Once upon a time, there lived an African American named Deshawn Watson. He was something of a prodigy, a five-star football recruit who was incredibly athletic and quick minded. He was also good hearted too. His father left him before he was born and he lived with his mom, who was a nurse in a small apartment in Brooklyn, New York. He also had a Caucasian girlfriend name Katie Holmes who he has been dating for three years. One day, Katie invites Deshawn over for dinner to meet her parents. The dinner goes well but katies father, Darryl does not take to Deshawn very well as he does not want to talk to him. Katie tells Deshawn to think nothing of it but one day after school, Darryl is waiting outside for Deshawn. Darryl tells him to stop dating Katie because he hates black people. Darryl also reveals to him that he is a demigod, and his dad was a god, explaining why he was not around when he was growing up. Darryl also reveals the one condition where Deshawn can date his daughter. The condition is that he must do something to show him of his worthiness. Deshawn does not believe any of this and goes running home to his mother demanding the truth. When he gets to his apartment building, he sees his mom being abducted by men in ski masks and put into a car. Deshawn goes on a quest to find his mom. During the next couple of weeks, Deshawn goes from police station to police station, asking to see where his mom is or if there is any new information but unfortunately, there is none. As he loses motivation and is down on his luck, he sees the people in the ski masks who took his mom get into a car and drive away. Using his super speed, he follows their car all the way to Texas. He waits until night where they are all sleeping a campfire. He then punches one of the men and demands to know where his mother is. When the man asks for his name, Deshawn tells him “Nobody”. Deshawn keeps punching him and the other men wake up. They ask who is punching him and the man responds “nobody”. So, they go back to sleep. The man can not take the beating anymore and tells Deshawn that his mom is with a woman in Long Island. Using his superhuman speed, Deshawn runs to Long Island searching for his mother. Deshawn then stops at an Olive Garden to eat and hydrate. There, he sees an attractive woman sitting in the table beside her. The women walks over and talks to Deshawn. She is a European Model and tries to seduce Deshawn, but he is faithful, and resists the temptation. Darryl, out of nowhere comes over and returns his mom back to Deshawn. Darryl then explains how it was all a test to see if Deshawn was faithful enough towards Katie and brave enough to save his mom, qualities a true man must have. Darryl also explains how Katie has been fending off other boys from school since Deshawn has been gone so long. Deshawn finally gets to see Katie and they live happily ever after.
To start off, my aetiological myth accounts for one of the four options which was Racial difference. As seen in the myth, Deshawn is a black teen who is dating a Caucasian girl and as a result, her father does not approve of him because of his race. This racial divide plays a huge role in the myth as it is the reason why Darryl abducts his mother and makes Deshawn go on this quest to prove his worthiness. Besides accounting for racial difference, my myth incorporated many parts from myths. An example of this is from Odysseus’ journey where my myth takes inspiration from it. An example of this was when Deshawn dealt with the men in the ski masks. Deshawn beats one of the men up and when the men ask what his name is, he responds “Nobody”. So, when the other men wake up from the commotion, and ask who is punching him, the one man responds “Nobody”. This scene from my myth is inspired from The Odyssey by Homer. In Book 9, Odysseus stabs Polyphemus eye with a sharp wooden stake and cries in pain. The noise wakes up the other cyclopes and they ask who is hurting him, Polyphemus responds “’Nobody, my friends, is trying to kill me by violence or treachery’” (Homer, The Odyssey 9.360-412). Here, Odysseus is seen as smart because he waits until it is night and when they are all sleeping and tells Polyphemus his name is Nobody to fend off any assistance. I wanted my hero to look smart too, so I incorporated elements from this scene to my myth. Another reason why I incorporated this scene for my myth is because it shows braveness. Even when Polyphemus eats two of Odysseus men at a time, Odysseus is not scared to fight Polyphemus and waits for the perfect opportunity to do so. I wanted my character to also show braveness in the myth, so I made Deshaun wait until night to assault the abductors. Another Scene I incorporated from Odysseus journey was where Odysseus encounters Circe. Odysseus and his men land on Circe’s Island, Circe is a witch and turns Odysseus men into pigs after feeding them. Odysseus appears handsome to Circe and is attracted by him. Even so Odysseus tells her “’I Have no desire to go to bed with you, goddess …’” (Homer, The Odyssey 10.302-347). Here, we can see Odysseus is loyal towards Penelope and refuses to go to the bed with Circe. I wanted my hero Deshaun to have this characteristic too and be loyal and faithful to Katie as he refuses the temptation of the European model. Lastly, I picked another scene from Odysseus’ journey where he comes home. When Penelope and Odysseus finally meet after such a long time she tells the story of how “she has suffered at home, watching the detestable crowd of suitors, who on her account slaughtered many cattle and fat sheep, and emptied whole jars of wine” (Homer, The Odyssey 33.300-372). Here, we can see that Penelope has been faithful towards Odysseus and fights off a crowd of suitors for a long period of time. As a result, I made Katie do the same with boys from her high school. I decided to do this because since Deshawn is faithful, Katie should be faithful too. This was done to teach a lesson that if you do something good, something good shall come in return. Besides from using inspiration from Myths, I also followed myth narrative structures. According to Ken Dowden, author of “The Semeiotics and Pragmatics of Myth”, it is believed that the hero must go through some sort of defeat and despair near the beginning. With my myth, Deshawn goes through rejection in the beginning where he is denied and reject by Darryl and see’s the abduction of his mother. I believe this is done to build character development for the hero and built a strong plot where the hero has an opportunity to prevail. In addition, according to Ken Dowden, it is popular in Myths that there is a “marking of the transfer from being a youth to being an adult – from boy to man”(Dowden 488). Here in my myth, Deshawn starts off as a high school kid who loves to play sports and has a loving girlfriend to a man that is brave, faithful, and willing to do anything for his family. Overall, my myth follows the structure of conventional myths and takes ideas from other myths as well.
Works Cited
Calame, Calude. The Semiotics and Pragmatics of Myth. 2011
Dowden, Ken. Initiation: the key to Myth?. 2011
Homer, The Odyssey 9.360-412
Homer, The Odyssey 10.302-347
Homer, The Odyssey 33.300-372
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