Haroun and the sea of stories

We ended the semester with Haroun and the Sea of Stories because the content contained multiple things we have learned through out the semester. We were also in need for a happy ending after reading two depressing stories in a row. At the beginning of the semester, we learned about Beowulf and his completion of the hero cycle. We discussed what it took to be the archetypal hero and the 10 steps in a hero’s cycle. In Haroun and the Sea of Stories, we followed Haroun’s journey through the 10 steps of the cycle. But Haroun was not the archetypal hero for many reasons. For one he did not complete all of his trials, he failed at a few. But he made up for those trails at the end when he defeated the shadow ship and saved the ocean from being polluted and destroyed. He also was able to renew his dads subscription, which was his original goal. We also shortly discuss female heroines and why they are not as successful as male heroes. In the story, Blabbermouth, who has to pretend to be a male to be successful, ends up saving all of the Gup warriors from being blown up. We talked about romance and tragedy, which was all covered in the story. Haroun and Blabbermouth both of a crush on one another. Haroun and his father, Rashid both experience tragedy when his mother leaves his father with another man. This book tied everything we have learned this semester together, which was a great review.

Heroes

In today’s society, heroic men are more successful than heroic woman. When one thinks of literature heroes; Batman, Superman, and Spiderman are likely to pop into one’s head. Both Batman and Spiderman movies have been box office hits, but there are no female heroes that dominate the big screen. People have been raised around the idea that men are the ones that save and woman is the one that need to be saved. I think that is the reason people have stereotyped woman not being able to be heroes. When a movie or a book comes out where the woman is the heroine, society does not know what to think of it because it is not the norm. There are many real contemporary heroes that I can think of right of my head, for example Michelle Obama or Mother Teresa. But I am having trouble coming up with contemporary fictional female characters. Charles Angles I believe are the most popular female heroes, but their success does not come close to Batman’s’ or really any other male hero. I believe that the reason heroines have not had as much success as heroes is because they are females. For example in Watchman, Laurie Jupiter knows how to kick butt and does in the movie, but what people remember is her tight skin leather suit, not the fact that she is a hero.