Jackalin Shvidky, Period 1, 11/11/2022

Jackalin Shvidky, Period 1, 11/11/2022, Cycle 2

Modern Mythology 2022

 

Literacy and Learning

 

Write about your thoughts regarding any of the fiction or non-fiction covered in class.

          At some point in middle school, my English class was covering the stories of Percy Jackson and the Greek Gods; one particular sentence in an analytical piece caught my eye: cultures create religion to explain the phenomena around them. This phrase had always made me quite skeptical about a higher power altogether, but I still chose to believe. Before taking Ms. Fusaro’s class on Mythology, I really only had very limited knowledge about religions outside the major 3 and Greek/Roman gods and goddesses. Now, in the Norse mythology unit, I am realizing just how many true this phrase is and how many overlaps these different cultures hold in their beliefs. While they may all have different names, these polytheistic people of all origins have various gods to explain the sun, the water, and even ideas; each God is a figurehead with their own traits and factors that they stand for. As I am writing this blog, I realized that this is even further embodied in the culture project my group presented on Japan last month, each God an explanation to a natural force.

 

Reflect on any new information you have learned in English class by considering how that learning influences your critical perception. How is what you’re learning applied to any other classes/the world around you?

          Reading about Balder, the beloved, and Loki, the terrible trickster, really enticed me. I find it beyond interesting how each god or character in each myth has so much backstory and how they intertwine with each other in the grand scheme. This is a culture I really knew nothing about before, but now I am piqued to learn more about the Norse people as of modern day. How have these people evolved? Do they still hold the same values and traditions as they did when the books were crafted? We see that there are still so many differences between different cultures even with the similarities, for example, the importance of the Norse gods creating the fishing net, as the Norse people rely heavily on fish for food and sustenance. This particular story is likely not highlighted in a culture that formed away from large bodies of water or never focused on fishing. I am now more prone to explore different creation stories and how they evolved all separately but so closely together.