Virginia Press - Journal Entry 6 - In Response to Briar Bond

 Now, this may be a presumptuous blog post to make. After all, I am completely unfamiliar with the book series being referenced. However, based on what my classmate has written about, I do believe they are in fact discussing a Hero.

As the Guest Speaker explained today, Good and Suffering exists within each one of us. As a Hero must be part man, it stands to reason that a Hero must contain good and evil as well. If kindness is a feeling one must act upon, it stands that anyone with both good and evil can choose whether or not to act upon them. 

In this course, we have no truly approached the idea of a villain. There are obstacles, tricksters, ornery Gods and the like, but never is there one figure acting out malice for no reason. Within the Hero's Journey, there are only flattened archetypes. These archetypes alone are not as complex and grey as people, but they do represent human forces in an honest form. They represent a person working against themself, or the people and systems which might work against them. It is important, however, that this friction is intended to transform and improve the Hero. That is the central idea of a Hero's Journey; not Hero vs. Villain, but transition. 

So to respond to Briar Bond, I 1000% agree that the "Hero's Journey" is merely a framework for character development, and can be applied to any person or character who grows and changes in response to their story. 

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