The Mental Journey
The hero’s journey is a pattern of events found in every culture and style of stories. Often this heroic journey is associated with a hero who goes on a quest and “fights monsters” as well as many other physical challenges. Often overlooked, are the stories that follow the story of a mental hero’s journey, one that involves obstacles challenging to the mind. Glimmer, a realistic fiction novel, tells the story of Elyse and Marshall as they attempt to recover their lost memories and save their town from an evil occultist. The 347 page novel by Phoebe Kitanidis follows the pattern of the hero’s journey in both a mental and physical form as multiple events in the story match the steps in the hero’s journey. One of the first …show more content…
Elyse describes his abuse in one scene as “big fingers digging into my flesh till it feels like they’ll pierce through and meet his thumbs”(Kitanidis 178). This is clearly a major problem for Elyse as it not only physically harms her but also greatly mentally rattles her and therefore prohibits her from focusing on the journey of recovering her memories. Jeffry is established as a major enemy in the story because of his abuse. This event is only one of the many tests and obstacles the two must overcome in their journey to find their lost memories. While tests make up the majority of the story of the hero’s journey, the largest and most difficult the hero(s) must overcome is the step of the hero’s journey labeled the ordeal. Throughout the storyline of Glimmer we see Elyse and Marshall trying to recover their memories. However along the way they discover that their beautiful town of Summer Falls is being controlled by an evil occultist. The occultist draws power from ghosts that wipe away the town's people's’ bad memories. In a quest to save the town, Marshall must face the place of the evil occultists power and perform a ritual to destroy the spell the occultist has placed on Summer Falls. This involves a life threatening dive to the bottom of the lake where …show more content…
The realization of who one is as an individual is a process that can last a lifetime. A major theme in Glimmer is the process of finding one’s identity is paved with difficulties. This is shown predominately throughout the novel as the two main characters, Elyse and Marshall, try to rediscover who they were after they have lost their memories. One example of their difficulties is Marshall’s conflict with his past self. Phoebe Kitanidis shows readers a glimpse of Marshall’s former self in a flashback of Marshalls. When this particular memory returns Marshall finds that he and Elyse originally planned that only she would drink a memory loss potion in order for them to save the town. However in the flashback Marshall says he gets a “really sneaky, unethical idea- even more so than [his] usual ones” (Kitanidis 274). This idea is to wipe his memory as well so that Elyse will not remember she was going to leave town without him after they saved the town and he will not be there to tell her. After this memory of Marshall returns he is horrified with the manipulative, sneaky person he used to be and tries to convince himself that he has changed. Marshall becomes a better person because he did not have his past memories that caused him to become this horrible person. Nevertheless Marshall is constantly despising his past identity and working to ensure he will never become this person again. This is a conflict with himself as he
The hero’s journey is a pattern of events found in every culture and style of stories. Often this heroic journey is associated with a hero who goes on a quest and “fights monsters” as well as many other physical challenges. Often overlooked, are the stories that follow the story of a mental hero’s journey, one that involves obstacles challenging to the mind. Glimmer, a realistic fiction novel, tells the story of Elyse and Marshall as they attempt to recover their lost memories and save their town from an evil occultist. The 347 page novel by Phoebe Kitanidis follows the pattern of the hero’s journey in both a mental and physical form as multiple events in the story match the steps in the hero’s journey. One of the first …show more content…
Elyse describes his abuse in one scene as “big fingers digging into my flesh till it feels like they’ll pierce through and meet his thumbs”(Kitanidis 178). This is clearly a major problem for Elyse as it not only physically harms her but also greatly mentally rattles her and therefore prohibits her from focusing on the journey of recovering her memories. Jeffry is established as a major enemy in the story because of his abuse. This event is only one of the many tests and obstacles the two must overcome in their journey to find their lost memories. While tests make up the majority of the story of the hero’s journey, the largest and most difficult the hero(s) must overcome is the step of the hero’s journey labeled the ordeal. Throughout the storyline of Glimmer we see Elyse and Marshall trying to recover their memories. However along the way they discover that their beautiful town of Summer Falls is being controlled by an evil occultist. The occultist draws power from ghosts that wipe away the town's people's’ bad memories. In a quest to save the town, Marshall must face the place of the evil occultists power and perform a ritual to destroy the spell the occultist has placed on Summer Falls. This involves a life threatening dive to the bottom of the lake where …show more content…
The realization of who one is as an individual is a process that can last a lifetime. A major theme in Glimmer is the process of finding one’s identity is paved with difficulties. This is shown predominately throughout the novel as the two main characters, Elyse and Marshall, try to rediscover who they were after they have lost their memories. One example of their difficulties is Marshall’s conflict with his past self. Phoebe Kitanidis shows readers a glimpse of Marshall’s former self in a flashback of Marshalls. When this particular memory returns Marshall finds that he and Elyse originally planned that only she would drink a memory loss potion in order for them to save the town. However in the flashback Marshall says he gets a “really sneaky, unethical idea- even more so than [his] usual ones” (Kitanidis 274). This idea is to wipe his memory as well so that Elyse will not remember she was going to leave town without him after they saved the town and he will not be there to tell her. After this memory of Marshall returns he is horrified with the manipulative, sneaky person he used to be and tries to convince himself that he has changed. Marshall becomes a better person because he did not have his past memories that caused him to become this horrible person. Nevertheless Marshall is constantly despising his past identity and working to ensure he will never become this person again. This is a conflict with himself as he