In chaptered essays, Barthes explains his perspectives about mythology and the human experience. First, he discusses the zeitgeist and the social experiment of art. He notices that although art literally grew from myth, it has not completely abandoned myth yet. Each story seems to relate to a person's ethical quest for maximized human potential, and mythology is still a tool commonly used to do that, observes Barthes.
Barthes departs from the domain of art to view the mythology of the zeitgeist itself. He observes that as people begin to participate in social narratives, it shapes their experience of self, and it literally does constitute a kind of cultural identity in the person. He says that this extends through politics, religion, personal habits and affairs, health habits, superstitions—he feels almost all if not all aspects of human life and consciousness are shaped in some way by participation in a narrative.
As a thought experiment, Barthes examines the world of professional wrestling. As an art form, it seems absurd, but there is a mythological participation between the fans and the fighting. After establishing the connection through essay, Barthes examines the mythic argument of the fighting. His take is that the wrestlers often embody confusing problems about weakness, masculinity and femininity, and anger management, and that by making angry, confused people fight each other, there is catharsis for people watching might have been harmed by that kind of toxicity.
