High Fantasy

What does the term High Fantasy mean?   High Fantasy can be defined as a subgenre of fantasy fiction that is set in invented or parallel worlds.   Many authors tat we have read for this assignment showcase high fantasy in their work.   Other authors that we haven’t read are C.S. Lewis and J R.R. Tolkien who are very well known authors of High Fantasy.   Characters of High Fantasy can be characterized as heroes, good versus evil or saga series.   High Fantasy is the most popular and successful sub genre of fantasy fiction.   Many of the stories are told from the viewpoint of one main hero or heroine (female).   Being a hero or heroine is considered to be those who are good and noble or the willingness to sacrifice self for the greater good but then there are others.   Looking deeper into the meaning of hero, you realize there are other meanings of it.   Below are three stories, all written by women and each of them displays heroine’s who come in all sorts, shapes, and styles.  
Can a hero be an object?   In Zenna Henderson’s “The Anything Box” this story presents you with two different heroes.   The first one being the Anything Box to which Sue Lynn can escape from the world around her and go to a peaceful place where there is no drama. Once her Teacher experiences the box, she too wishes for an Anything Box to have so she can too escape.   “I remembered the Anything Box.   Could I make one for myself?   Could I square off this aching waiting, this outreaching silent cry inside me, and make it into an Anything Box?”(301) The next hero in this story is the Teacher.   She would be characterized as a Catalyst heroine.   A catalyst hero is someone whose main function is to bring about change in others .   The Teacher tries to convince Sue Lynn that she shouldn’t solely depend on the Anything Box to make her happy.   However in the end the Teacher realized that in end everyone needed an escape of some sort, some imagination.   “Alpha would approve.   And very possibly, I thought,...