An Analysis of the Hero Archetype and its Manipulation in President Bush's War Speech.

Abstract

Ever since the beginning of time the greatest mystery for humanity has been to decipher the code of their own behavior. One such mystery is inspiration, what makes a human being inspired to such a level that he/she makes decisions which change the course of their entire life. Sometimes people are moved to an extent where they become warriors killing for the sake of glory. Carl Jung (1875-1961), one of the most recognized of 20^th century psychologists believed that the central source of human behavior lies in the “collective unconscious” , a bank of information which is passed on from one generation to the other, with a collection of acquired experiences and wisdom. And so this bank can be tapped into by certain individuals who have the gift manipulating human behavior sometimes through their oratory and sometimes through their powerful writing abilities. This research makes use of the theory of archetypes and the collective unconscious by Jung, with the intention to analyze the text of a speech by President Bush made in 2001 after the terrorist attack on the twin towers. The research focuses on the use and articulation of the hero archetype to evaluate whether they use some tools to manipulate the listener/reader. This research makes use of qualitative mode of inquiry by using textual analysis.