Myth Journal 2

Why did you choose the characters that you did for your myth?

First I went into my room and grabbed my bat, for I have found that swinging a bat helps me think. I paced our apartment and discussed with Jeff what truths we have today. After a few less than perfect ideas, I came up with the idea of sleep. Sleep is definitely a truth that no one can avoid, so I went to my glossary and began to look up different characters that I could use. I found Atalanta on the first or second page, and in reading her description I knew she was perfect. She was a virgin huntress who would race heroes as a sort of wager. If she won she would kill the hero, but if she lost she would marry the hero. So it was settled that my story was going to be a race for love, but I still needed a hero. I continued in the glossary for a hero that was human, seeing as Gods can’t die, and I came up with Diomedes. He was a Greek hero of the Trojan war who was remembered for the rest of his life for his prowess in battle. I had found characters that would make an interesting story.

Did you find the employment of metaphor in your piece challenging or natural?

At first it wasn’t hard employing a metaphor in my piece. I just claimed that the reason we all sleep is to commemorate the sacrifice of Diomedes in the name of true love. However after I finished writing my myth, I realized that I had not clearly defined the metaphor. I went back and changed a few things so that no one can miss the metaphor, but I am still a little unsure as to its effectiveness.

How did your choice of point of view from which you told your myth the telling of it and what response do you expect your readers to have because of it?

I used third person in my myth because I wanted the reader to be able to evaluate the situation without bias. If I had taken the point of view of one character, I don’t feel that it would have been as effective in getting the whole story across. I wanted the reader to have a movie playing in his head while he/she read my myth. I expect the reader to be somewhat separated from the story, however I also feel that I was effective in portraying the emotions of the characters. Therefore I feel that separating the reader from the story does not hurt the emotional connection that the reader may have with the characters.

Why did you choose to use dialogue between the characters?

I decided to use dialogue between Diomedes and Atalanta to further portray emotion. With Diomedes words I expressed his sudden realization of love for Atalanta, almost to the point of absurdity. With Atalanta’s dialogue I felt that I portrayed her cold withdrawn nature, which is broken down at the end of the story. I have always felt that dialogue is an effective means of portraying the true character of the characters.

What was the most challenging part of this assignment?

The most challenging part of this assignment was thinking of a truth that wasn’t corny or shallow. For instance, I was thinking of things like ‘Why we wear shoes’ and ‘Why we shower every day’. The obvious problem is that everyone doesn’t wear shoes and shower every day. Therefore, when Jeff said that he was going to write about ‘Why we all die’, it clicked in my head. Why we sleep is still debated by scientists to this day, and therefore it was the perfect subject of a modern day myth. It definitely took a long time brainstorming to determine this though.