Boden Smay Mr. Schmidt Honors English 9 3 April 2024 The Effect of Nurture Versus Nature On the Archetype of the Hero's Journey Throughout your life, you have been slowly molded by society from birth. You have slowly been conforming to societal normalities, whether it be through your clothes, actions, and speech. Humans mold to these things subconsciously, but also consciously as they fear being “different” from what “normal” humans should be like. Society's prejudices, and normalities often force people to change, which washes away pieces of people's identities, and personalities. To tell the truth, when I wake up in the morning I often don't wear specific items of clothing out of fear of being different. My personality is also affected because …show more content…
Odysseus has been molded by society to believe that to be a man he must possess bravery, pride, and fearlessness. This idea of molding a person to societal normalities changes in Fahrenheit 451. Fahrenheit 451 takes place in a society where the government controls all aspects of life, and books are outlawed. Guy Montag discovers his love for books, something he was told to hate, and destroy since childhood. Guy Montag fights himself in his own mind as he wishes to read more books, but this idea goes against everything society has told him to do. Our personalities are often constructed by society, and what it sees as normal, so I wonder how the archetype of the hero's journey is affected by ideas that have been nurtured or taught versus a person's nature or desires? The archetype of the hero's journey is often affected by a society's values, and beliefs because people conform to a society's values out of fear that they will be different, people rarely revert to using their natural instincts first doing what society has taught them. We see …show more content…
Nature versus nurture is present in elements in both books, but there are some key differences between these two. The main differences between these two cases of nature versus nurture is that in the case of Montag he wages a mental battle where his innate desires are fighting against society's teachings, while in the Odyssey, Odysseus' nature as a brave, intelligent man often compliments what society has taught him. Nature vs. nurture is present in both these cases and plays an extremely important role in developing their characters. Nature versus nurture is not only present in these cases, as it exists in almost all literary works. It is always present in literature because often authors write about things while interjecting their own personal beliefs which will relate to the society that person it from. We see this in the Odyssey as Odysseus resembles exactly what the Greek man should be like. Odysseus is strong, and intelligent naturally, this combined with his nurtured ideas of bravery, and honor make him the definition of a hero. These characteristics were extremely important to Ancient Greeks, which is why they are present in the