So I had a fever over the last couple days (its gone now) and had a dream right out of a soap opera. Someone I used to know (now deceased) came to me and gave me profound advice. Which got me thinking. Are there some 'universal' elements to dreams. We've been talking about metaphorical dreams, but what about the real one's? Maybe, for the most part, the dreams we have at night are random but there are themes everyone shares that pop up at times. I guess what I'm asking is whether or not there is such thing as a universal symbol, even a very vague one?
-Melissa C.
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Perhaps some topics of universal nature exist, but I think these topics would largely be results of general similarities in human culture rather than the innate characteristics of human dreams. Personally, I never remember any of my dreams so I can't really offer any of the unifying themes of my own "dream experience." But if I had to guess, I would think that most dreams probably involve people's subconscious desires and fears.
ReplyDelete-Bryce C.
While a lot of times I can link my dreams to things that have been bothering me, something that happened that day, or something I was thinking about before I went to bed that night, other times my dreams are extremely random. I think many of my friends can attest to the fact that I have very strange dreams that are in no way rooted in reality and that would be a waste of time trying to decipher.
ReplyDeleteI definitely do agree that most people seem to have some uniting themes in their dreams every once in a while though. For example, I remember once as a child talking to my parents about dreams when they both started describing their favorite dream, one in which they were flying. I have talked to a lot of people who have had dreams like this, and I think a sense of freedom and just being able to do something that is physically impossible in reality is a large uniting factor for most people.
-Alexa
I think that literal dreams can be traced back to metaphorical dreams (or nightmares). If there is a common "American dream", then a large number of Americans may dream about that when they are asleep, because they are all thinking about it (the "general similarities in human culture" than Bryce was talking about). One of the general American values is freedom, so they dream about flying, like Alexa said. Another common dream (or nightmare) topic is being underwater, which ties to the American nightmare of being oppressed. Interestingly enough, my cousin, who has never read The Lottery, was just telling me about her dream of being stoned by her friends and family. Shirley Jackson is apparently not the only one with that nightmare.
ReplyDelete-Audrey
I think there are certain themes that penetrate through dreams just because they are common thoughts and emotions. It's not so much a part of dreams that is universal, but a part of human nature. Certain emotions, especially fears, are things we can all relate to and thus appear in many of our dreams.
ReplyDelete~Becca