3. Refusal of the Call and Meeting the Mentor

 

This week you will concentrate on the stages of the journey: REFUSAL OF THE CALL and MEETING THE MENTOR

Start by finding an image of a SYMBOL for the mentor or the refusal of the call online. This symbol should represent the role or the purpose of the mentor in helping a character move past the refusal OR symbolize what might cause a hero to refuse a call to adventure. 

Place this image somewhere in your post. Be sure to add a link to the original source of the image. 
Refusal of the Call

Meeting the Mentor

This week's blog post is meant to help you further connect to these stages of the journey: 

Start your entry by describing the role of the mentor OR what the factors are in refusing the call in general. Go back to your handout for the stages of the journey to help you with this description. (Remember that a mentor can be willing or unwilling.) How can a mentor help a hero to move past the limiting beliefs and pressures found his/her ordinary world to accept the call to adventure?

THEN: As the body of your blog post answer the following questions:
-Who plays the role of the mentor to your main character? (pick one character to discuss) and which three important characteristics does their mentor have? 
-What specifically does this character help your protagonist do or achieve? 
-How does the mentor help the protagonist to get over the doubts and limiting beliefs that have caused them to 'boil' in their ordinary world and refuse the call to adventure? 
-Ultimately - HOW significant is the mentor in the journey (or at the start of the journey) of your character?

(IF YOUR CHARACTER DOES NOT HAVE A MENTOR . . . yet . . . you can also write about why the protagonist might NEED a mentor and discuss the qualities that their mentor would need to have to help the character do or achieve something...You as the reader can act as this character's mentor - what advice would you give the main character and why?)

Make sure that you use at least ONE DIRECT quotation from your novel to help you support your thinking. Following the direct quotation, be sure to add a properly formatted in-text citation (Author, Title page).

HERE IS A STUDENT SAMPLE:

    This week's blog post is focusing on Meeting the Mentor and refusal of the call. In the book If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan, the symbol I have chosen to help represent Sahar's mentor is of a person that is speaking soft words (represented by a dove) but on the inside, they're deceiving and cunning (represented by the snake). This is because Sahar's mentor, her cousin Ali, is known as the city's delinquent because he smuggles and provides illegal imports from America to people who are willing to pay lots of money for them, "Ali has been selling DVDs, CDs, and other banned items. He doesn't need the money, but it keeps him popular in certain circles." (Sara Farizan, If You Could Be Mine 29). Sahar is worried about him because he's not to be trusted, but she needs help from someone and he's the only one who's willing to help her.

     Ali is very significant to Sahar in her journey because without him, she would have no one to talk to about how she feels for Nasrin (Ali is also gay). He also helps her keep her identity to herself and he offers (reluctantly) to help her get testosterone injections for her to start her sex transition. Without Ali's help, Sahar would've never had anyone to talk to about how she feels about Nasrin and she would never be able to get the treatment she desired without Ali's help which would have had her refuse her call to adventure.
     The three important characteristics that Ali has are he is cunning, useful, and smart. Ali is cunning because he is able to persuade or bribe people using deceit or evasion. An example of Ali being cunning is when he sold illegal copies of American movies to buyers in his home town but he lied and said they were totally legal. Ali being cunning helps Sahar because she is given copies of illegal American movies for her enjoyment.
     Ali is useful because since he has so many connections with people and he is well-known, Sahar gets the special treatment from everyone she knows because she's related to him.
     Ali is smart because he knows how to stay away from the police force and keep his illegal transactions between himself and his clients. When Nasrin, Sahar's girlfriend, was taken by the police because she was showing too much skin, one of the police officers recognized Sahar and he immediately let Nasrin go because he didn't want to get on Ali's bad side.
    -J.S. 2016