Christopher Vogler The Writers Journey
1 3 . POLARIZED U N I V E R S E S
Polarity is a meta-pattern, a system that operates at all levels in stories, from
large-scale clashes of cultures to intimate human relationships, all the way down
to polarities within individuals. On the big scale a story can show a polarized clash
between two cultures, generations, world-views, or philosophies o f life. Ancient
myths were polarized by eternal struggles between gods and giants or between pri
mordial elements like fire and ice. M o s t Westerns put the hero into a town or a
situation that is sharply polarized between pairs of opposing forces: Indians vs.
the cavalry, catde barons vs. immigrant farmers, ex-Confederates vs. ex-Yankees, etc.
Film noir and the genre of "cops-and-robbers" split the world into polarized levels,
the sun-lit upper world of law-abiding society and the shadowed Underworld of
the criminals. T h e movie Titanic is polarized between the worlds of upper and lower
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