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Today
• Basketball players: You can write the
Julius Caesar quiz after school TODAY
or TOMORROW in Room 310.
• Monomyths are due in your Google
Doc. I will be checking them after class
today.
• Next TUESDAY, February 22, there will
be a quiz on archetypes and
monomyths.
Question of the Day
• If all stories follow a similar pattern, is
the story of Jesus different from any
other pattern?
Tolkien and Lewis
•
J.R.R. Tolkien, who
wrote Lord of the Rings,
and C.S. Lewis, who
wrote The Chronicles of
Narnia, discussed this
question for many
years.
Tolkien and Lewis
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Both men were
professors at Oxford
University, and
extremely interested in
myths.
Tolkien was a strong
Roman Catholic
throughout his life, while
Lewis was an atheist
since he was a
teenager.
Lewis’ conversations
with Tolkien about myth,
however, caused him to
convert to Christianity.
Lewis on Myth
•
“Now the story of Christ is simply a true myth: a
myth working on us in the same way as the
others, but with this tremendous difference that
it really happened: and one must be content to
accept it in the same way, remembering that it
is God's myth where the others are men's myth:
i.e. the Pagan stories are God expressing
Himself through the minds of poets, using such
images as He found there, while Christianity is
God expressing Himself through what we call
'real things'.” - C.S. Lewis
Lewis on Myth
•
“Now as myth
transcends thought,
Incarnation transcends
myth. The heart of
Christianity is a myth
which is also a fact …
By becoming fact it
does not cease to be
myth: that is the
miracle.” - C.S. Lewis
Look up any words you do not know.
Discuss your opinion of this quotation with your
group.
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The Chronicles of
Narnia
Lewis wrote The
Chronicles of Narnia
as a tribute to the
power of the Christian
myth.
The story is an
allegory of Jesus’
story. Just as Jesus
died on the cross for
us, Aslan dies to save
Edmund.
The Lord of the Rings
•
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In The Lord of the Rings,
Frodo must rid the world
of the corrupting power
of the ring, just as
Christians strive to rid
themselves of sin.
Both stories are a tribute
to the Christ story.
Yann Martel and
Life of Pi
•
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How does Pi perceive myth?
What is its value to him?
Yann Martel is not writing
from a Christian
perspective, so Life of Pi
contains ideas that run
counter to the idea of
absolute Biblical truth.
As you read, ask yourself
what Yann Martel’s opinion
on this subject is. Why
are myths so important to
human beings?
Pi looks for God in
everything...
•
“The three-toed
sloth, such a
beautiful
example of the
miracle of life,
reminded me of
God.” p. 5
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Frame Narrative
Narrative: a story.
A frame narrative is a story
with another story around it.
This was very commonly
used in 19th century
novels. The writer usually
did it to make the story
seem true.
H. Rider Haggard did this in
his 1887 novel She, about
a team of explorers who
find a tribe of “primitive
African natives” ruled by a
white queen, Ayesha.
Discussion
• Read Chapter Two on page nine with
your groups. Why does Yann Martel
write his description of Pi from his own
perspective?
• For that matter, why does he begin the
story from his own perspective? Why
not just start with Pi telling it?
Archetypal Symbols
• In addition to archetypal characters and
events, there is also archetypal
symbolism.
• Read the first paragraph of Chapter 3.
Why is it significant that Pi is named
after a swimming pool?
• Be prepared to discuss with your
groups.
Myth Homework.
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Choose an experience from your life and write it
as a myth in your Google Doc.
It should follow Joseph Campbell’s monomyth
pattern.
You are allowed to change or make up details if
you need to.
The myth should be a minimum of three
paragraphs, approximately 4-6 sentences each.
Feel free to make it longer if you want. There is
no length limit.
These will be due on FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18TH.