Week 5- Myths Present Today

For me personally, mythology is a way for me to realize or recognize my desire to be more than what I am. Though my world is boring a lot of the time, I like to imagine that I can have great adventures, or a hero's journey. I think that a lot of people feel the same way. I believe that this is why mythic-based movies and novels are so popular. Within the past couple of years, there has been Twilight (movies and books), The Green Lantern, Thor, Clash of the Titans, Underworld: Awakening, There Be Dragons, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and many more. We love the idea, like Otto Rank stated, that a hero has trials and overcomes them. They have adventures; good fights evil and prevails. Even though we do not experience the supernatural in that sense (we can't fly on dragons or marry vampires), but we can experience those things from movies or books. We can be invited into that world from the safety of our living rooms.

The whole idea of predator versus pray is seen a lot in world politics throughout history. I was watching a documentary in my International Relations class called Faces of the Enemy. It was all about how we dehumanize the enemy to justify killing others in war. It reminded me a lot about the book that we have looked at in class about how humans used to be prey and how that has affected mythology. In propaganda and editorial cartoons, the enemy was often portrayed as a monster of some sort: pointy teeth, crazy eyes, sharp claws. They were something to be feared. First feared, and then terminated. First they are the predator, and then they become the prey.

Noticing how mythology is present in our world today helps me to form more questions about mythology because it shows just how prevalent they are. That is because they are part of the human psyche; they are part of who we are as the human race. Mythology is the product of the social norms that have developed over time, our fears and dreams, and the complicated things of life that we are still trying to figure out. They are eternal.