The Hero's Journey Essay

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Joseph Campbell


Joseph Campbell is an inspirational and powerful man. Campbell has done many many things in his life that he could see the same themes in every story about a hero. The hero with one thousand faces is what Campbell it. In Campbell's book The Power of Myth, he talks about the hero’s journey. The hero’s journey is the outline of every story that has a hero in it. It is the stages that the hero goes through every time in a fictional story. Campbell saw that this was the case after he had read so many books he realized that the hero was the same in every story. The Power of Myth tells people that everyone has the opportunity to be a hero in their life. Campbell talks about how everyday people such as mothers giving birth …show more content…

In particular, Campbell has many specific views on the myths of the world. Campbell has many beliefs on many of the myths and the journeys that take place every day in the world. One such belief is that being born is a transformation all on its own and it also gives you the ability to become a hero. Campbell talks about that everyone undergoes the transformation of being born but that it is a different transformation for everyone. Campbell says in his book The Heros Journey "You are in no way a self-responsible, free agent, but an obedient dependent, expecting and receiving of punishment and rewards"(Campbell 124). Campbell says this because everyone should always be accepting of what life brings us. Being born is not only a transformation for the child but it is also a transformation for the mother. The mother also undergoes an important transformation because she demonstrates so much courage while consciously delivering her child. Campbell states "That's and an enormous transformation, and it had been undertaken while still awake, it would have indeed been a heroic act"(Campbell 125). Women who deliver their babies are now considered to be the same as warriors. In some myths, it thought that women who die during childbirth go to the same heaven as warriors do. Being born and delivering a baby are both massive transformations but, Campbell describes how each of these acts should be thought of and talked about with the utmost

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