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The hero's journey joseph campbell essay
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Many stories and movies take advantage of the Hero’s Journey type of writing. Joseph Campbell was the person who came up with the Hero’s Journey and he is credited with the creation of the stages that describe it. Campbell's theory of the Hero's Journey… “contributed not only to the burgeoning interest in spirituality among Americans after the 1960s but also to renewed interest in Christian mythology, especially among Catholics, more than a few of whom returned to the church with a new appreciation of Christ inspired by Campbell's concept of the hero's journey.” (Myth). Most stories about heroes, whether they be fictional or not, follow these stages closely. Readers and or viewers can thank Joseph Campbell for the amazing accounts of their favorite hero’s adventure. One hero that follows Campbell’s theory is Django from the film Django Unchained. He begins in his Ordinary World, receives a Call to Adventure, experiences many aspects of Tests, Allies, Enemies, and receives a Reward in the end.
Django’s “Ordinary
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World” is one of harsh slavery. While this is not considered ordinary in any way to the average person of the 21st century, it was completely normal and even expected during his time. His world is one of back-breaking work and terrific treatment with the occasional treks between these plantations of mistreatment. When viewers first meet Django, he is being escorted with several other slaves to an auction where he will be sold to another plantation. Viewers later learn that his world also involves heartbreak. He is married to a fellow slave but has been taken away from her because they tried to escape together. Django would do anything to get back to her and will let nothing and nobody stand in his way of his beautiful Broomhilda. This does not sound at all ordinary to the average person but, unfortunately, it was normal for him (Django Unchained). While Django is on his journey to an auction, viewers meet Dr. King Schultz who they will soon realize is Django’s mentor. Throughout the film, he helps Django learn new things and even promises to help get him to his wife. He asks to speak with Django about an “adventure” he needs him to help complete. This adventure is bounty hunting. Dr. Schultz is looking for the Brittle Brothers and he has heard word that Django can identify them for him. Django’s adventure is two parts: finding and killing the Brittle Brothers and other bounties for Dr. Shultz, and trying to save his wife from Candyland, a famous plantation (Django Unchained). While this Call to Adventure isn’t exactly taking Django away from the comfort of his world, it’s still very strange for him as he has never been talked to as anything other than a slave, let alone asked to help someone find and kill white men. Of course, with every good story, comes problems. Not to mention the fact that this is a slave acting, at some points, as though he is an entitled white man, there are going to be many complications with this journey. Django will have many rules to learn (although he will ignore most of them), skills to test, and decisions of whether or not people can be trusted. This is the Tests, Allies, Enemies stage. One example of a rule he has to learn but will undoubtedly choose not to follow is how to treat white folks. Slaves were expected to not even speak to white men without being spoken to first, and when they did speak it had to be with the utmost respect. Django did not do this at all and this caused him many problems throughout the movie. He even went as far as embarrassing the owner of Candyland, Calvin Candie, in front of guests. While on the topic of Calvin Candie, viewers and Django himself will realize very quickly that he is nobody to be trusted. In fact, he is the opposite. The rest of the movie consists of Django and Dr. Schultz trying to connive their way into Candyland and freeing Broomhilda. There is an amazing fight scene that involves all of the untrustworthy people (and even some trustworthy ones) being killed by one another until Django and his wife are the only ones left (Django Unchained). This is where the Reward stage comes into the picture.
Django has gone through hell to get his wife back and after all these complications, he is finally able to. The last fight scene is a very brutal one resulting in numerous deaths and some gruesome endings for characters. Django's reward is his wife. After escaping a plantation, being caught and branded with a runaway 'R' on their cheeks, being sold separately from each other, and having to travel far and wide to find her again, he finally does (Django Unchained). The Reward stage consists of the hero overcoming death in some way and then receiving his reward, whether it be an object, power, a secret, or a person. At the end of their battle, the hero is usually a stronger person overall (The Hero's Journey - Mythic Structure of Joseph Campbell's Monomyth). This is ultimately the end of Django's journey. He has gotten his wife back and can now go back to his "normal" life with her (Django
Unchained). In conclusion, Django Unchained is a perfect example of a Hero's Journey. Django begins in the Ordinary World, receives a Call to Adventure, experiences many aspects of Tests, Allies, Enemies, and receives a Reward in the end of his journey. Although his Ordinary World is not ordinary for viewers, it is for him. His Call to Adventure is a risky one, but he is very willing to do it after realizing it will help him find his wife. He performs many Tests, meets a few Allies, and has to deal with many Enemies. In the end, he gets his reward, which is well deserved after everything he has been through. There are many other stages of the Hero's Journey that Django fits in different ways. He is one amazing hero in his own way.
Most myths have a common pattern between them. Today, this pattern is often seen in some of our most beloved motion pictures. Joseph Campbell-a respected 20th century American mythologist, lecturer, and writer- observed this and created a theory based off of the similarities he saw. He showed the world that almost every story with a hero follows the three stages in his theory he called “Monomyth” (Campbell). The monomyth, often times called “The Hero’s Journey” or “The hero with a thousand faces”, includes the departure, initiation, and return stages (Campbell). In these stages the hero leaves his normal life behind, fulfills him/herself in some activity, and returns as a hero (Campbell). These stages can be applied to a smash hit released in 2009, a science-fiction film titled Star Trek. James T. Kirk in Star Trek closely follows Campbell’s theory as he departs from his childhood home in Iowa, fights a rogue Romulan enemy, and returns to Earth as a Starfleet captain.
In “Creating the Myth,” Linda Seger outlines the essential aspects that make up the hero myth, and why movies that follow this outline are generally successful. In her analysis, she begins with the idea that every hero myth revolves around a hero who is called upon to accomplish a feat that nobody else in the story is able to do. The hero’s journey begins with an unlikely person being called upon to serve a purpose greater than themselves. Along their journey, the hero is influenced by several archetypical characters that either help the hero, or try to deter the hero from accomplishing their task. The hero’s journey ends when they have accomplished their task, and in doing so, become a greater person than what they were in the beginning. A film that found tremendous success by following this outline was “Kung Fu Panda.”
Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Face does Beowulf qualify as a mythic hero. Beowulf qualifies as a mythic character for many different reasons. Campbell’s stories share a lot of the same topic with the mythic creatures like in the story the belly of the whale. A hero was swallowed and had to find his way out. Beowulf and his village was being attacked by a creature who could not control himself.
Humanity has created this “universal story” of what a hero is, or at least the myth of it, time and again. Different tasks and encounters with a variety of villains all lead the hero to the prize, to a new life (Seger). This person deemed the hero is as ordinary as the next but what makes them different is the drastic test that they must face. Individuals admire this character because the hero stands for something, something bigger than themselves. Whether it be the compassionate act of Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games or the death of the oldest brother in Brother Bear, as an outsider, an individual sees the human side of these heroes and relates. Connor Lassiter from Unwind by Neal Shusterman is an ideal example of the myth due to the
Joseph Campbell’s “hero’s journey” is a common myth in global mythology. The hero’s journey is exactly what its name implies; a tale of a hero’s deeds and adventures. The stages and sub-stages that Campbell outlines as part of the journey are simply guidelines and don’t appear in every story, but this is what makes each story unique. Jeff “the Dude” Lebowski is not much of a hero himself, but his story certainly falls in line with the hero’s journey.
Heracles favorite of the Greeks is a primary example of Joseph’s Campbell’s hero’s journey, proven by all the actions that Heracles has done during the span of his Life.
(200)This mythic study will define the first ten stages of the hero’s journey as defined by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell defines the various stages of the hero’s journey within the context of a universal mythic "cycle” found in world ligature. These similar events define the universal stages of the hero’s journey in (1) the call to adventure, (2) refusal of the call, (3) supernatural aid, (4) the first threshold, (5) challenges, (6)revelation (7) abyss (rebirth), (8) transformation, (9) atonement, and (10) the return in the gift of the goddess. These ten stages define the cycle of the heroic journey, which
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
Many of the stories that have been told for centuries, or have recently been created, incorporate the story of a young innocent character who embarks on a journey and becomes a hero, known as The Hero’s Journey; a series of steps that all heroes follow. This journey not only shows the main character becoming a hero but also shows the hero move along a path similar to that of adolescence, the path between childhood and maturity. The Hero’s Journey was created by a man by the name of Joseph Campbell. He wrote a book called The Hero with One Thousand Faces, a novel containing a variety of stories that follow the steps of the Hero’s Journey. One famous creation that follows The Hero’s Journey is the science fiction film trilogy: Star Wars, created by George Lucas. Lucas depicts the struggles that take place along the path of adolescence through the story of a protagonist Luke Skywalker, who strives to become a Jedi Knight to show that Campbell’s Hero’s Journey reflects the struggles that youth go through whether they are depicted in a story or not.
Long ago, in the desert of Egypt, Hebrew slaves known as Israelites escaped from the tyranny of the pharaoh. This story has a common theme that an unlikely hero leads people out of a wasteland and into a place of new life. The Israelites heroes' name was Moses. There are several attributes that his quest shares with Joseph Campbell's theme of the journey of the spiritual hero, found in The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Departure, initiation, and return are all part of the journey. Moses' journey will take him away from his familiar surroundings, separating him from all that he knows, so that he can return to perform the tasks God commanded him to complete.
Throughout the years, certain writers were able to set off a deep sympathetic resonance within readers by their usage of archetypal patterns. One of those patterns is known as the hero's journey, which Joseph Campbell gave an understandable idea of in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. According to his book, while comparing world's mythology, he found that no matter how far cultures are from each other, they will still have the same structure of hero's journey in their legends (Voytilla vii).
Joseph Campbell was a well known mythology teacher who spent his whole life trying to understand the different types of stories that are told. To Campbell “all humans are involved in a struggle to accomplish the adventure of the hero in their own lives.” He made a list of stages that every hero goes through, and sums it up to three sections: separation (the departure), the initiation, and the return.
Not everyone can be a hero. Joseph Campbell is an American mythologist that devotes his life finding and sharing myths from all around the world. In 1938, he married one of his old students before creating the theory of a monomyth. Campbell is the creator of The Hero’s Adventure, a dialogue between Bill Moyers and Campbell, explaining the process to which a hero can transform. It is a long, grueling journey of challenges and perseverance that each hero must endure. Throughout the dialogue, Campbell describes his ideas about the hero cycle and how it affects society in unique ways. He goes into depth about villains, religious figures and other unique heroes to further prove his point. Campbell develops the hero’s cycle to support the idea
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... ...