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Voici un plan qui pourrait t'aider. La problématique est plutôt simple (pourquoi créons-nous des mythes ?) mais soulève un point intéressant : les héros permettent de cristalliser les valeurs et préoccupations d'une société mais enfreignent parfois les règles imposées. Dès lors sont-ils toujours des héros et si oui, pourquoi ?
INTRODUCTION
In order to start my presentation about the notion Myths and Heroes, I will, first, define those two notions. Myth comes from the Greek mythos (mûthos) which is "a story or set of stories having a significant truth or meaning for a particular culture, religion, society or a group of people" (wiktionary). Myths are popular beliefs or traditions which often relate phenomenons or situations to heroes, gods or magic. However, the era of magic and superstition has passed and since the XIXth century, we are science-driven, we tend to explain everything in a rational way. Hence, why are societies and people still creating or looking for heroes and myths?
In order to answer this question, we will expose the values and concerns that heroes embody in order to act as a cohesive factor that all societies need in order to unify people. In a second part, we will highlight the fact that a hero has sometimes to disobey the rules that he is supposed to enforce.
I. HEROES AS A COHESIVE FACTOR
In search of a collective and an individual identity, the society creates its own heroes. As models to follow, they embody the values and concerns of an era.
1) The American Dream
James Truslow Adams in 1931 gave a definition of the American Dream:
"Life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth".
The American dream is rooted in the Declaration of Independence: "all men are created equal" with the right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".
2) The Rags-to-Riches Myths
- Definition: rags-to-riches refers to any situation in which a person rises from poverty to wealth or from obscurity to fame. This is a common archetype in the American literature and popular culture:
· Songs “Rags to Riches” by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross (1953)
· Horatio Alger Jr (1832 – 1899) is an American writer who is famous for his rags-to- riches narrative
· The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald
- The Gilded Age is an era from 1870s to 1900 when the American economy was growing fast but suffered from inequality and poverty. Many people became rich but at the same time, a vast majority stayed poor.Mark Twain depicted this era in his book The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today.
- The Rags-to-Riches myth is still vivid in today’s society. Rappers, actors or businessmen like Jay-Z, Robert Downey Jr or Steve Jobs are examples of people starting from scratch and who worked hard to access the fame and the wealth.
3) The Myth of the cowboy
- The Cowboy Era (from 1866 to 1886) was a period when the cities on the East Coast were deprived of resources whereas Texas possessed over 6 million cattle roaming wild.
- The word ‘cowboy’ is a direct translation of the Spanish vaquero (= cow). Equivalents were used at this time like cowhand, buckaroo, cowpoke, cowpuncher but cowboy was the most common in the West, especially in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains.
II. SUBVERSIVE
HEROES
Heroes are models for people and they sometimes choose to get rid of the social and moral codes that the society in which they were born put in place. In other words, heroes might blur the line between good and evil.
1) The Rebel Heroes in the American and English Cultures
2) Gangsters, Prohibition and Bootleggers
Heroes are models for people and they sometimes choose to get rid of the social and moral codes that the society in which they were born put in place. In other words, heroes might blur the line between good and evil.
1) The Rebel Heroes in the American and English Cultures
- Robin Hood is a very figure popular in the Anglo-saxon mythology, it even became an archetype of the hero taking money from the Rich in order to help poor people.
- Rob Roy (1671 – 1734) was a Scottish outlaw, who later became a folk hero fighting agains the English monarchy. That is why he was nicknamed “The Scottish Robin Hood”.2) Gangsters, Prohibition and Bootleggers
- The prohibition (1920-1933) was a source of inspiration for Hollywood. The figure of the gangster became more and more popular and charismatic. Many movies were based on this topic: Little Caesar (LeRoy, 1931), The Public Enemy (Wellman, 1931), and Scarface (Hawks, 1932) , ...
Those movies present gangsters as charismatic characters who inspire both fear and respect.
- Gangster movie revival: thanks to Francis Coppola the gangster film genre came back (The Godfther, 1972). Since then, the gangster film genre has remained rather successful, gaining critical approval for films such as Scarface (De Palma, 1983), Goodfellas (Scorsese, 1990), Carlito’s Way (De Palma, 1993), Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 1994), and recently, The Departed (Scorsese, 2006).
- Al Capone is one mythical figure when we think about bootleggers and prohibition. Because he made donations to various charities, he was seen as a modern day Robin Hood and exerted a lot of influence on people before becoming Public Enemy No 1.
3) The Myth of the Road
- Bonnie and Clyde: they historical figures because they inspire liberty. Plus, they are two outlaws fighting against misery during the Great Depression. Some movies (The Bonnie Parker Story, 1958; Bonnie and Clyde, 1967), song (“Bonnie and Clyde”, Gainsbourg and Bardot) and musical play are inspired by their story.
- Thelma and Louise (1991): two friends, Thelma and Louise, embark in a road trip and many things are going to happen to those two women. At the intersection of different genres, it’s now considered as a classic movie which became a cult of feminism.
- Into the Wild is a movie directed by Sean Penn in 2007. A successful student and athlete decides to abandon its possessions in order to discover the “wild” in Alaska and the true happiness of isolation. During his 2-year travel he realizes that Nature is harsh and the real happiness can be shared only with friends and family.
CONCLUSION
Heroes and myths convey an idea of social cohesion. The American Dream and the Rags-to-Riches myths allowed the American society to have an ideal. Because this society, made up of immigrants coming from everywhere and looking for success and wealth, was too diverse, it needed models to imitate in order to shape a cultural and social identity.
However,
heroes can be subversive and act against the society that they were supposed to
help. Robin Hood represents the archetype of the hero who helps the Poor
whereas Al Capone was the extrem opposite: helping poor people from time to
time was a way to hide his illegal activities and numerous murders. We have two
opposite heroes, the Bad and The Good, and some of those subversive heroes
don’t have this negative connotation like Bonnie and Clyde. They were gangsters
but they inspire freedom, resistance to the system.
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