Blog 7: The Crow Hero's Quest

Departure

1. The Call to Adventure
The first call to adventure is when Eric, the main character, and his girlfriend Shelly are attacked in their apartment. Eric is killed by getting pushed out of the 5th floor apartment building and his girlfriend Shelly is raped and beaten and later dies in the hospital.

2.Refusal of the Call
There is no refusal of the call as everything happened to Eric involuntary.

3. Supernatural Aid
The supernatural aid is the crow who follows Eric around and initially awakens him from the dead.

4. The Crossing of the First Threshold
The crossing of the first threshold is when Eric is first woken up from the dead by the crow and back into present time. Eric wakes up and has no recollection of what happened and does not know where he is or whats going on.

5. The Belly of the Whale
The belly of the whale happens when after Eric wakes up, he goes back to his old apartment and finds a mask which Shelly had painted. When he touches the mask it triggers flashbacks of their past and starts remembering the attack and starts his journey for revenge on their attackers.

Initiation

1. The Road of Trials
After seeing the flash backs of Eric's past and Shelly leaves his apartment and then enters a local pawn shop and searches for Shelly's wedding ring. When he touches Shelly's ring he instantly has a flashback of all the attackers. He then has to find out who the attackers are and does so by questioning the pawn shop owner. After finding out who the attackers are and realizing the the pawn shop owner is somehow involved with them, Eric kills him and begins his search for the attackers.

2. Meeting With the Goddess
The meeting with the goddess actually happens during the belly of the whale step. When Eric has his initial flash back in the apartment, he remembers Shelly and their unconditional love, and wants to then seek vengeance on their attackers and go back to rest next to where Shelly is buried.

3. Woman as a Temptress
During the movie Eric meets with Sarah, a young girl that who was friend with Shelly and Eric who used to take care of her because her mother was reckless, irresponsible and was a heavy drug user. Eric strays away from his quest after killing FunBoy (one of their attackers) and coincidentaly finds Sarah's mother with him. Darla cuts Eric with a razor out of fear and these wounds do not heal because she is not involved with his quest. Eric sees the marks on her arm from the needles and is able to push the drug out of her arm and tells her that her daughter is out on the streets and to go to her.

4. Atonement with the Father
Eric finds out where the attackers headquarters is from one of the attackers that he killed. When he goes to their base he finds the last attacker that he must kill, he finds another man named TopDollar, who is the boss of the gang and is the one who ordered the attack on Eric and Shelly.

5. Apotheosis
After Eric kills all the attackers from the night they were killed, he knows about the boss and although did not directly attack them, he was the one who ordered the attack and wants to kill TopDollar also. But because TopDollar was not directly involved in the attack, Eric loses his supernatural powers and is now mortal. Eric still pushes to go after TopDollar knowing that he has no powers against him.

6. The Ultimate Boon
Eric and TopDollar have a battle on the roof of a church. Eric kills TopDollar and makes him "feel Shelly's pain." After he kills TopDollar is goal of revenge is complete.

Return

1. Refusal of the Return
There is no refusal of return, as all Eric wanted most was to able to be back with Shelly in afterlife.

2. The Magic Flight
There is no magic flight in this movie. After Eric kills TopDollar, he walks down the church steps and into the cemetery where him and Shelly are buried.

3. Rescue from Without
When Eric enters the cemetery, he lays down by Shelly's grave. Eric and Shelly are then reunited when Shelly appears at the grave dressed in white to take him back to the afterlife.

4. The Crossing of the Return Threshold
After Eric and Shelly are reunited and at peace, Sarah visits their graves and the crow gives her the wedding ring. Sarah takes the ring and knowledge of what has happened with Eric and Shelly that true love lasts even through death.

5. Master of the Two Worlds
Once Eric and Shelly are reunited, Erik is happy that he can now rest in peace and that he can now leave the present world.

6. Freedom to Live
In this movie, it is more the opposite; freedom of death. After his mission is complete, Eric accepts what has happened in the past and can now rest peacefully in death.

Blog 6: Essay 3 Draft

Window of Time
by: Patricia Walter (1944- )


She sits at the window
frozen in time.
What does she really see?
Ghosts from the past
a thousand years old
creatures we don't understand.
Tail twitching, body poised
not moving an inch
mesmerized by the world outside.
A quiet little mouse,
white tailed deer,
or shadows from wind blown trees.
I look, I stare
but I just don't see
the view from cat's eyes so intense.
Hours pass, the cat stande guard,
sky bleeding night black to dawn gray.
Night after night
at the window of time
what stories unfold out of sight?




Patricia Walters was born in 1944 and lived in Cleveland during her younger years. Patricia moved from Cleveland to southern Ohio onto the family farm. She had a big interest in music and after she met her husband in wood turning and later on in life in painting and writing. Her main subjects of art are usually animals especially dogs. She now lived in Marietta and still continues to paint and write today. "Window of Time," is just one of the many poems Patricia has written in her life.

This poem is composed of just one stanza with 20 lines. The narrative poem is on the left side of the page and is pretty narrow. The poem has no specific rhyme scheme. However, lines 18 and 20 do rhyme. The lines in this poem generally have two or three beat lines, but lines 15 and 17 could be read with 4 beats.

"Window of Time," talks about a person who is watching a cat which is looking out a window. The speaker is trying to figure out what the cat is looking at but can't figure it out and wonders if cats are able to see things which humans cannot. The main image of this poem is a cat staring out of a window into a kind of mysterious realm which the speaker cannot see. The cat sits at the window (line 1) sitting completely still (line 2). What can the cat actually see? (line 3) ancient ghosts (line 4) who are 1000 years old (line 5) and creatures that humans don't understand (line 6). The cats tail is twitching and looks ready for anything (line 7) completely still (line 8) amazed by what the cat sees outside (line 9). Maybe a silent mouse (line 10) maybe a deer with a white tail (line 11) or the shadows from the trees blowing in the wind (line 12). The speaker tries to see it (line 13) but the speaker is unable to (line 14) the cat has an intense look in her eyes (line 15). As hours pass, the cat still stands guard (line 16), from the dark night into the early morning (line 17). Every night (line 18) at the window which the cat watches through (line 19) what is out there that we cannot see? (line 20)

The main symbols for this poem seem to be (1) cat (2) window and time (3) creatures, ghosts and shadows (4) mouse, deer, and tree and (5) black, night, grey, and dawn.

First the poem is titled "Window of Time" Both window and time have symbolic meanings and is used several times through out the poem. A window could symbolize ones narrow view of the world, because they can only see whats in front not whats above or to the sides of them. And the glass could serve as protection to the viewer (associated content). Time can symbolize the future or the past, not just the present time.

Another important symbol is the cat. The cat symbolizes many different things. Some believed cats to symbolize sin, hatred and the devil, but is now more recognized as symbolizing intelligence, a spiritual guardian, deep understanding of nature, independent, understanding and mysterious. (Symbolism Wikia).

Creatures are commonly associated with monsters or beings which humans do not know. They are often made up or used in stories. Ghosts symbolize some times spookiness, darkness and scary, but they can also symbolize spirits of the dead and history. Shadows are associated with darkness, evil, mystery and the Dictionary of Symbolism said it associated with a persons soul and represents part of the Chinese yin yang with light.

Mouse and deer are both animals of nature and could represent innocence life and gentleness. The trees symbolize several things (Symbolism Wikia). According to Dictionary of Symbolism, trees symbolize life, heaven, earth, water, and is feminine, nourishing and sheltering.

This poem tends to use darker colors; black for night and grey for dawn. Black represents a lack of color, and can also symbolize death, sorrow, emptiness, evil, and the unknown. Night has a similar symbolic meaning to black as its associated with darkness, mystery, sleep, and the moon. The color gray can symbolize neutral, depression, humility and sometimes death and also wisdom. Dawn, however, can symbolize an illumination of hope, birth, rebirth, and a chance of happiness and improvement (Dictionary of Symbolism).

Based on the authors choice of words, the tone that I believe is being used is mysterious. The reason why I believe that the poem has a mysterious tone is because she uses words such as intense, window of time, and mesmerized to make the tone seem very curious and mysterious.she asks so many questions about what the cat can really see. For example, she has lines in her poem such as, "What does she really see?" and "what stories unfold out of sight?"

"Window of Time" is a poem about cats, and more specifically, if cats have any powers such a clairvoyant sense or something to that matter which they are able to see things which humans can't. It is unclear what exactly it is that the cat can see, but that is probably because humans can't see it therefore the speaker can't tell you what it is. Cats have been recognized for their sharp vision but this poem shows that maybe people don't know how good it really is. I believe this poem is meant to be told like a story as about every 3 lines there's a period at the end of the line and then the following starts with a capitalized letter. Through the image of the cat staring through the mysterious window, lines in the poem such as 1,2, 15-20 and the poem being titled, "Window of Time," is could be said that maybe the speaker is trying to say that cats could see ghosts or spiritd or even possibly see through time.




Cirlot, J. E. "A Dictionary of Symbols." Trans. Jack Sage. New York: Philosophical Library. 1962. Dictionary of Symbolism. University of Michigan Fantasy and Science Fiction Website. 2001. 06 August 2004. Web. 17 April 2010.


NoPNA. "Symbolism of Doors and Windows in Modern Literature." June 2007. Web. 17 April 2010.

Symbolism Wikia. Web. 17 April 2010.

Walter, Patricia. "About Patricia Walter." Web. 17 April 2010.

Blog 5: Essay # Preview

For essay 3 I understand the majority of what needs to be done for this essay. I know that this will be a slightly longer writing like a research paper. I know I must talk about the author; a short biography and information of the text. I know I need to give a description of the poetic form, summarize the poem line by line, talk about symbolism and any motifs of archetypes in it. I also need to talk about the mood and tone, and finally do an interpretation of the poem. I also need to cite ANY sources used in MLA format.

One thing that I am a little confused about is the difference between summarizing the poem and interpreting it. I feel like summarizing the poem is in a way interpreting it. All I really need to know to complete this assignment is the answer to what I just mentioned that I am confused about. Although we are allowed to use the same poem for this essay, I think I will pick a different poem this time. You can only write so much about the same thing. I think I will do it a little differently this time and write about a song instead of a regular poem. I still need to look through some songs to figure out which one I will write about.