In the reading for this week, I was intrigued by the parallels that were drawn towards the end of chapter four in Why Fairy Tales Stick by Jack Zipes. It was fun to see that he spent so much time on the similarities between the ancient legend of Mulan, the modern retelling of the story by Disney, and the post-modern tale of the X-men.
How often have we seen this pattern copied in our in modern media? A reluctant hero tasked with an altruistic and impossible task. By his own choosing or through fate he assembles a team of what seems to the most unlikely group to complete the task, although as the story unfolds it is revealed that the very traits that put the team as outsiders in society are the very tools needed to survive the quest and succeed.
A recent example is “Guardians of the Galaxy,” however the pattern applies to “The Seven Samurai” and thus “The Magnificent Seven,” “Star Wars, Episode IV,” “The Dirty Dozen,” “Saving Private Ryan,” and the new TV show “Scorpion”. I keep thinking of more examples, but I’ll stop listing them.
Why is this pattern so popular? I believe one of the reasons is that it makes the Hero’s Journey seem more accessible to those who consider themselves as outcasts. And as hard as we try, we all know all too well our shortcomings, foibles, oddities, and quirks. We are all outcasts in one way or another; nobody fits in everywhere, every time. Those stories put us vicariously on the hero’s path.
I’m sure there are other theories out there, and some of them might be more spot-on, but my ragtag misfit instinct says, stick with that one.
The picture at the top of the post comes from the Mulan/X-men mashup at http://nerdbastards.com/2011/09/13/xavier-will-make-a-man-out-of-you-in-this-x-men-first-class-mulan-mash-up/
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