Accepting Death: The Boy and the Heron - Carter Jobe

In class we spoke about the topic of accepting death in life, and how it's one of the most dificult parts of life.

I found "The Boy and the Heron" to be greatly related to this topic, which this message being central to its theme. Mahito is a young boy who lost his mother in a terrible fire, and it left him with scars that hadn't healed even years later. When his father moves on it only makes it worse for him as he puts up emotional bariers with his new stepmother. 

Throughout his journey Mahito sees the Wata Wata, which are souls floating up to the real world, when they are attacked by pelicans. A girl named Himi with mystical fire powers saves the souls from the onslaught with a barrage of fireworks. However, in the crossfire, a few of the Wata Wata are killed by the fire. It represents the idea of 

This relates to the context of WWII in which the film is set, where nuclear bombs were released in Japan supposedly "for the greater good." Its the idea that more and more people or souls would have died had the conflict continued but a brief explosion put an end to it all.

Its troubling to the boy, and presents a moral dilemna that goes hand in hand with accepting death. 

Later he finds Hima to be a younger version of his mother. When the fantasy realm of his journey collapses, the two must say goodbye. 

Along Mahito's Hero's Journey, his elixir is accepting the death of his mother, which can be seen in the end when he treats Natsuko as his new mother, even calling her Mom.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kip Redick Example of a Blog Post

 Page 4 Michael Taussig would suggest Juan's understanding of the meaning of a place emerges out of the process of an imitation of all the “differences” that we discern there. We mimic (in language and action) the full range of sounds, movements, and other sensory perceptions that come to us from the more than human world.” It’s hard to put a place that strikes us as sublime into mere words; we can try to describe it as a feeling and try to put language to that feeling, but sometimes the feeling of the beauty of nature or the power of a sacred space is too big to try to translate or make sense of. Would every place and experience be subjective, and would the discourse be the same? Would the mountain top make me feel the same as another? Or does my personal experience with the natural world and divine keep it intimate/ unique, or would my experience be relatable enough? The author uses the messiness, ambiguity, and mystery of people's deeply personal experience of ...
Read more

Rose Baker - Herbert's "Dune" and Martyrs

  In class, we talked about Jesus and Christianity as an example of myth. Myths and martyrs are dangerous to systems of control because even if they’re suppressed, they can survive and grow stronger. They last because they’re tied to belief, memory, and emotion---things you can’t fully erase. That’s what makes them more powerful than systems built on forced order or control. Even though much of the early church died gruesome deaths, and were consistently ordered to stop spreading the gospel, the "myth" of Jesus has continued for over 2000 years.      In Frank Herbert's  Dune , we see something similar. The Bene Gesserit know how powerful myths can be, and instead of waiting for one to form naturally, they build one on purpose. Through the Missionaria Protectiva , they plant stories and prophecies across different cultures, preparing the world for someone to fulfill the one part they can't fabricate, the living, breathing "savior" who must be visible and prov...
Read more

Joanah Eresechima - Blue Lock's Exploration of Flow

In the sixth chapter of American Camino , the concept of flow is extensively explained in the context of spiritual walking. It is described as unification of action and awareness to create a state in which thoughts are non-existent. The hiker just moves through the world, extremely aware and focused on the wilderness around them but unable to thoroughly reflect on it in that moment. It is only afterwards that the hiker is able to recall the memories from their flow state. Flow can occur in different types of people like artists, scientists and athletes (Redick 249). I was actually very surprised to see this term in the book because it becomes one of the central components in a manga I read called Blue Lock. The story followed a boy named Isagi Yoichi, a high school soccer player who got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join a soccer program called Blue Lock meant to create the greatest striker in the world. Out of 300 players, he was ranked 299 th , making him one of the weakest p...
Read more