The Comfort of a Mask

       
           In my mythology class last year, my teacher told us that Halloween is the most revealing holiday, even though it is displayed as the most disguised. The reason is, a person's costume reveals something about them. it could be a personality trait, a similar emotion or even an admiration for the character. Under masks, we can reveal anything we want. What we are really afraid of. How much we actually care. I find this very interesting.
         Actors can relate to a specific role they play. People pretend to be characters from TV shows, movies and books online all the time. So what makes these aliases revealing? Why did the person choose that specific character or symbol to represent themselves by? This goes beyond nicknames, although sometimes nicknames reveal an inside joke among friends or family. Names in general can be revealing about a person, depending on the situation or the attitude a person has about their name. Many authors choose their characters' names very carefully to foreshadow or to reveal a specific part of the character.
         So what motivates people to act, dress or pretend to be someone other than themselves? My mythology teacher would say, "they are revealing someone they want to be or someone they already are." I think this makes sense, in many situations. It doesn't have to be Halloween. This is true with secret admirers, role play, even in writing stories. After all, author's generally relate to their characters, even in a small way.  I believe that this applies to actors, even singers and artists. 
         There is something comforting about a disguise, alias or mask. It is a way to reveal the self without worrying about judgement. No one will be surprised if you are not yourself. But in a way, you are being more true to yourself when you don't worry about what people think. The characters, archetypes and names allow a person to be honest and act truthfully. This is very common in movies, where a character is either forced to or chooses to pretend they are someone else, and then he or she discovers their disguise may be who they really are.
        Whatever you wish to represent reveals a lot about you. Name brands, costumes, keep sakes and aliases are all comfortable ways to show who you are. In a way, a disguise is like a story. It is a lie that tells the truth.
        (I thought about this when I read Dengeki Daisy today, since Kurosaki sends Teru messages under the alias of Daisy. Even after Teru discovers his identity, he admits that none of his messages were a lie, because he could be himself without any pressure of judgement on his character.)
      ( As a side note, many super heroes also discover this when they must compare their two identities.)

The Call to Adventure

I just read The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler and learned some valuable lessons. Everything in writing, whether fiction or non fiction is related to life in some way. One of the ways an audience can relate to a character is the exciting yet ominous Call to Adventure that looms in life from time to time. It is perfectly normal for a character to reject the call of adventure at first, but in order to keep the story moving, he or she must accept it at one point. The same is true in the real world. Opportunities may knock from time to time, but they don't mean anything unless they are acted upon.
It's interesting that I'm somewhat of a passive character in reality, but I write assertive and motivated characters that eventually find their purpose and meaning in life. I learned this by reading about The Hero's Journey, and The Character Arc. In order for a story to even be considered, the characters must grow and change. If the journey leaves them the way they are, it isn't a story, or a journey.
This is why stories are so important from generation to generation. They teach us to grow, while we watch characters make choices and learn from them. We can identify with the archetypes of the wanderer, trickster, orphan and hero so easily that most films feature at least one of them to move the story along.
Even writers have to go out and live life, but I had forgotten that. I was wasting away, trying to understand why my stories and characters had become bricks, roughly formed and almost shapeless. Writers always put a piece of themselves into a story. If they don't, it's not a good story. I had been putting my negative outlook on life, and my constant doubt in myself on countless pages. Before I knew it, my characters were seeing their world as a dreary, grey place, and they had begun to doubt themselves.
I had forgotten that I am a creator. And creators reflect their image, emotions and themselves into their creations. Knowing that, creating sounds like an act of responsibility. In a way, it is.
A creator must develop a certain reality, that reflects the things they know, and want to share with their audience. An actor must find the part of themselves that fits the role they play. A song can only sound honest and real when the person singing has a passion for the meaning in the lyrics. The same is true of stories.
An author finds the archetypes within and puts them on the page. Past experiences, current emotions and the knowledge the author has gained reflects the true world of the story. Without it, the story becomes a two- dimensional, or even one-dimensional piece with no meaning or purpose. It has to be something you want to write, or feel you need to write. Without the motivation to do so, the story becomes damaged instantly.
This is why an author cannot refuse to answer the Call of Adventure. For in order to write something, you have to feel a connection to it, and if you don't, you aren't ready to write it.
This book walked through stories like The Wizard of Oz, Titanic, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and Star Wars to show the Hero's Journey at work. The amazing thing is that we relate to these stories, even without knowing the Archetypes, Hero's Journey, Myth Quest or the Call to Adventure. Because they are parallel to situations in life, they are memorable and timeless.
All stories, even real ones have a Call to Adventure. The important thing is to answer it, and learn from the Hero's Journey.