The Myth of the Student Hero and the “Dreaded Lit Review”

Redemption

And Seanna's pitiable state is exactly as Seanna shows herself: dirty, grungy, surrounded by trash as flies buzz around her. She feels helpless and clueless. It is in this low state where the student may find the will to seek redemption.

Seanna finds her redemption by making a comparison between herself and the literature review. She cleans herself up, takes a shower, brushes her teeth, puts on clean clothes, and gets to work on the lit review. In parallel fashion, the lit review is also transformed from being dog-eared and buck-toothed to being beautiful (e.g., long eyelashes, red lips, high-heels, and standing on a red carpet).

Thus, the comic shows a symbolic cleansing, not only of Seanna's body but of her attitude toward her work. The result is that Seanna has become one with her literature review; she identifies with the lit review, based not on the false-ego of perfectionism, but based on her hard-won humility, which comes with her "abandonment of the attachment to ego" (Campbell, p. 130).

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