Literature Homework Help

Heroes and the Family Romance

 consider other heroes you are familiar with and discuss how their story conforms to Otto Rank’s Family Romance formula. You can use heroes from mythology, movies, comic books, religion, etc…. but do not use one of the examples from the slideshow! Come up with your own example.  If you note instances in which your chosen hero does not conform to the Family Romance, make a note of that too!  Remember, sometimes the role is reversed.  For example, the hero is usually the child of distinguished parents but raised by humble foster parents or animals.  However, Moses is a good case of the opposite- he was born of humble parents and raised by distinguished foster parents.  Keep your eyes out for this sort of thing.  To recap, you need to:

1. Identify a hero (or heroine) not already covered in the slides

2. Demonstrate how their story conforms to the Family Romance formula.

3. Note variations or omissions of parts of the formula.

4.  Let us know the culture from which the story originates (for example, Batman comes from American pop culture, Sampson comes from the Hebrews, Seigfreid comes from ancient Germanic legend, etc….).What can we tell about the values, beliefs, culture, etc…  of the her you chose based upon their story? Are any of the traits they exemplify in some way “universal,” or do they exemplify values and the like that are more specific to the culture that produced them?