Blog 13: A Little Princess (In progress)

Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) was a British-American writer. She is best known for children's novels, especially A Little Princess which was written in 1904. The novel A Little Princess was inspired by real life events, although it has a touch of fantasy as the protagonist believes that history is a princess and sounds with a magical world full of fantasy, fairies, princes, and more fantastic characters. Through the adventure that the girl, she really lives like a princess with great amenities. At the end of the novel, Sara's dreams all come true.

A Little Princess is a story about a seven year old girl named Sara Crew continuously traveling with her adored father, Captain Crew. Sara lived happily in India, but unfortunately Sara's dad takes her to a school in London while he attended the war. Crew Captain is a very rich man, and therefore, Sara Crew does not have to worry about money. She is staying at a prestigious London school where the evil principal, Miss Minchin. She takes kindly to Sarah and Captain Crew because Miss Minchin obviously knows about the huge fortune that belongs to Sara and her dad. Also, the director of the school does not want to miss the opportunity to have a lot of money for the care of the little Sara. Before the Captain Crew goes to war, the girl bought her a beautiful doll, which he called Emily. Sara is very excited about this gift and she clings to both the affection she feels for Emily, Sarah speaks as if the doll was really alive. That is an odd fact that teachers and classmates of Sara noticed in their behavior

Sara Crew is an innocent and spoiled girl who goes to live in a new place and not knowing what awaits you with strangers. For as the story continues, it is clear as Sara Crew becomes a hero in school for being a girl who has a special gift of storytelling to fantasy to entertain the other girls in her school.
So far Sara has enjoyed her stay at school but obviously she misses her father so much. Sara lives in luxury and creature comforts as well as the other girls who also have parents with deep pockets. All the girls enjoy many amenities, but not one of them. One girl in particular that is treated as a slave because he is black and has no money like the other girls. Sara feels touched by this situation and wants to help but the school principal does not allow it. Meanwhile Sara enjoys telling stories of fantasy to her classmates, especially the tales of enchanted princesses. Miss Minchin organizes a party to celebrate Sara's birthday, and in the midst of the celebration, Sara received the worst news of his life. Sara's dad has died in war and both the Governor got hold of all his possessions. So Miss Minchi decides to divest of all Sara's valuables and sent her to live with Becky, the girl who is a slave. The school principal tells Sara that if she wants to live in the school, Sara has to work like a slave, cleaning, cooking and doing other tasks that are not appropriate for a girl of seven years.

Knowing her tragedy, Sara feels so sad that she doesn't want to tell more fantasy stories to the girls. Sara is undermined by Miss Minchin and her sister, Amelia Minchin. They send Sara to live in the dark and unpleasant attic with Becky. Sara's eyes reflects a huge sadness that Becky cries for Sara because she feels love of her and respect her like the princess she is. Even Becky tells to Sara "A Little Princess", but Sara refuses it and tells her both of them are equal, are sevants who has to live together without any privilege.

This novel shows how the little girl has changed her life from rich to poor, and Sara is challenged by Miss Minchin for all the necessities Sara has. Also, Sara has a mission to accomplish, to find out if it is true that her father is dead. By the middle of the story, it talks about how Sara suffers because of the extreme conditions of poverty, and she works so hard to live in the school and follows all Miss Minchin's instructions.

A day when Sara has to buy some food for the school, she sees some people move her to the school, and she is curious about that. Sara continues doing what Miss Minchin says without complaining about any order, and before Sara sleeps, many girls enter to the attic waiting for Sara's fantasy stories. That is the way Sara feels relief, and she finds a reason of not surrender in her tough conditions. Moreover, Sara has to be careful that Miss Minchin cannot know what happens in the attic every night because it is forbidden talking with Sara. The following days continue the same routine. Sara works all day, and she enjoys telling fantasy stories to her friends at night. Until a day when Sara opens the window of the attic, she sees a man wearing a turbant and looking like an Indian with a funny little monkey on his shoulder. Sara feels excited, and she wants to know more about her neighbors. Sara has many good memories about India, and if her neighbors are from India, she would like to know them better.

Sara's friends meet a night in the attic like always they do, and Sara tells them a beautiful fantasy tale about princess and dragons from India. The way Sara tells the story sounds so real, that the girls imagine and see what is happening. It is a magic moment. However, Miss Minchin discovers what the girls do with Sara, and the furious school director yells at them and punishes them. The little girls go to their rooms, and the servants, Sara and Becky stay in their dirty room without food and any permission to go out. They feel so sad, but Sara thinks is time to imagine they are princess, in a beautiful room with food, flowers, nice clothes, and more special things. At the beginning, Becky doesn't like what Sara says, but after a while she likes the idea. They see the horrible, nasty, dark room as a room of a princess. The place where anyone desires. Sara and Becky fall sleep, and the next day when they wake up, it occurs something marvellous. They think it is a dream, but it was real. All they image the previous day is real, in other words, it appears delicious food, a huge and confortable bed with soft sheets, colorful curtains, and both girls wear wonderful clothes. Sara and Becky cannot understand why they have all of that, or who brings it. The real responsible of such amenities is man from India who lives next to the school with his monkey and his boss and a sick man who has amnesia. The Indian man has magic powers that he uses to help Sara from Miss Minchin's cruelty.

Nevertheless, Sara is so unlucky because Miss Minchin looks what is in the attic. Feeling sorprised about what is there, Miss Minchin decides to lock up Sara and calls the police because she thinks Sara is a thief. In the moment the police arrives, Sara escapes from the window risking her life. It is a strong thunderstorm, but Sara succeesfully arrives to the next home where the misterious Indian man lives. Sara feels so scared. Meanwhile, Miss Minchin in the company of the police want to catch Sara, but something changes in that instant, Sara sees her father, the Captain Crew. However, he doesn't recognize her, and Sara Crew screams: "Father is me Sara, your daughter. Papa!". Miss Minchin grabs her strongly to give her to the police. Finally, Captain Crew obtains his memory, and he remembers his daughter, so he takes Sara from Miss Minchin arms.

Fortunately, Miss Minchin loses her job as a director of the school, and she is currently working as a servant in the same school while Sara and Becky become princess. They are going to live in India with Captain Crew in a terrific castle with everything they want.

Work Cited

"A Little Princess". Wikipedia. Web. May 24, 2010.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Little_Princess

Blog 12: A Little Princess

Sara Crew is a seven years girl who has everything in her life as a result of her rich father. Through the whole story, it describes the girl’s adventure and her tragedy when she thought her father died in during the war. She has many obstacles to reach and one of them is to defeat the school director who is very cruel with her because she doesn’t have enough money to support herself.

Image Link: http://www.celuloide.net/images/movies/A%20Little%20Princess.jpg

Blog 11: My Chosen Story "A Little Princess"

I choose the novella “A Little Princess” because I believe it has many things that could be identified with any difficult situation a girl might live. Moreover, the first time I watched the movie “A Little Princess”, I felt sad because of the cruelty of the antagonist of the novella.

A Little Princess is a 1904 children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It is a revised and expanded version of Burnett's 1888 serialized novel entitled Sara Crewe: or, what happened at Miss Minchin's boarding school, which was published in St. Nicholas Magazine.
This is a story about a different kind of princess than one might imagine; a princess that is an orphan - lonely, cold, hungry and abused. Sara Crewe begins life as the beloved, pampered daughter of a rich man. When he dies a pauper, she is thrown on the non-existent mercy of her small-minded, mercenary boarding school mistress. Stripped of all her belongings but for one set of clothes and a doll, Sara becomes a servant of the household. Hated by the schoolmistress for her independent spirit, Sara becomes a pariah in the household, with only a few secretly loyal friends. But through her inner integrity and strength of will, Sara Crewe maintains the deportment, inner nobility and generous spirit of a "real" princess.
Sara discovers through her fantasy tales, she can live in a magic world being a princess where nobody can hurt her, and all her dreams or imagination would become true.

I think I am going to write about the Hero’s Quest and symbols because this novella follows all the characters of critical approach. In other words, the little girl plays the “Cinderella” role because she has to experience many problems when she believes her father is dead. As a consequence of all Sara’s life changes, the only way of feeling good is by imagining and believing she is in other world living as a princess rounded of luxury.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Little_Princess

Blog 10: Reflection

Learning about the Hero's Quest is important to help us to identify each element, symbol, achetype, and more details in a film. Besides, aplying the reached knowledge with a movie of my prreference it is very interesting. I chose "Hercules", an animated movie which was based in the Greek Mythology because I have watched it from many years ago, and I really like its plot. You might think it is so easy to write an essay about this movie, but it is not. I had to watch Hercules again and find the information about each character in order to get what the Professor asked us to do. This is the reason why my essay is very broad, and I couldn't miss any detail because I realize all the tokens of this movie are essentials to figure out the requiered elements of the Hero's Journey described by Joseph Campbell.

Image Link:
http://disneyfansite.iespana.es/jose/herculesfoto.jpeg

Blog 9: Hero's Quest

Hercules

Hercules is a 1997 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, and it is based on the Legendary Greek Mythology hero Heracles, (known in the film by his Roman name, Hercules), the son of Zeus, in Greek mythology (Wikipedia). This film follows each step of the "Hero's Quest" described by Joseph Campbell. It contains a popular hero who has an important mission to accomplish although he faces all the obstacles throughout his adventure.

This is a brief description of what happens in the beginning of the movie "Hercules". In addition, it is the way to understand better the call of adventure; the reason why Hercules is separated from his family, and why he wants to fight and become a hero.

The movie begins with the celebration of the Hercules’s birth as the son of Zeus, the king of the Gods. Hades, the lord of the Underworld wants to control the universe and in order to achieve his plans, he asks the Fates (three oracles that can view the past and predict the present, and future) what he can do to destroy the Gods of the Olympus and become the supreme God of the entire universe. The Fates tell Hades, that in eighteen years a planetary alignment will show the exact place where Zeus has trapped the Titans. The Fates also explain that there is only one person who can defeat Hades, Hercules. So Hades decides to steal Hercules away and him. He sends his minions Pain and Panic to carry out the task. Upon Hades’ orders Pain and Pain steal Hercules, and they give him a magical potion to convert him into a mortal. Hercules does not drink the last drop of the potion and because of this he keeps some of the power of a God. Pain and Pain are not able to kill Hercules.

Hercules is found by a poor couple, and they decide to raise him. During Hercules’ childhood everyone notices his strength, and people from a village start to shun him because he doesn’t look like a normal human. Hercules’ adoptive parents tell him the truth about his background, and they give him a medallion of the Gods (a Talisman) that was around his neck when they found him.

From now it is going to be depicted many mythological figures such as Hercules (the strongest archetype) who performs a hero, Zeus is the hero's father, Hades is the antagonist, Pegasus is the Hercules' winged horse, Philocteles is Hercules' trainer, and more characters which make a significant role in this film.

Knowing his origin, Hercules decides to go to the temple of Zeus and find out who his true parents are and why he is not living with them (The Call to Adventure). When Hercules arrives at Mount Olympus, Zeus tells him that somebody stole him when he was a baby and converted him into a mortal. Hercules, feeling surprised by the whole story, wants to live again as a God along with his real family. Zeus says it is impossible until Hercules fights as a real hero and shows everyone that he has all the qualities necessaries to become a God. Only then can he be accepted with the rest of the Gods of Olympus.

Hercules accepts the challenge and promises to his father he will do everything to become a true hero, and he will not disappoint him (Crossing of the First Threshold). Zeus gives to Hercules a gift, a winged horse which is called Pegasus and suggests him to find the satyr Philoctetes, a trainer of heroes, to achieve his task (Supernatural Aid). He goes to talk with Philocteles and asks him for help, but “Phil” refuses him. Nevertheless, Hercules is very persuasive, and he insists as much as he can until “Phil” agrees to train him.

During Hercules' challenges, he will face many monsters-Greek mythological creatures that are going to complicate Hercules' life. According to the Greek Mythology website, "Nessus, is a centaur; Hydra, is a serpent-like chthonic water beast that possessed nine heads; aClyclop a giant that has a sigle eye in the middle of its forehead; a Cerberous, is a multi-headed hound which guards the gates of Hades, to prevent those who has crossed the river Styx from ever escaping." Also, this movie has more Greek mythological creatures such as The Fates, Pegasus, and a satyr (Philocteles). All the previous mentioned characters play in this movie a supernatural role as a consequence of their powers.

Because Hercules is motivated with being a hero, his adventure starts when he decides to develop his strength and turn into a truth hero who deserves to live as a god in the Olympus. This adventure is getting excited when Hercules meets with Megara, a girl who is the temptation and the obstacle of his goal. Hercules prefers to give his power to Hades with the condition of not hurting Meg. However, this woman also portrays the passion and becomes the best reason to beat the lord of Underworld, Hades. Hercules has trained during a long period of time, knowing when he is ready to fight; “Phil” will take him to the city of Thebes to show what he has learned so far. People from Thebes are tired of living in fear, and they need a hero to save them. Hercules is the indicated person to help them (The road of trials- 1). In other hand, Hades is aware of the existence of Hercules, and he wants to find a way to destroy Hercules. Hades uses his minions Pain, Panic, and Megara, a woman that Hercules saved from a centaur Nessus before coming to Thebes, in order to put him a cheat. Hercules fights against a horrible monster, the Hydra. It is a strong battle, and the Hydra swallows Hercules. People think Hercules is dead, and they lose the hope in their new hero. Suddenly, when Hercules is inside the monster, he cuts its neck and breaks free again (Belly of a Whale). Every time Hercules cut the Hydra's head, it regenerates more and more heads until Hercules does not have any place to hide. However, Hercules kills the Hydra, and all people in Thebes treat Hercules as a real hero. Unfortunately, Zeus doesn’t share the same opinion, and he tells to Hercules he is not a true hero yet, so Hercules has to work very hard on that.

In this next stage, Hercules has the opportunity to show his ability as a hero, and he defeats an enormous monster, but it is not enough to be a god. He has to pass many tests before being accepted as a real hero. Otherwise, Hercules has to keep living as a mortal, and his lover is going to die.

In addition, Hades is so upset seeing Hercules’ battle with Hydra that he orders to “Meg” to find the Hercules’ weakness, but she cannot refuse him because her soul belongs to Hades (The Road of trials-2). Megara starts to seduce Hercules with the purpose to find what the Hercules’ debility is, so Hades will use against him (Meeting with the Goddess). Hercules falls in love with “Meg”, but “Phil” doesn’t agree with their relationship because he does not trust “Meg”. Phil discovers his suspicions are correct when he sees Meg talking with Hades about Hercules. Of course, Phil warns Hercules about the real intentions of Meg, but Hercules does not believe him because he loves her. Hades takes advantage of that situation and makes a deal with Hercules, to exchange his strength for Meg’s freedom (Woman as Temptress). Hades plans to use Hercules' strength to liberate the Titans and destroy Zeus (Atonement with the Father). Hades humiliates Hercules telling him the truth about Meg, and he is disappointed and regretted about how he treated Phil when he told him that Meg betrayed him. Once all Titans are free, Hades sends one, a Cyclops to kill Hercules. Although Hercules is not strong, he fights with the monster and defeats it. Nonetheless, Hercules was in risk to dying when a huge piece of concrete column falls down, but Meg saves him because she loves him too. As a result of Meg is hurt, the Hades’ deal is broken and Hercules gets his strength again (Apotheosis). While Hercules is dealing with the Cyclops, his father Zeus and the other Gods are in trouble because the Titans are attacking them. Successfully Hercules arrives on time to help everybody and catch the Titans with Zeus (The Ultimate Boon). Hercules saves the Olympus, but it is too late for Meg because her soul went to the Underworld (The road of trials-3)

Hades is completely frustrated to see that Hercules won the war against the Titans, and Zeus and the rest of gods are free in their realm. But Hades is not going to stay without doing anything; he has a second plan, to use Meg. Hercules does not have another chance and just follows Hades to the Underworld. When Hercules goes to hell, Hades tells him Meg is already dead, and he owns her spirit. Hercules offers to Hades his soul and takes Meg away from the river Styx along with her soul. But there is a big problem; the river can take the life out of anybody who is living. Through of these difficult conditions, Hercules grabs Meg’s soul, and through this act he becomes a God, an immortal (The Crossing of the Return Threshold). After that, Hercules throws Hades into the river Styx and all the vengeful souls keep this from escaping. Then, Hercules goes to put Meg’s soul back in her body, and Meg resurrects. After, the couple goes to the Olympus, and the Gods celebrate the arrival of Hercules as a God. Zeus and her wife Hera are proud of Hercules because he showed the qualities of a God when he offered his own life to rescue his love, Meg. Also, Zeus tells him: “A real hero is not for the size of his muscles, a truth hero is a person who fights with his heart” (Master of two Worlds). All gods in the Olympus are enjoying Hercules’ welcome to his old home. Nevertheless, Hercules realizes his life without Meg would not make sense, even as immortal, so he denies being a god. He chooses to live in the earth like any human with Meg (Refusal of the Return). In the end the gods create an image of Hercules in the sky with stars, and Hercules is remembered as the greatest hero in the city of Thebas (Freedom to Live).

Careful analyzing this movie, one finds many symbols and similar archetypes, such as a hero, father, and Gods. Referring to the Greek Mythology can help understanding each particular element. Hercules' story gives us a valuable lesson to be applied in real life. In other words, if we have a specific goal in our lives, we cannot surrender until it is achieved and give all our effort with passion, with our heart. Not just doing something for what other people might think about you, do it because you feel it and because you want to do it and feel proud of yourself.

Work Cited

Hercules. Dr. Ron Clements and John Musker. Pref. Tate Donovan, Danny DeVito, James Woods. RKO, 1997. Film

"Hercules." Wikipedia. Web. 29 Apr. 2010

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules>.

"Mythological Creatures." Greek Mythology. Web. 29 Apr. 2010.

<http://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Creatures/creatures.html>.