Legends

[annamichie]

How do legends interfere with our beliefs and daily life? How do they change how we act?

[Luke W]

As we see with von Rumpel and his quest to find the Sea of Flames, his entire life is focused around this one legend. He becomes more of a savage person and will do anything to become the most powerful man alive. Near the end of the book, Marie-Laure also starts to believe that maybe the legend is true, due to all of her misfortunes. If you believe in one legend your entire life, you will start to change as a person, and interfere with your daily life. Rumpel is a prime exampel throughout.

[millaberemski]

I agree with Luke. von Rumpel is a perfect example on how a belief changes daily life and how a person acts. When von Rumpel was trying to find the stone, he was so sure that the legends and stories were real. He was willing to do anything to get his hands on the Sea of Flames so he could live forever. He changed as a person. His actions affected how Marie-Laure viewed the legend. At first, she didn't think it was real, but as she started seeing all the misfortune happen to her family, she slowly started to believe in the curse. The story also changed how Marie-Laure saw the world around her. In the beginning, she thought that everything happened for a reason, but in the end she started blaming it on the stone's curse, which had the possibility of not being true. Legends changes the way people see their lives and how things are caused.

[Calliope]

All the knowledge of past generations helps us to continue into the future. And since we must the past to deal with everyday life, we may use old legends and myths to try cope with our daily challenges, because even if they may not be true, they can still contain valuable lessons to help us in the real world, and by using their messages, we may behave differently, such as taking the moral of the Tortoise and the Hare, and slowly complete an essay, taking tie to edit, indenting up with a good grade, as opposed to rushing through it and not being able to correct simple mistakes.

[ashleyyoon]

In the beginning of the novel, Marie Laure refused to believe the story about the Sea of Flames was true, thus calling it a legend. Marie Laure was convinced the movements of her life were "destiny" or fate", but as the plot progressed, she began to succumb to the countless of stories, and blamed her unfortunate events on the stone, for there was no one or nothing else to blame it on. Legends can make one's mind lead all events back to the legend, or become obsessed with the false story, interfering with their lives.

[ethanashbrook]

A great example of how powerful simple myths can be is Marie-Laure's Father. "He feels ragged. For weeks, logic has been failing him. The stone the museum sent him is not real. If it was, the museum would have sent men already to collect it. Why then, when he puts a magnifying glass to it, do its depths reveal tiny daggers of flame? Why does he hear footfalls behind him when there are none? And why does he find himself entertaining the brainless notion that the stone he is carrying in the linen sachet in his pocket has brought him misfortune, has put Marie-Laure in danger, may indeed have precipitated the whole invasion of France?" Here, the legend of the Sea of Flames almost drives him mad. He is normally a very logical person. He said himself that the world is made of matter and nothing more. This makes it all the more significant that he would even begin to consider that the stone had some kind of power.

[grace]

Legends alter the way we view daily things, for example when Marie-Laure's father gets imprisoned she blames it on the legend of the cursed stone while if she didn't know the legend of the Sea of Flames she would just think that her misfortune was circumstantial.

[alexhammond]

I think in today's day in age, legends are not really an every day thing. However legends have seemed to translate into superstitions, which to some degree are believed in by everyone. Ether it's refusing to walk to path of a black cat, or just 'jinxing' certain situations. We all to some degree believe two very unrelated things have an affect on each other. Like the sea of flames and eternal life, we have ladders and bad luck.