Observing other people’s life stories can have a big impact on your life. You see people come up from nothing and they turn that into something. You witness their journey, from the tough times to the good times, from the crying and suffering to the laughs. But, does a person ever sit back and think about how much time they’ve wasted being fake present in another person's journey? One often spends more time watching someone build their path, that they often forget to build theirs. Joseph Campbell, was a mythologist who believed that Hero’s journey can apply to anyone and any culture. In order to get a better understanding of Campbell's mythology, my paper will examine the hero’s journey and how it will apply to Jodi Picoult’s story, My Sister’s …show more content…
Keeper. Joseph Cambell was born in the year 1904 and passed away in 1987.
He was a well known, famous mythologist. He wrote many books, but his most famous book would have to be “The Hero With A Thousand Faces.” He was best known for his concept, the monomyth. The monomyth tries to tell us how every story from fiction to nonfiction follows a pattern. Every story follows a pattern. As stated in Julie Harris’s The Hero’s journey chart, the pattern can be, where the hero is from; what everyday life would be like in that time period, The Call to Adventure; hero’s goal is made clear, Refusal of the Call; Point at which hero or protagonist doubts whether or not to go on the journey, Crossing the First Threshold: hero commits to the quest and begins the journey, and The Supreme Ordeal; hero is confronted with the most difficult task or opponent to overcome; could end in success or death of …show more content…
hero. I decided on Jodi Picoult’s My Sister's Keeper to represent Joseph Campbell's concept. In the story, you have the main character Anna Fitzgerald. My Sister’s Keeper is about a thirteen year old girl who decides to sue her mother and father after finding out that she was supposed to donate her kidney to her sister who is suffering and dying from cancer. When Anna turns thirteen she is told that she will have to donate the kidney to her older sister Kate. She decides to sue because the surgery that will be done on her sister, a lot of patients haven’t survived from that medical procedure and her sister might die anyway. The surgery will also have a big impact on Anna herself. Anna goes through hell and back trying to win this case. Throughout the whole story, everyone thinks that Anna doesn’t want to donate. The only reason she’s doing what she’s doing is because her older sister Kate asked her to sue and not donate anything all because she’ll rather die than suffer on the hospital bed. I will now begin to compare and contrast both The Hero’s Journey and My Sister’s Keeper.
These stories are different in a way. In the Hero’s Journey they mention “ a hero includes an individual who has the courage of conviction to perform feats that benefit the general populace, acts as a soldier of virtue and has an altruistic spirit that urges him or her to act against evil and defend the greater good at all costs, even sacrificing his own well-being or life.” This stood out to me a lot. As mentioned before, Anna was asked to sue and asked to not donate by her sister. A hero will do anything that is good no matter what the circumstances are. Even though she wanted to donate she didn’t. A hero would've done it, for the good and the better. Both The Hero’s Journey and My Sister’s keeper are like in some ways. In The Hero’s Journey she mentions “Within their lifetimes, many individuals will be placed in a situation that provides a choice: to act or to remain stationary.” Just like in My Sister’s Keeper, Anna was placed in a position where she had the choice to help her parents from suffering and losing a child or help her sister out by not donating the kidney and letting her die in peace and within time. Both stories are great examples of what heros are, and what heroes should be. Heroes are born and there are heroes who are created. Which one are
you
The first part of the Hero’s journey begins in the ordinary world. In the book, Star Girl, the protagonist Leo’s ordinary world is his high school where there are no leaders and all students act the same. Although Leo is different than the others, he keeps to himself. The next part of the hero’s journey is the call to adventure. After seeing Star Girl in school everyday for some time, Leo begins to have a crush on Star Girl and thinks about her often. Leo refuses this call by telling his school show co-host, Kevin, that they shouldn’t have Star Girl on the show, although Kevin wants her on it. Leo refuses the call again when Star Girl calls him “cute,” and he blushes and says nothing.
The monomyth, or Hero’s Journey, is an outline or pattern of events that a hero may follow in a story or movie. This so called pattern takes place in two locations: the ordinary world and the supernatural world. Joseph Campbell was the first person to notice this outline and actually research it. Osmosis Jones is just one example of a movie which follows the monomyth. This movie also serves as a great lesson of perseverance because even throughout the trials and tribulations, Jones never gives up and in the end is rewarded. As Jones goes through the stages of the monomyth, he is considered a hero and obtains perseverance.
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.
The Hero’s Journey describes the typical adventure of the archetype known as The Hero, the person who goes out and achieves great deeds on behalf of the group, tribe, or civilization. After reading the epic poem The Odyssey, by Homer, and watching the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?, by the Coen brothers, they both show evidence of the Hero’s Journey. The Hero’s Journey is based on Joseph Campbell’s A Practical Guide to The Hero With a Thousand Faces. In The Odyssey, Odysseus is projected as the “hero” while in O Brother, a man by the name of Ulysses Everett McGill can be seen as the “hero”. Elements of The Odyssey and O Brother are shown through the stages in the Hero’s Journey like the Approach to the Inmost Cave, The Supreme Ordeal, and Threshold Crossing.
During the course of this World Literature class, several stories have been covered that accurately describe Joseph Campbell's mono-myth, or basic pattern found in narratives from every corner of the world. The Hero's Journey in it's entirety has seventeen stages or steps, but if boiled down can be described in three; the departure, the initiation, and the return (Monomyth Cycle). Each stage has several steps, but the cycle describes the hero starting in his initial state, encountering something to change him, and this his return as a changed person. To further explain this concept, there are a few stories covered in this class that can be used.
"Joseph Campbell and the Hero's Journey." "HeroQuest" Adventures; spiritual quests to renew purpose, create vision, success.. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2014.
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
The monomyth was created in 1949 by Joseph Campbell as an archetype for storytelling. The monomyth is a series of stages that a hero experiences through the majority of fictional novels and movies. The monomyth is also referred to as the hero’s journey. The Odyssey by Homer, is an accurate example of a story that follows the monomyth.
“The journey of the hero is about the courage to seek the depths; the image of creative rebirth; the eternal cycle of change within us; the uncanny discovery that the seeker is the mystery which the seeker seeks to know. The hero journey is a symbol that binds, in the original sense of the word, two distant ideas, and the spiritual quest of the ancients with the modern search for identity always the one, shape-shifting yet marvelously constant story that we find.” (Phil Cousineau) The Hero's Journey has been engaged in stories for an immemorial amount of time. These stories target typical connections that help us relate to ourselves as well as the “real world”.
“The Hero’s Journey.” Ariane Publications, 1997. Course handout. AS English I. Dept. of English, Woodside High School. 26 October 2013.
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.
Joseph Campbell studied ancient greek mythology for many years. Joseph filled each stage of the journey very well. He accepted all the challenges he got and all the help he needed. He really knew how to fulfill all those stages. Like everyone goes through a heroic journey everyone has to have a story to tell. My story is very contrasty from Joseph’s because he really knew what all the stages meant. My hero's journey consists of my threshold crossing which was when I started depending on myself more than I did on others, my helpers/mentors like my parents, teachers,my sister and many more influential people in my life and my rewards were getting awards in school, having a nice family, and many friends.
The story is the most powerful and most compelling form of human expression in Leslie Marmon Silko's novel Ceremony. Stories reside within every part of every thing; they are essentially organic. Stories are embedded with the potential to express the sublime strength of humanity as well as the dark heart and hunger for self destruction. The process of creating and interpreting stories is an ancient, ongoing, arduous, entangled, but ultimately rewarding experience. As Tayo begins to unravel his own troubled story and is led and is led toward this discovery, the reader is also encouraged on a more expansive level to undertake a similar interpretive journey. Each story is inextricably bound to a virtually endless narrative chain. While reaching an epiphanal moment, a moment of complete clarity, l is by no means guaranteed, by presenting Tayo as an example, Silko at least suggests there is fundamental worth in pursuing and creating stories.
After Campbell studied a lot of the great myths and realized this pattern, he published his findings in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Ever since then, authors have used “The Hero’s Journey” as an outline to tell their stories. “It is important to note that not all of these individual steps are present in every hero’s tale, nor is it important that they be in this exact order” (Vogler 20). The Hero with a Thousand Faces gives a sense of significance as it looks into the inner mind and soul. The author, Joseph Campbell, performs two extraordinary accomplishments: compelling his readers that myth and dream, those are the most effective and everlasting forces in life and a unification of mythology and psychoanalysis with a gripping narrative.
Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi” shows all three of the main elements of a hero’s journey: the departure, initiation and the return, helping the story to greatly resemble Joseph Campbell’s structure of a hero’s journey. Through the trials Pi has to face, he proves himself to be a true hero. He proves himself, not just while trapped on the lifeboat with Richard Parker, but also before the sinking of the Tsimtsum. His achievement to fulfill the heroic characteristics of Campbell’s model are evident as he goes though the three stages.