The aim of this essay is to analyse the film ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ by using Christopher Vogler’s framework for ‘The Hero’s Journey’ as outlined in his book ‘The Writer’s Journey’.
Little Miss Sunshine, released 2006, was written by Michael Arndt and directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. It tells the story of the dysfunctional Hoover family trying to get 7year-old Olive to the “Little Miss Sunshine” beauty pageant on time, in their unreliable combi van. The film is a comedy-drama which uses the theme of ‘winners and losers’ to explore the personal journey of each character.
Although the film has an ensemble cast, it is Olive that is really the protagonist since it’s her desire to participate in the beauty contest which provides
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the ‘ticking clock’ of the film and thus the means to explore each character. In The Writer’s Journey, Christopher Vogler outlines 12 basic plot points in film which he calls “The Hero’s Journey”.
These are developed from Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces and they outline a pattern of narrative principles that describe the typical journey of the archetype called ‘The Hero’ in a film.
These 12 basic plot points fall within the 3 Act structure and begin with what Vogler calls The Ordinary World (Vogler, 2007, pg 83-97) which introduces the hero, the opening image, the main theme and the backstory.
In Little Miss Sunshine, the opening image is a close up on Olive’s bespectacled eyes transfixed on the tv screen watching and re-watching the image of the winner of Miss America being announced. A wider angled shot shows that along with the glasses Olive is slightly tubby and nerdy looking as she imitates the winning beauty queen’s reaction. The audience immediately understands Olive’s desire to be the winner of a beauty pagent but also that she already doesn’t fit the usual image.
The beauty queen represents the expectations of society and the way we compare ourselves to others and the symbolism of this whole scene is the flawed social construct that being beautiful equals winning. Olive is cast as the unaware, naïve hero, who doesn’t know or understand that her physical limitations might not match up with her
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desires. This is reinforced in the next sequence of the opening scene which shows Richard, Olive’s father, giving a motivational speech about how to be a ‘winner’ vs being a ‘loser’ which sets up the main theme of the movie. But as the speech ends we see that the room is mostly empty and that Richard is more of a loser than a winner himself. Vogler (2007. Pg 87) states the The Ordinary World exists to highlight the hero’s surroundings and mindset for later comparision to the Special World and as the remaining characters are introduced we see that all of them in fact have weaknesses or are ‘losers’. Grandpa is an inappropriate drug addict, Dwayne a smart but brooding and uncooperative teenager enacting a vow of silence, Uncle Frank is depressed and just out of hospital after a failed suicide attempt and Sheryl is the mother who is stressed and frustrated trying to keep it all together. Everyone is focused on their own unrealistic dreams and The Call to Adventure comes in the form of a phone call offering Olive a spot in the “Little Miss Sunshine” contest, to held in Redondo Beach, California in two days time. The ticking clock scenario created by the pageant introduces the first predicament or Refusal of The Call. In A Short Guide To The Hero’s Journey (2010, pg1) Vogler states that it can be either the hero or another character expressing uncertainty and turning away from the call to adventure. This is an essential stage because it demonstrates the risk involved in accepting the call to adventure (Voytilla, 1999, pg 8) In Little Miss Sunshine, Olive wants to go to the pageant, Sheryl wants to take her there, but Richard has put all their money into his motivational book and insists they can’t afford to fly.
Grandpa wants to see Olive perform, Uncle Frank can’t be left on his own and Dwayne wants everyone to leave him alone. This obstacle is resolved when Richard decides he will drive everyone in the beat up VW Kombi van. The risk involved is somewhat financial for the family, but more than that it’s emotional since the family at this point can’t get along and can’t work together.
Grandpa represents the archetype of the Mentor in this film although that isn’t always immediately apparent. Despite his drug use, swearing and general inappropriateness he brings the ‘underdog values’ that oppose Richard’s ‘Winner/Loser’ values and offers advice, usually unsolicited, and comfort where needed.
The end of Act 1 and the beginning of Act 2 coincide with the hero Crossing The Threshold and it symbolises that the hero is committed to the journey. This means they will leave the Ordinary World and cross into The Special World where the rules and values are unknown (Voytilla, 1999, pg
9). Crossing the Threshold occurs in Little Miss Sunshine when Richard asks Olive if she is going to win the pageant; “There is no sense in entering in a contest if you don’t think you’re gonna win. So, do you think you can win?” Olive thinks about this for a moment, the rest of her family looking on and answers with a resounding and excited “Yes!”. This is the answer Rhichard is looking for and he embraces Olive, reinforcing the idea that winners get rewarded. From this point we understand that the whole family is committed to crossing the threshold with Olive, although everyone except Richard and Olive are cautious about the idea of her winning. Olive is an unaware hero who is too naïve to understand that she might not win just because she wants to. Olive’s greatest ally is her Grandpa and although it’s not obvious at first her greatest enemy is actually her father, Richard who represents the Bully archetype. Even though he means well with his ‘don’t try if you can’t win’ attitude and explaining that if you eat ice cream you might get fat, these attitudes create fear and self doubt in Olive. Uncle Frank and Dwayne are allies to each other in the sense that neither of them want to go on the roadtrip but they are both so caught up in their own fears and issues they are unable to initially be an ally to Olive. Sheryl is the Guardian archetype, trying to keep the peace in the family and constantly frustrated by their individual and collective dysfunction. She wants to be an ally for Olive and wants to get her to the pageant but she is cautious about giving Olive unrealistic expectations of success. The first major test in the Special World for Olive and the rest of the Hoover family occurs when the clutch of their VW Kombi van fails. Without any way to fix it they must choose to sty on their journey to get Olive to the pageant in time and are forced to literally work together pushing the car to get it started.
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.
This paper examines the argument and theory proposed by Richard H. Tyre of the six basic movements of a plot in a hero story. Although Tyre’s theory does seem too narrow focused, fixed and direct to fit with the plot structure of all hero stories, he makes a great point and provides adequate evidence to support his statement.
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.”
Refer to specific examples. What sets your hero’s journey in motion? What elements of the hero’s journey does it conform to? Use distinctive examples of what you see on the screen. Include quotes from the movie.
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
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.
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...
In every culture, there are stories that get past down from generation to generation (Campbell 1). Tales of knights who slay dragons and princesses who kissed frogs are a part of every culture. All over the world, stories share comment characteristic. Joseph Campbell introduces a theory based on this idea called the monomyth, the idea that stories all share the same narrative pattern, in the book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Overall, this theory shows the same narrative pattern in stories throughout the world, which symbolically reveals all humans must tackle difficulties and overcome them many times throughout life (5). Specifically, Campbell’s hero’s journey is comprised of six steps, which, collectively
...vides a stable offer of advice to his adolescent student. What Mr. P presents Junior with is the same “mentor” qualities that all mentors provide for their mentees. And by no means does Mr. P “go easy” on Junior for his actions; he wants him to be built tough and strong because he knows that Junior is perfectly capable of reaching those capacities. For instance, Mr. P says to Junior, “’But I do forgive you,’ he said. ‘No matter how much I don’t want to. I have to forgive you,’” (Alexie 28). This demonstrates the amount of maturity that Mr. P wants to exhibit to Junior, in hopes of earning more respect from him. I believe that Mr. P provides the strongest sense of a mentor, beside Grandma Spirit, in this story because he pushes Junior to strive for greatness no matter what.
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).
A set of practices concerning the narrative structure compose the classical Hollywood Paradigm. These conventions create a plot centering around a character who undergoes a journey in an attempt to achieve some type of goal (). By giving the central character more time on screen, the film helps the audience to not only understand the character’s motivation but also empathize with his/her emotional state. Additionally, some antagonistic force creates conflict with the main character, preventing immediate success(). Finally, after confronting the antagonist, the main character achieves his or her goal along with growing emotionally(). This proven structure creates a linear and relatively easily followed series of events encompassing the leading character and a goal.
In Toni Morrison’s story and in real life, beauty is described by people as having blond hair, blue eyes , perfect figure, etc. It’s been said that if you have good looks, you can make it in life with just looks alone. People only strive for becoming beautiful because they want attention. As is the case in Toni Morrison’s story. The characters in her story think that they are ugly , by others opinions of them , and want to become beautiful so they will be recognized and be the center of attention. But the harder both characters try, the worse things get.
Marguerite reveals and says that she is a “too-big Negro girl, with nappy black hair, broad feet and a space between her teeth that would hold a number-two pencil." She implies that that she is representing ugly. In my vulture, being beautiful for a female is having long straight hair, being tall and having a lean body.
Vogler, Christopher. The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. 3rd Ed. Studio City: Michael Wiese Productions, 2007.
Works CitedMcLellan, Lizzy. "New Pageant Focuses on Inner Beauty." Frederick News-Post, The (MD) 18 June 2013: Newspaper Source Plus. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.