Coco Hero's Journey

The Hero’s Journey is a pattern created by the American mythologist Joseph Campbell and is a path that every hero must take in order for them to pursue their personal legend as Paulo Coelho describes in The Alchemist, a hero can be a human, animal or a magical creature. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “archetype as the original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies” (“archetype”). During this path, the hero will encounter different obstacles that will prevent him/her from achieving their destiny. Coco is a movie that talks about a Mexican tradition that celebrates dead called Dia de Los Muertos. The movie Coco follows the Hero’s Journey pattern Miguel character must face the Departure, Initiation, and Return. In the movie Coco, Miguel Rivera dreamed of becoming a musician and the importance of continuing with a tradition that honor the death follows the step pattern of the Hero Journey.

The Departure is the begging of the Hero’s Journey where the hero will experience with something that will get him from his comfort zone.

In the book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell writes that the Call to Adventure is “A blunder- apparently the merest chance- reveals an unsuspected world, and the individual is drawn into a relationship with forces that are not rightly understood (Campbell 51). Miguel Rivera grows up in a family that makes shoes for a living, but he realizes that he does not want to continue with the family tradition of making shoes. Miguel family does not like music because Miguel’sgreat-great-grandfather left his wife and daughter as a result of him pursuing his musical quest. Miguel Call to Adventure is music, so he signs up for the musical talent show, but he does not have a guitar to play so he decides to go to the cemetery to steal his idol Ernesto de la Cruz

guitar.
The Crossing of the First Threshold Campbell explains, “The usual person is more than content, he is even proud, to remain within the indicated bounds, and popular belief gives him every reason to fear so much as the first step into the unexplored (Campbell 78). Miguel experiences Crossing of the First Threshold when he enters into the land of the death and becomes aware that living people cannot see him. Although he feels lost and scared in the land of the death, he meets with this ancestor.
Campbell describes the Initiation as “Once having traversed the threshold, the hero moves in a dream landscape of curiously fluid, ambiguous forms, where he must survive a succession of trials” (Campbell 97). According to Campbell, The Road of Trials “The hero will have to deal with their dark side” (Campbell Hero).Miguel Road of Trials starts when he begins to look for Ernesto de la Cruz in the land of the death. While looking for Ernesto he meets with a skeleton named Hector will help Miguel, but with one condition, that he must put his picture on an altar. In order to meet Ernesto de la Cruz, Miguel must enter the music contest, the winner will be invited to Ernesto party. Miguel must face his fear of singing in public and he does, he begins to sing and the audience reacts by applauding and cheering.
Campbell points out that the Ordeal is where the hero confronts death of faces their biggest fear, but also gains a sense of peace. Miguel involvement with Apotheosis is finding out that Ernesto de la Cruz is not the person he has idolized.He learns that Ernesto is a selfish man and only thinks of himself. Miguel and Hector are thrown into a cenote pit while there Miguel fines out the truth that Hector is his real great-great-grandfather.
The final phase of the Hero’s Journey is the Return Campbell describes, “When the hero-quest has been accomplished, through penetration to the source, or through the grace of some male or female, human or animal, personification, the adventure still must return with his life transmuting” (Campbell 193). Campbell states, that Master of Two Worlds “The hero returns home or continues the journey, bearing some element of the treasure that has the power to transform the world as the hero has been transformed” (Campbell Hero). Miguel is able to return to the land of the living before sunrise with the blessing of his dead ancestor. After returning from the land of the death Miguel reunites with his family, a year has passed sense Miguel adventure. The family now has accepted music back into their lives and has continued with the celebration of Dia de Los Muertos, but has also added grandma Coco picture to the family altar.
The movie Coco is a great example of Campbell Hero’s Journey it follows all of the pattern steps. Miguel adventure starts with the first phase the Departure follow by the Initiation and ending with the Return. All through the movie, Miguel overcomes different barriers, for example, when he enters an unknown world, singing in public, and find out the truth about his idol. After watching Coco I learn that we must take action when we get a call to adventure. It will not be an easy task because we will have to face our biggest fear, pass the different test that will get in our way of fulfilling our destiny.