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The Hero Archetype The hero archetype according to Carl Jung can be defined as road map that leads to “a successful assimilation of the conscious rational mind with the unconscious”. In the story Galoshes this hero has all of the aspects that makes a hero according to Jung. He has the support of supernatural beings, proves himself many times, leaves his land, and he also has a unusual circumstance of birth. These are all of the elements of a hero archetype. Galoshes Is told not to be 100 percent God.
He Is two-thirds God and one-third man. His mother Unison created him from clay and other Gods gave him his looks ND personality. God of Storms gave him courage, and God of Wisdom gave him the ability to learn from his experiences. While he was created by God’s he was still human, and with this death was inevitable. As I was reading the story from the book, I asked myself why would the God’s make a part man part human? Maybe this was to humble Galoshes since he was a prideful being.
In society today, people are blessed with certain talents such as being athletic and athletic sometimes think they are above the law. This is the same with Galoshes. He acts as if he is pure God, or above the law. When the character Unkind was introduced and sent to fight Galoshes, this fight surprisingly brought out another side of Galoshes. He saw that there was someone Like him, Just as strong, and blessed with some o the same talents. After the fight, which had no clear winner, Galoshes bins on one knee to show a sign of respect.
He is showing for the first time humility and understanding he is not always going to be the best and someone could be like him. In today’s slang he was given a reality check. While Galoshes Is finding friendship In Unkind, the fact that death will come to him begins to bother him. Another thought I had as read the story was, why did It mean so much to him to be remembered by his people? Was it his thought that his legend would live past him or was it just another mark of him being great? Humans have the tendency to have a scapegoat, something or someone to blame things on.
In essence, was he Just saying he wanted to be remembered past his years or did he really want to prove to others Just how great he was? I believe Galoshes was growing as a man during his travels but I believe he still battled with his pride. Galoshes then leaves his land of rug to find out how to live for eternity and to vive his people something to remember him by. During the Journey he has to ask the God’s for their help to protect him and guide him to the right direction. He completes the smaller task with ease with the god’s protection.
He is able to defeat Humble because he was told to have courage once In the presence of Humble. In this remains again is this for the sake of learning and becoming a better man or Just being so determined to get what he wants he’s temporarily listening. Jung made great points to notice the relationship between myths and reality. Maybe the stories are not actual events that happen but are symbolic of what appends in society. People who believe that they are stronger than the law and more powerful than God himself, will receive a reality check.
By the end of the story Galoshes met a God by the name of Timpanists tells him where to go to get flower that would give him eternal life. The flower is devoured and Galoshes is left with nothing more than his story. So, what was the God’s real intent for him? If he was meant to live forever he would have been made into a God. I believe the lesson was no man will live forever, but learn from each other. Learn humility, honor, and courage which are all of the things that are in our realties today.