Chapter
IV - The Right and Duty to Heal
"The circularity of life offers us certain possibilities: from a meaningful return, a second chance, and the most essential, the transformation of certain values." If the whole of our desires allows a safe descent into the lower worlds of our personality, with a certain readiness to assault some demons living there and compel them to rise to more enlightened areas of the being.It is reasonable to imagine that many of them will take a different course of their nature, even if others are still sworn to folly. In any case, the torches of self-knowledge should remain lit before the temple of the hours and, on its high altar, a chalice should be filled with the wine of self-love. "
Carlos França
This is a special chapter, because we will talk here with two myths, one old and one very current. Moreover, it is a sample of how literature, art in general, puts us before a rich world that reflects our human condition, teaching us, entertaining and healing. In this chapter the question of orphanhood will be approached from the analysis of literary works that touch on this theme with mythical resourcefulness.
The orphan as the greatest human symbol of self-seeking is characteristic of some stories.
If on the one hand, art imitates life, on the other, art has the power to reveal invigorating and surprising possibilities. Although it is only in the fact that we draw attention to certain evidences, in our face many times, that we would not otherwise perceive or delay to see, we already notice a great value and a radiant beauty.
With respect to works, the first is a world literature classic, Oedipus King by Sophocles and the other, the contemporary work, Harry Potter, by J.K. Rowling. In the narrative of both, the knowledge or unveiling of the main character about itself is essential for the unfolding of the plot, the apex and the closing of the same.
In fact, there are moments in the narrative that converge on this topic of self-knowledge, for example, the use in the formal plane of the work, of the prophetic dimension.
In an analysis of the philosophy of Socrates in relation to the maxim, know yourself, that is, on the problem of self-knowledge, the philosopher affirmed that we should occupy ourselves less with things (wealth, status, power) and more with us in our human essence. That the kind of desirable truth is only the one capable of transforming the being of the subject with the power to change our relationship with everything, starting with people.
The orphaned / orphaned word itself sounds like something painful and terrible, because beyond its ordinary meaning it also brings the representation of a social stigma, increasing the burden of who was thus reached, being detached or differentiated. Only in broadening the symbolism of orphanhood, adding new meaning to the term, based on literature as a field of research and study is something interesting and promising.
And from there to form contents and understandings within the fictional history that can reveal ways of overcoming or resignification of this adverse human experience.
This can bring benefits both to those who lived in their lives directly, as well as to the people who have experienced it in a symbolic way. The vast majority by the way. Here we can include, in the extrinsic plane of the work, the very author J.K. Rowling who lost his mother at age 25, and a while later his father remarried.
Another contribution of the study, no less important and probably broader, imposes itself in the face of the moral emptiness and lack of higher values in a society massified by television and virtual apparatus predominantly.
The re-reading and analysis of literary classics of the past in comparison to the emergence of new stories that touch the mythical in this horizon of postmodernity, bringing values such as honor, friendship, altruism, courage, love and self-knowledge is too much relevant.
In the literary works in question, the importance of self-knowledge for the hero is almost immediately recognized, since he anticipates within the narrative itself through an enigma, prophecy or prodigy. However, this does not mean a facility for the hero, on the contrary, it can be an aggravating factor of the journey, causing a setback with profound consequences.
Anyway,
these predictions are watersheds, because they bring in a forceful way
the great challenges that the character will have to deal with or
overcome, since it is someone marked by "destiny". Put another way, simply a subject with an unusual or differentiated experience of the great majority. Incidentally, the orphan can easily be included in the standards of our society.
The
breaking of the affection of a person facing the parental relationship
or the discovery of a different origin from which one was believed
obliges the individual to come into contact very early with the most
definitive experience of existence - death, whether in its real or
symbolic sense . Private
or differentiated from his primary and affective relationships, and not
infrequently, in the midst of hard and discriminating reality, much of
his development and fulfillment in life will depend on how he will
respond and resolve that wound, that lack, that indelible mark in his
early years of life or beyond.
The
wound becomes a kind of question imposed by existence to be answered in
some way, which is not directed towards a particular path more positive
or negative, but whose resolutions can be constructed and achieved. The case is not so different in real life or fiction. At this point, let's "call" Sophocles in his masterly work by the voice of Oedipus.
OEDIPUS
"My
father is Polybius of Corinth, my mother, Merope, a story." I was
regarded as one of the most notable citizens of Corinth when a
fortuitous incident occurred, which should surprise me, indeed. ,
but that I might not take it as seriously as I did.A man, during a
feast, drank too much, and in a state of drunkenness he began to insult
me, saying that I was a son. of righteous indignation, I restrained myself at that moment, but the
next day I sought my parents and questioned them.
They were angry with
the offender, which pleased me greatly, for the fact had greatly
impressed me.
In the absence of my mother and my father, I went to the Temple of Delphi; but
to the questions which I proposed, Apollo answered nothing, but merely
announced a series of miseries, horrible and painful; that
I was bound to join myself in marriage to my own mother, who would
present to the men a miserable offspring, and who would be the murderer
of my father, of the one to whom I owed my life.
I, in the face of such predictions, resolved, guided only by the
stars, to exile myself forever from the Corinthian land, to live in a
place where I could never realize - the tortures which the dreadful
oracles had foreshadowed. "
This is Oedipus' misery that awakens for his tragic journey at a party when a man reveals something unexpected and unexpected. In fact, Oedipus was someone who knew nothing about himself, about his true history. Similarly, Harry Potter for 11 years was ignorant of all his past and condition. Not unlike Harry, Oedipus walked the face of the Earth as a kind of
blind man to himself, though his life in that society where he was
raised was prominent among the notables.
And
in this life and place could remain unscathed, but as he himself
confides, "the fact had deeply impressed me," causing him to act. And what was this event? A unique and definitive for any human being: the possibility of being rejected. This opened an emotional wound to him, which was implanted by the
doubt against the subjectivity that had been built and taught in his
foster home.
This
doubt is clearly noted in Sophocles' text, only by the mention - that
he was an outcast son - made by a drunken man, therefore an individual
out of his reason. And
at that point this man resembled Oedipus symbolically, for he was one
in a state of unconsciousness or little consciousness making a
revelation to another unconscious of himself. And even then, the fact that the man was discredited by adoptive
parents, who were very indignant about the situation, did not help.
There was no way, that caught Oedipus irresistibly, to the point of seeking the oracle to settle his doubts. Because? The simplest answer would be: because he was a man and as a man he resented the baleful revelation. The more complicated answer we would say, which he had unconsciously always known of his condition. Not unlike reality, where many orphans feel something different about their parents, never knowing about adoption.
But would that suffice? Probably
not, and there is an indication in the text of Sophocles that shows
this, already in that decisive moment of the plot, that has relation
with his character, "In the absence of my mother, and of my father, I
went to the temple of Delphi." Thus is the hero at least possessed of a restless or impulsive temper if not despotic. At this point in the story, the character was not aware that her inconsistencies and her idiosyncrasies could.