In Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, the hero undergoes a transformation throughout his journey. This transformation is an important part of the journey as it hooks viewers into the story by establishing a relatable character for the viewers, in addition to showing the hero’s struggles to change in his attempt to complete his quest.
When the hero is relatable, viewers will be able to understand the actions and growth of the hero. Not only does this ensure that the hero is a plausible being, at least in terms of the fictional world, it also allows the viewers to emphasize with the hero’s plight.
In a typical story of the hero’s journey, the viewers connect with the hero by accompanying him on the quest from the Departure
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to the Return, thus experiencing the highs and lows of the journey. Experiencing the entire journey allows the viewers to discern the mental and physical states of the hero from start to finish, therefore the actions and failures of the hero are made clear to the viewers. The Departure is the most important section in establishing the relatability of the hero as it showcases the starting point of the hero. For example, viewers get to see the hero’s motivations in the Call to Adventure. The Refusal of the Call outlines the hero’s mindset about the quest. The difficulties faced in the Crossing of the First Threshold and the Belly of the Whale reveal the hero’s shortcomings in dealing with the situations in the new world. As such, the various flaws, goals, and values of the hero are displayed and explained to the viewers at the start of his transformation, allowing the viewers to understand and get attached to the hero before his trials begin. This in turn get them to be emotionally interested in the hero’s difficulties, failures and successes, thus hooking them into the hero’s story. In addition to being relatable, the hero must attempt to mature and overcome trials in order to achieve his Ultimate Boon. The hero can do this by attempting to prove himself and overcome obstacles, be willing to accept his mistakes and learn, accept necessary sacrifices and losses and so forth, and these attempts are shown during his transformation. The Initiation section of the hero’s journey is the main crux of the hero’s transformation.
At the start of a typical hero’s journey, the hero starts off immature and flawed in one way or another. However, he undergoes the journey in order to attain the Ultimate Boon. To do so, he has to endure through the trials in the Road of Trails, The Meeting with The Goddess, Woman as Temptress and The Atonement with The Father. As the hero surmount each trial, he matures and inches one step closer towards the Ultimate Boon. The Apotheosis marks the peak of his development, and at that point the hero is ready to take on any challenge to attain the Ultimate Boon.
In essence, the hero’s transformation illustrates the hero’s struggles to acquire the Ultimate Boon, which is a major element of a hero’s journey.
Below are the analysis of 3 different types of heroes to show how the hero’s transformation is an important aspect of his journey.
The first hero to be analyzed is the everyman hero, Lee, from the Walking Dead Game: Season 1. Lee is an everyman hero as he started off as an ordinary person with no special skills, though he had a somewhat tragic backstory of being convicted after murdering a state senator who had an affair with his wife in a fit of anger. Soon after the zombie apocalypse started and he was inadvertently freed, he met a young child, Clementine, who saved him from an attacking zombie. Lee then decided to protect Clementine and help her find her
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parents. Lee is easily relatable to the viewers as he was only capable of doing what a regular human could do.
His backstory and motivations were made abundantly clear at the start of the story, thus explaining his quick temper as well as why he had to deal with the suspicions about his backstory and his reluctance to explain it. This relatability makes it easy for players to want to support Lee, especially since he was also generally kind and willing to put others before himself. This makes Lee’s actions in the game compelling and intriguing, as it is a reflection of the player moral choices.
This led to the struggles which he faced in the apocalypse. In the story, Lee underwent a transformation from a professor with a criminal record to a leader, making tough decisions for the greater good, which ranged from selecting who to feed in a food shortage, to choosing who to save first in a crisis, which usually leads to the other party dying. He also became a mentor to Clementine, teaching her how to defend herself despite his hesitance over the danger
involved. The second hero to be analyzed is the tragic hero, Hercules, from the Greek Mythologies. Hercules is a tragic hero as he was unable to forgive himself for killing his family in a crazed frenzy even after completing the 12 labors. Hercules’ story is a different take on the hero’s journey as it features an incomplete hero’s journey, which is missing the Apotheosis, the Ultimate Boon and the entire Return section. Despite having inhuman strength and a strange quirk of enlisting for ridiculously difficult tasks, viewers can relate to Hercules as the reasons behind his strength and quirk were clearly explained at the start of the tale. His strength was due to being the offspring of Zeus, the Thunder God. It was also shown at the start of the story that Hercules had that quirk only because he wanted to atone for his crime of murdering his wife and children. Since the viewer can understand Hercules’ rationale and purpose, they can accept the premise of the story and thus emotionally support Hercules on his journey. Hercules might have failed in obtaining the Ultimate Boon of forgiving himself, but he still experienced various struggles in his attempt to do so. For example, he willing took on the 12 labors, each of which was said to be an impossible task. In a few of the labors, he had to use his wit to clear the labors, which was atypical of him due to his reliance on his strength. This sets Hercules out to be a tragic hero as he failed to overcome his flaw despite his completion of the impossible labors, which is an important aspect of his tale. The third and final hero to be analyzed is the anti-hero, Ralph from Wreck-it-Ralph. Ralph is an anti-hero as he was initially rejected by the Nicelanders due to being a villain in his game along with his violent nature. He also started on his quest for a hero medal due to a selfish reason of wanting to be recognized as a hero by the Nicelanders, ignoring all of the devastation and destruction he caused. However, he began to change his way after meeting Vanellope von Schweetz, and started his transformation to become a proper hero. Viewers can relate to Ralph as Ralph had a number of human flaws. Firstly, he was quick to resort to violence whenever anything failed to go his way. Secondly, he felt completely unappreciated for his work. Thirdly, he was selfish and only thought of himself at the beginning of the movie. Lastly, he despised himself as he believed that he was a villain, who was only capable of destruction. These copious number of flaws hook the viewers into Ralph’s quest, as they yearn to see how Ralph overcomes these flaws. The fact that these flaws are relatively common in reality also helps in enhancing the hook as viewers may relate it to their lives as well. Due to his numerous flaws, Ralph had to undergo various hardships to attain his Ultimate Boon. By helping Vanellope create a kart, he started to believe that he is capable of more than just destruction. When the Cy-Bugs started to devour the world of Sugar Rush, Ralph realized his selfishness was not only going to result in the destruction of an entire game, it was going to end the life of his new friend, Vanellope, as well. To redeem himself, he resolved himself to sacrifice his own life to prevent the destruction of both the world and Vanellope’s life. And at the moment before his sacrifice, he finally accepted himself for who he was. Fortunately, he was saved and thus continued to live on as a respectable villain, earning the appreciation of the Nicelanders and maintaining his friendship with Vanellope as well. As shown from the above examples, the hero’s transformation is a vital part of the quest as it not only creates an engaging hero for the viewers, it also unveils the numerous difficulties that the hero faced trying to accomplish his Ultimate Boon.
Holmes, Thomas. “The hero’s journey: an inquiry-research model. Jun 2007, vol 34 issue 5, p19-22.4p. 1 Diagram
...heir journeys or overcome their limitations had it not been for the gods. Of all of the requirements of heroism, being influenced by the gods is the most important. Only through the aid of the gods can a character defeat his shortcomings and truly understand what a hero is. The character must become overconfident and prideful, then, and only then, can the gods step in and break their faults. Finally, the hero either comes to realize how wrong he was or he dies in ignorance.
A hero puts other people before themselves and is admired for their qualities, courage, and achievements. A hero obtains knowledge throughout their journey of helping and healing. From Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huckleberry begins his journey with his first dilemma to save a slave, Jim. Huckleberry Finn begins to transform into a courageous hero when he learns the value of a human being.
As the story comes to its conclusion, the hero has endured his hardships; he went from the one that started fights to the one that thought of what could make everything work. An ordinary person in an ordinary world faced his share of trials and tribulations to come out as a new person. Defining the hero myth—he struggled and still was able to triumph to his prize at the end ; individuals relish these type of stories, they can
the traits of becoming a hero. Sometimes it would have to depend on the wisdom that the character has. It is their purpose to explain what is going on in this story to make it clear for the audience to understand. Even some stories have insights of what a person can do.
Watching a film, one can easily recognize plot, theme, characterization, etc., but not many realize what basic principle lies behind nearly every story conceived: the hero’s journey. This concept allows for a comprehensive, logical flow throughout a movie. Once the hero’s journey is thoroughly understood, anyone can pick out the elements in nearly every piece. The hero’s journey follows a simple outline. First the hero in question must have a disadvantaged childhood. Next the hero will find a mentor who wisely lays out his/her prophecy. Third the hero will go on a journey, either literal or figurative, to find him/herself. On this journey the hero will be discouraged and nearly quit his/her quest. Finally, the hero will fulfill the prophecy and find his/herself, realizing his/her full potential. This rubric may be easy to spot in epic action films, but if upon close inspection is found in a wide array of genres, some of which are fully surprising.
mythic story of the questing hero is a metaphor of the inward journey to self-knowledge, that
The human need to be relatable is unquenchable. We love to be able to see parts of ourselves in others, and to be able to feel like our idols are not untouchable. The Hero’s Journey format is one that can be found in almost any story, even in real life. Overall, it is the perfect recipe for keeping readers engrossed. Another place the journey has shown up is in Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and Odyssey by Homer. These two stories—one a biography, the other, an epic poem—are so effective in their storytelling, it is easy to see how authors today continue to use the same method to make stories that grab the readers’ attention. What makes them most alike, however, is the emotions and thoughts they have the power to provoke.
To fully appreciate the significance of the plot one must fully understand the heroic journey. Joseph Campbell identified the stages of the heroic journey and explains how the movie adheres meticulously to these steps. For example, the first stage of the hero’s journey is the ordinary world (Campbell). At the beginning, the structure dictates that the author should portray the protagonist in their ordinary world, surrounded by ordinary things and doing ordinary tasks so that the author might introduce the reasons that the hero needs the journey in order to develop his or her character or improve his or her life (Vogler 35). The point of this portrayal is to show the audience what the protagonist’s life is currently like and to show what areas of his or her life are conflicted or incomplete. When the call to adventure occurs, the protagonist is swept away into another world, one that is full of adventure, danger, and opportunities to learn what needs to be learned. T...
The Hero’s Journey is an ancient archetype that we find throughout our modern life and also, in the world of literature.Whether metaphorical or real, the journey that a character goes on shows not only the incredible transformation of the hero but it also gives them their life meaning. It is the ultimate human experience and it reflects on every aspect of life. Take Logan, also known as Wolverine, from the X-Men movie as an example. His adventure starts with “The Call,” which is the first step of the Hero’s Journey. This step happens due to the realization of imbalance and injustice that the character has in their life. Logan steps into the first stage of the pattern but is hesitant to start his adventure because he does not know what and
The embarkation of the hero’s journey is more than a call, it is taking control of your life and discovering the hero who dwells inside you. Each hero who enters the journey is tested to the very end of the cycle, where the hero must choose rebirth or death. Othello is man of many fortunes, but he does not have what it takes to complete the Hero’s Journey.
The hero’s journey can be seen as a set of laws or challenges that every hero faces through their own journey(Christopher Vogler). The hero’s journey is used as a general term such as all
Joseph Campbell defines a hero as “someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself” (Moyers 1). The Hero’s Journey consists of three major parts: the separation, the initiation, and the return. Throughout a character’s journey, they must complete a physical or spiritual deed. A physical deed involves performing a daunting and courageous act that preserves the well-being of another person. A spiritual deed calls for action that improves another individual’s state of mind.
Myths have been a great example of the hero’s journey. Many heroes have journeys and trials to face throughout their life. Most of their journeys start out with their origin and end with the return. However, the hero’s role remains identical to every other hero. Most heroes like Gilgamesh has heroic traits because of the stages in the hero's journey. Gilgamesh is a man who can turn into a hero by changing himself, even when he has unusual circumstances surrounding his birth. Gilgamesh is viewed as a hero due to the stages of the hero's journey.
One well-known example of “The Hero’s Journey” from popular culture is the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling. In the novel, Harry Potter, the main character, is the chosen one and “The Hero’s Journey” applies to his life from the moment he is attacked by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named as a baby. Joseph Campbell calls the initial phase of a hero’s development the “Call to Adventure.” The call is the in... ...