Term Paper

Adventure: To Explore and Create Lasting Memories

Have you ever wanted to just go on an adventure, turn your back to the world and take off with your best friend on the adventure of your life? Mythology has opened my eyes towards much of this so called 'adventure'; where it all began and why it can be enjoyable. It has been said that trying to escape your fate may lead you right into it, so when given the chance to take off and do something you wouldn't normally do, why wouldn't you. Many of the stories we have looked at in class have been eye opening. This holds true in the novel by John Fowles, The Magus, it has many intriguing and inviting stories to partake in. These feelings of adventure and mystery are truly exonerated in the pages John Fowles has written.

At first I was a skeptical as this book did not seem to have much going on for a good portion of the first hundred or so pages. After this the adventure set in to full swing and drew me in. A great way to express this is contained in the following,

“It should have cast a shadow over the day. But it didn't, perhaps be-because it was a beautiful day and the landscape we came into one of the greatest in the world; what we were doing began to loom, like the preciptous blue shadow of Parnassus itself,...” (p. 341).

What has been expressed here is the thrill of the adventure, the heroes adventure to be exact. In many cases of the heroes adventure, him/her may do things, tempted by outside forces. There are points in the novel where you can't predict what will be next, but that's the thrill that hides in those pages. As has been voiced by Michael Sexson, our instructor is that mythology is in our every day lives whether we realize it or not, there is a truth behind this saying. Brought up in the book is World War I which the character Nicholas Urfe tries to escape these dark and weary times. The art of music and Nicholas heading off to college brings about a change in his life, his relationship with Lily and his parents take a turn towards a brighter future.

Although the thought of war and the words spoken of the war are not positive, the people have a level of respect towards the troops who are being shipped off to war. For me on page 117 of the novel was a turning point, finally where the novel seemed to gain some traction and take off, also where this feeling of uneasiness within Nicholas' personality. This is similar to other characters we have observed including Zeus, Persephone and others. Needless to say, the adventure has begun, this is the beginning.

Coming up multiple times in both our class as well as the novel is this notion of seduction, mystery and concealing ones real self. Over the course of the entire novel, I feel there are many mind games being played. When Nicholas starts to interact with Conchis, “A dark shape moved towards the trees: the satyr. There was a tiny sound from the colonnade below, someone had accidentally bumped into a chair and made its legs scrape”(p. 183). For some reason Hades came to mind immediately after this, was someone to be abducted or misfortune to happen? With all of mythology, it's about remembering what you have forgotten, this is part of the game that Nicholas seems to fall into. How when these weird things were going on did he not know how to judge the characters he found around him, he seems awestruck.

On one of Nicholas' adventures he comes across “a pedestal of unshaped rock, stood the statue. I recognized it at once, it was a copy of the famous Poseidon fished out of the sea”(p. 211). Instant recognition of the statue is a great way of showing how life is about remembering what has been forgotten not that new knowledge is gained by us as individuals. All of these little things in The Magus seem to piece together to form what we have been learning all semester long, the reason behind mythology itself. Between the heroes journey and struggles, we may gain insight to who this hero is and what he wants to accomplish through his adventures.

For Nicholas this journey came to a screeching halt towards the end of the novel, some say that the novel may not have ended the way they would have liked but we as readers' don't have a say in that. In the end you can always tell what a character has become due to their travels, said straight forward by Alison, “You still haven't learnt. You're still playing to their script,...I came back because I thought you'd changed.”(p.654). The heroes journey is important and I feel like Nicholas had some real potential had he chosen to do different things in and amongst his journey, but this is how it goes. Truly in the end Nicholas had become exactly what he had tried to get away from in the beginning, thus proving that when you try to avoid what you are set out to be you will run into it in the end no matter how hard you try to get away. Mythology has this funny way of getting to where it wants regardless of the path you take, if you are destine for something then you will end up there eventually. Important in all of this is the tradition that backs each and every story, as for Nicholas he had a Greek background but it also was German, French, and Celtic. Your family plays a vital role in shaping you to who or what you will become, so don't get caught up in who you are today because ten years down the road all of that may change. Enjoy where you are and who you're around today, experience the adventure and take the most of it.