A mythological approach to literature attempts to identify the archetypal patterns in a work that elicit innate and dramatic human reactions. If a perspective such as this can be applied to literature, it could also be applied to other things, like teenage life.
It’s actually surprising that I haven’t already blogged about the college admission process. It seems to be the encompassing obsession of all high school upperclassmen and I thought it might be interesting to examine this critical period in the modern teen’s life through a literary perspective.
We begin with the student, the hero in our college quest. As explained in A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, a hero typically “undertakes some long journey during which he or she must perform impossible tasks, battle with monsters, solve unanswerable riddles, and overcome insurmountable obstacles”. It may sound a little farfetched, but figuratively, a lot of this parallels the college admission process pretty eerily.
Impossible tasks: navigate the CommonApp, hunt down teachers for recommendations, visit schools all over the country
Battle with monsters: I’d definitely say that some interviewers are as intimidating as monsters (or we make them out to be mentally, at least)
Unanswerable riddles: What does an “optional” essay mean? Do I have to do it or not?
Insurmountable obstacles: After all of this, which school do I choose??
Fortunately, we usually have someone who satisfies the “Wise Old Man” archetype, first documented by psychologist Carl Jung. This person may be a guidance counselor, parent or teacher (or as in my case, some combination of the three).
Maybe our lives do follow certain mythological patterns, or maybe we’re just predisposed to see them, similar to the “wooden hawk” example described by mythologist Joseph Campbell. Either way, I think there’s something comforting in knowing that your journey ends by “saving the kingdom”, or in our case, going to the school where we’re meant to attend.
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