A hero is a person who is admired for their courage, outstanding achievements or their noble qualities. An aspiring hero often has to go on a quest or journey to complete their destiny or goal. This journey can be found throughout countless pieces of literature. The study of hero myth narratives began in 1871 with anthropologist Edward Taylor, made observations of common patterns in plots of hero's journeys which talked about in his novel Introduction: In Quest of the Hero. Eventually hero myth pattern studies became well known and popularized by Joesph Campbell, who was influenced by Carl Jung's and his view of myth. In his 1949 novel, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell described this basic narrative pattern. He broke it into three main …show more content…
parts: the Departure, the Initiation, and the Return. The Hero’s Journey is a intricate story path that when followed creates an interesting and intriguing tale that grabs the attention and admiration of the reader. To understand why this story model is enjoyable when done well, first we must understand the layout of the Hero’s Journey. In the first part, the Departure, the hero receives the Call to Adventure. Before the journey usually the hero begins in a situation that is in some sense normal but receives information the acts as the call. Campbell in his book wrote, “The adventure may begin as a mere blunder... or still again, one may be only casually strolling when some passing phenomenon catches the wandering eye and lures one away from the frequented paths of man.” He explains that the hero may not be expecting a full adventure from the call as much as he is expecting to solve a small problem or issue. The original situation of normality the hero begins in is helpful because it creates a bond between the reader and a hero that will last through the rest of the journey despite the surrealness that follows. After the Call to Adventure, comes the Refusal of the Call in which the hero initially rejects the call. This refusal can be from their obligation, sense of duty, sense of inadequacy, or and combination of these or other factors that may be holding them back. After the hero has committed to the quest, wether it be unconsciously or consciously, a helper or guide becomes known, and the phase of Meeting the Mentor begins.
Often this mentor will provide the hero with a tool or artifact that will help the hero complete his quest. This tool will usually end up being what helps the hero complete the quest in the end. Though the mentor may not survive the journey alongside the hero, their impact will forever change the hero’s mindset. The next part of the Hero’s Journey is Crossing the First Threshold. The hero finally leaves the known and enters the unknown where the rules and limits are unknown to the hero and the reader. An example of this is in Star Wars when Luke is leaving his home planet Tattione. These thresholds are often guarded, whether it be by people, monsters, or difficulties that have to be overcome before continuing the journey. The final part of the Departure is the Belly of the Whale, which represents the final separation from the hero’s known self and world. By entering this stage, the hero shows willingness to undergo a transformation in this journey. The hero may encounter a setback or minor danger in this stage before entering the Initiation. This is the end of the Departure and the hero enters the next phase of their …show more content…
journey. The next phase of the journey, the Initiation, begins with the Road of Trails. The road of trials is a set of tests, often three, that the hero must undergo to transform. Often this hero will fail one or more of these tests. Campbell put it as, “He here discovers for the first time that there is a benign power everywhere supporting him in his superhuman passage… there will be a multitude of preliminary victories, unretainable ecstasies and momentary glimpses of the wonderful land." Soon begins the Meeting with the Goddess, the phase where the hero faces the daunting test, winning the challenge of love. The next phase is the Woman as Temptress. In this step, the hero faces temptations, either of a physical or pleasurable nature, that may lead them to stray from their quest. This temptation does not necessarily have to be represented by a woman. Woman in this sense is a metaphor for the material or physical temptations of life. The hero is often tempted by lust from their spiritual journey that they must continue to complete. This temptation is an important part of the journey because it makes the hero more relatable to the audience. The journey continues with Atonement with the Father/Abyss, in which the hero must confront and be initiated by whatever holds the power in our hero’s life.
This is a step that again is relatable to the viewer in concept although the hero often is facing something or someone with incredible power. This is the center point of the journey. All the previous steps have been moving into this, and all that will follow will move out from it. Then comes the stage of Apotheosis. This is the hero’s point of realization in which a greater understanding is achieved. This arms the hero with new knowledge and a new perception and the hero is now ready for the more difficult part of the adventure. The last stage of the Intiaition is the Ultimate Boon, this is the achievement of the original quest our hero set out on. Although they achieve this their journey is not over at this point. Every step has been so far to prepare and to purify the hero for this point, because in many stories the boon is something beyond life itself like the Holy
Grail. The last part of the hero’s journey is the Return. The Return begins with the Refusal of the Return, in which the hero may not desire to return to their ordinary world after finding blissing and enlightenment along their journey. As Campbell puts it, “When the hero-quest has been accomplished, through penetration to the source… the monomyth requires that the hero shall now begin the labor of bringing the runes of wisdom, the Golden Fleece, or his sleeping princess, back into the kingdom of humanity, where the boon may redound to the renewing of the community, the nation, the planet or the ten thousand worlds. But the responsibility has been frequently refused.” Our hero may not want to end their journey and let another hero begin their journey, but rather wish to stay in this unknown land of fantasy. After all, when you have seen wonders of the world, why would you wish to return to your normal life? After the Refusal, begins the Magic Flight. Sometimes if the hero has taken something that has been guarded, returning from the journey can be just as dangerous as the journey to get it was. The Magic Flight is the return home from the journey. At this point the hero has entered the phase of the Rescue from Without. In this step the hero may need someone to help help them return back to everyday life, just as they needed a mentor to help them begin the journey, especially if the hero has been changed by their journey. The next step is the Crossing of the Threshold, in which the hero struggles in to retain the wisdom gained on the quest while also figuring out how to share their learning with the rest of the world. After the Crossing of the Threshold, the next phase of the journey is called Master of Two Worlds. This step can be represented by transcendental hero akin to Jesus, or for a human hero it may be achieving a balance between spiritual and material. The hero becomes skillful in both inner and outer worlds. The last step in the Hero’s Journey is the Freedom to Live. At the end of our hero’s journey they have gained freedom from the fear of death and now have the freedom to live and can now live in the moment. They no longer regret the past nor anticipate the future. With this our hero has completed there journey in whole and has become a better person because of it. This is the Hero’s Journey from start to finish. It is a layout that many stories follow, and it is clear why so many chose to have their characters follow it. It leads to an interesting yet at the core relatable character and hero.
The first major step is a call to adventure. In this step, there’s something in the hero’s life that requires them to do something or go somewhere and take some type of action. Second, the hero must enter the unknown. This step sends the hero into a new world, entering something unfamiliar to the hero. By entering unfamiliar territory, whether it’s a place, an event never experiences, there are challenges and temptations the hero must face. With every new world comes new challenges. Dealing with new people or being alone.
Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist, conveys, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom”. In other words, Aristotle states that the gaining of self-knowledge provides an individual with the ability to know one’s personal gifts and accountabilities. To start one’s adult life a person must pursue the journey of self-discovery to learn in depth about their skills and weaknesses. Individuals must find themselves through the limitations and ordeals that they face during their voyage for self-awareness. For example, in Tim O’Brien’s short story, “On the Rainy River”, the narrator shares his story about self-discovery. O’Brien looks back into his past, to the time when he was called to serve in the Vietnam War. O’Brien’s initial
As the story comes to its conclusion, the hero has endured his hardships; he went from the one that started fights to the one that thought of what could make everything work. An ordinary person in an ordinary world faced his share of trials and tribulations to come out as a new person. Defining the hero myth—he struggled and still was able to triumph to his prize at the end ; individuals relish these type of stories, they can
The first phase of a hero’s journey, as outlined by Joseph Campbell, is the Departure. In this
The first stage of the hero’s journey is the departure. This stage begins when a herald gives the hero the call to adventure. The herald in this story is the Big Lebowski who as a bitter, crippled old man fits the description of the herald having a loathsome, underestimated appearance. The call to adventure comes when he offers the Dude $20,000 to make the drop off of Bun...
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
The embarkation of the hero’s journey is more than a call, it is taking control of your life and discovering the hero who dwells inside you. Each hero who enters the journey is tested to the very end of the cycle, where the hero must choose rebirth or death. Othello is man of many fortunes, but he does not have what it takes to complete the Hero’s Journey.
Departure, is when the main character is leaving their ordinary world behind because they have received the call to adventure by the herald. Once they have enter the first threshold, their life begins to change. They come face to face with the threshold guardian, who is trying to prevent the potential hero from moving forward into their journey. However, with the amulet provided by the mentor, the hero is able to defeat the threshold guardian and continue on seeking knowledge. During the initiation, the hero goes through trials, allies and enemies. As well as, receiving enlightenment along the way. The hero slowly realizes their old world was a trapped for them because their have not fulfilled their needs and wants. One of the most prominent stages of the hero’s journey is the Belly of the Whale. When entered into the Belly of the Whale, the hero is reborn into a new person. After their resurrection, the hero encounters one last battle with death before returning to the ordinary world with the elixir. The elixir, or the boon, is a reward the hero receives once they completed their journey. Often, the hero’s thoughts were the boon being a physical object such as buried treasure or finding love from another. However, they receive a spiritual token or lesson to be shared with others because it is important to bring knowledge to others around you in order to not be lost. If the ones
The second concept of the Hero’s journey shows us that all stories are the same. They all follow the same pattern or algorithm of separation, initiation, and return. An example from the movie is the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy is removed from her natural environment by a tornado, initiated with a lion, scarecrow, and tin man, and the group embarks on a journey to see the wizard. In the end, she is able to return home by clicking her heels. She realizes she has had the ability the whole time, but she needed to test herself. We are just like the characters we see in our favoritie movies, books, and shows – they are a metaphor for us as normal human beings. The last concept I learned is “Follow your bliss”. This concept of bliss is defined in many ways. One definition is serenity. Another definition is the thing you cannot not do. It is what makes a person feel alive. In order to answer the question of what is your bliss, you must ask yourself difficult questions like: What am I passionate about? What makes hours seem like minutes? What made me different as a child? After answering these tough questions, a person can find their
The “Call to Adventure” is the part in the hero’s journey where the hero receives their first
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
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 their journey by, “leaving one condition and finding the source of life to bring you forth into a richer more mature condition” (Moyers 1). She first enters her journey when she learns about invisible strength from her mother, “I was six when my mother taught me the art of invisible strength. It was strategy for winning arguments, respect from others, and eventually, though neither of us knew it at the time, chess games”(Tan 89).
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.
According to Webster’s dictionary a definition for a hero is “a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent” (Dictionary). The thing with heroes is that they are not all mythological or legendary figures; in fact, heroes can be almost anyone that hold our admiration towards them for whatever reason. Any person can be deemed a hero from the random person seen walking across the street to one of your relative, so eloquently it is there journey that person goes through that makes them become the hero. In Joseph Campbell’s book Hero with a Thousand Faces to be a hero you have to follow along the steps that Joseph Campbell created called Mystic Hero’s Journey. From the start of the first stage where the call to adventure begins it all,
In movies, novels, and life, people are named as heroes. The heroes we establish and the heroes we recognize, however, may not meet the criteria for a mythic hero. A mythic hero ventures forth on his journey, and comes forth from the hero’s path to greatness. Joseph Campbell, a mythologist who studied many of the great human myths and religious tales, realized, in studying these myths and tales, that there were certain steps that every hero went through. Campbell called this “The Hero’s Journey”; it is based on Carl Jung's idea that all human beings have an archetype.