focusing on the shaping of identity and the influence of the family on modern heroes enables the reader to better understand the Modernist era. Specifically, this paper focuses on uncovering the significance of how familial relationships shape the identity of modern heroes. Where and to whom a person is born begins the initiation of the hero’s

Jeff Jamison 10/29/14 5:33 PM Deleted: on a different aspect by


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.
Home & self identity by Chelsea Jamison - Issuu