Elie Wiesel: A Hero's Journey Monomyth

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Some people are born to be heroes. Some people may be forgotten heroes. Some people are born not to be heroes at all. In ways they are similar and in some ways they are different. John Campbell’s Hero’s Journey Monomyth shows the certain stages that a hero would traditionally go through to be qualified as a hero. Elie Wiesel is not a monomyth hero, because he does not follow the correct steps and does not hit enough steps to be considered a monomythic hero. Elie is not a monomyth hero for a few reasons. First of all, there is no goddess in this story. A goddess must be present for the main character’s journey to be considered a monomythic story. A goddess is a character in the story that impacts the main character’s life life and helps him find his true self. The goddess provides an extra branch of structure for the …show more content…

The best example from the novel is when he takes control of his own life after his father dies. His truer qualities as a leader tend to shine brighter than a hero towards the end of the book as he starts to act more independent but still follows in line with all the conditions he is put in. It even briefly mentions towards the end of the book when he says he looks into the mirror and he sees a man he never knew. This shows him as a leader because before he went through the terrors of Auschwitz he would walk around and not help anyone, not even himself. He is also a good leader throughout the book. It is actually quite clear throughout the book in the way he writes. He becomes more independent as a person as he spends more time in the concentration camps. For example, after his father dies he starts to push himself to make it to the end. He shows how he helps himself through all the obstacles that are thrown at him like when he is running from camp to camp and he sees one of his prison mates fall down and get shot. He leads himself and others several times throughout the book as

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