The mold of the heroic template is evident throughout various types of media. Within movies, novels, and poems the hero’s journey is present. Of course, not every piece of literature or movie follows the cycle. However, the idea of the monomyth arose from Joseph Campbell. He wrote his own book, The Hero of a Thousand Faces, within his writing he describes that heroes’ follow the same basic procedure throughout their quest(s). This is where the idea of the hero monomyth arose. In Michael Lewis’s novel, The Blind Side, he portrays “The heroic monomyth.” The Blind Side consists of the basic characters and archetypes that accurately reflect the heroic template.
Within every basic cycle different heroes embark on different quests. In Campbell’s
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book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, it states, “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” Leigh Anne Tuohy sets the stage as a white, rich, confident women who is set out to be a hero. In Joseph’s cycle the hero’s journey begins with the world of common day or the ordinary world, where Leigh-Anne is a parent of two who attend Briarcrest Christain School. Among other people she stands out as and outgoing person. However, she notices an African American boy around the age of 17 and goes by the name of Michael Oher. His mom is a drug abuser and he gets sent to foster homes constantly. Except, he runs, he runs when he doesn’t know what to do. Leigh-Anne decides to offer him their house to stay and rest for the night. In The Blind Side, by Michael Lewis, Leigh-Anne recites, “God gives people money to see how you’re going to handle it.” She did just that she intended to prove her point towards benefiting Michael. Lewis follows Campbell’s concepts thoroughly within his story.
As the hero surpasses the world of common day they find their call to adventure. Leigh-Anne worries about Michael and considers bringing Michael in as one of her own. Next, the refusal of the call, Michael is a quiet and reserved person, whose action are questionable to Sean Tuohy, Leigh-Annes husband. He worries that becoming legal guardians of Michael will influence him to take advantage of Leigh-Annes actions to provide for michael. Her actions are a true reflection of Campbell’s affirmations as he acknowledges in his book, A Hero with a Thousand Faces, “The big question is are you going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure?” Leigh-Anne always gets her way and has no fear that she will do anything to support Michael. Meeting with the mentor, as Leigh-Anne approaches her journey with Michael, her family, Sean, her daughter Collins, and her son SJ help to guide and mentor her. Her family begins to truly see how Michael is impacting their lives. As Leigh-Anne crosses the threshold she takes in her family's support of becoming Michael's family. Michaels worries begin to surpass as he no longer has to figure when his next meal will be or even where he will have to sleep. Leigh-Anne grew up with a racist background and her dad never accepted African American people. However, she herself saw nothing different by the color of Michael's skin. Leigh-Annes friends begin to test her choices and how Michael may …show more content…
commit crimes or influence Collins. She gets through her friends doubt with the help of her allies otherwise known as her family. Trouble begins to grow whenever her enemy of Michael’s past arises. Michael's hometown and previous events never bring bright memories back for Michael or Leigh-Anne. Half of Campbell’s monomyth cycle is presented and is a reflection of his theory. Furthermore, Joseph's cycle is still to be continued and is evident throughout Michael Lewis’s novel.
The Tuohys begin to approach the inmost and Michael is taking on the position of an offensive tackle for Briarcrest. On Michael's journey Collins and SJ begin to keep an eye out for Michael and help him stay on track with grades and prepare for his future. The next step is the road back, Michael has never had substantial grades and for the past couple months Leigh-Anne has been there to help him through school. Meanwhile, she decides she needs more help than she can provide him and decides to hire a tutor, Miss Sue. Along comes the supreme ordeal and Michael’s color, size, and physical agility allow him to significantly stand out. On the contrary, Leigh-Anne receives arrogant comments about Michael during his opening game of football. Even though the comments aren’t directly to her, but more so Michael. As stated in The Blind Side, Leigh Anne snarled to the crowd, “If you threaten my son, you threaten me.” In this situation she has conformed her costume from a bed provider to a moral bodyguard. This ties along with Joseph’s claim made in his book A Hero With a Thousand Faces, where he claims, “The hero is the same, but the costume changes.” The mold of the heroic template within Leigh-Anne is proving honor and dignity toward
Michael. With every action comes a reaction. The reward is Michael and how he has brought the beauty out in the Tuohy’s. In return They have been able to witness Michael's true talent and progress through school and football. Joseph’s cycle approaches the resurrection, where it's time that Michael decide his path for college. His decisions lie between Tennessee and Ole Miss. With Leigh-Anne’s and Miss Sue background at Ole miss they begin to entice Michael to follow in their footsteps. Except, Michael become overwhelmed with his choices and pressure from the NCAA investigators of the Tuohy’s trying to use Michael to boost Ole Miss football program. By this time Leigh-Anne is weeping that Michael has got up and ran away. As the journey comes to an end the Tuohy's return with the “elixir”, Michael returns home and sorts out his thoughts. He chooses to go down the same path his family once traveled. He realizes his family if the answer to his happiness. The hero, Leigh-Anne is grateful for her blessing of her family. Nevertheless, certain hero’s journey are to be continued or rearranged. Michael Lewis accurately portrayed Campbell's monomyth within his novel, The Blind Side. Leigh-Annes journey shows a true reflection of the twenty-first century culture. She may not wear a cape or a mask, but she reflects a loving mother and in our society today, a mother is a true hero. Therefore, Leigh-Anne is is an accurate cogitation of our culture today. Over all Michael Lewis’s writing describes Joseph Campbell's theory. Although each individual could perceive Michael lewis interpretation of a hero he persistently simulates a heroic monomyth and includes the necessary elements and character archetypes.
Heroes do not always look the same, or even appear as a Hero, “Heroes wear many faces because of their responses to the numerous needs of individuals” (Brown). Young Michael Oher is trying to find a place where he fits in and is accepted, when the Touhy family welcomes him with open arms. She soon realizes that Michael in is need of help and she says herself, “I just think Michael needed somebody, and it was so evident that there was nobody in his life. And it just broke my heart” (Touhy).
Assignment details: Analyze the components of the hero’s journey. Basically, support the argument that Jaws follows the epic hero cycle. Name specific examples from the movie and connect them to the hero’s journey. However, this is not a plot summary. You are not retelling the story, but selecting examples to support the analysis.
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.
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.
We all are heroes of our own story, and it is a quality seen in many movies and books. The hero's journey is about progress and passage. This journey involves a separation from the unknown, known world, and a series of phases the hero must go through . Each stage of the journey must be passed successfully if the person is to become a hero. In “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, the main character Amir faces a series of trials and goes through obstacles where the concept of his childhood dies. Amir's mother passes away during his birth, and his left with the suspicion that his father blames him for her death. Amir longes for his father's attention and approval, but does not receive any affection as a son. He grows up with his Hazara best friend, Hassan. In Afghanistan culture, Hazaras are considered lower class and inferiors in society. Amir describes his friendship with Hassan saying, “then he would remind us that there was a brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast, a kinship that not even time could break." (20). Amir first refuses the call of action due to being afraid of the adventure ahead of him. Call to action is the very first step of the hero's journey, where the hero is disrupted and the
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.
What is a hero? To our understanding, a hero is a person who is admired for great or brave acts. Joseph Campbell, an American mythologist, and writer wrote The Odyssey. In this novel he talks about The Heroes Journey which are twelve different stages of adventure known as the Ordinary World, the Call to Adventure, Refusal of the Call, Meeting the Mentor, Crossing the Threshold, Test/Allies/Enemies, Approach to the Inmost Cave, Ordeal, Reward, the Road Back, Resurrection, and the Return With The Elixir. The Odyssey is about a legendary hero named Odysseus, who fought among the Greeks in the battle of Troy and went through the stages of The Heroes Journey. Odysseus lived in Ithaca, Northwest of Greece, with his wife Penelope and son Telemachus.
“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, or in its more correct terminology the Monomyth is an object from the area of comparative mythology. Its definition in the most basic of forms, it is a pattern or outline that is used in storytelling, usually the myth. This pattern is found in many famous pieces from all around the world. In the book The Hero with a Thousand Faces from 1949 by author Joseph Campbell, this pattern is described in detail. Campbell describes that numerous myths from different times and areas of the world seem to share an identical structure in their storytelling. He summarized this with a well-known quote found at the intro of his book:
The word hero as defined as 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.” (Harrison 2). Although heroes can come in any shape and size they are commonly found in stories we read, movies we watch, or people we look up to. We do not think about it much but even our own life is made up of many hero’s journeys. We never realize that our hardships and how we overcome them is exactly what a Hero’s Journey is about and why we relate to and enjoy these stories so much. I will be going into the depths of a Hero’s
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. While fulfilling their journey, a hero must undergo a psychological change that involves experiencing a transformation from immaturity into independence and sophistication.Campbell states that these events are what ultimately guides a hero into completing
An English proverb states, “ A hero is a man who is afraid to run away”. I agree with this proverb, because when you see a hero in a comic book, they have super cool back stories, are not afraid to fight, and stare danger in the face and not blink. They are not afraid of anything. That’s nice to look up to, but they are not real. Our definition of a hero is too much for one man to become, you can do something honorable, heroic, but you will never actually be a hero because it's too much, in real life. Heroes don’t just do it so they can get paid, or respect. What really determines whether someone is a hero is if they choose to do something about it in a bad situation. We have people that do heroic acts, for example, people putting their lives before others. Those people cannot be heroes because they get paid to do it, they are, firefighters, cops, and military, they get paid to help people, so they aren't considered a hero.
“The hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventurer with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man” Joseph Campbell has eloquently expressed in this excerpt from ‘The Hero With a Thousand Faces’, the adventure the hero will experience, and the transformation they may ultimately undergo as a result of their quest.
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.