Throughout literature, there is a prevalent model found in various narratives that ensures its success. This archetype, called the “journey of the hero,” discovered by Joseph Campbell, serves as a guideline of three stages for authors to manipulate to their own desire. The departure, the initiation, and the return essentially create the same storyline, yet these formats can be molded into unique and refreshing works of art. Aspects of the “journey of the hero” in the movie Shrek 2 are highlighted as the main hero, Shrek, and his wife Princess Fiona depart from their accustomed residence, the swamp, rediscover the meaning of true love through peril, and return with Shrek being able to balance his identity between an ogre and royalty.
Shrek’s journey begins when he receives an invitation from Fiona’s father and promptly travels to the city of Far Far Away. Barely arriving home from his honeymoon, Shrek is “hereby summoned to the kingdom of Far Far Away in celebration of [his] marriage” (Adamson, Asbury, Vernon, Shrek 2). He discerns that Fiona compels him to attend; however, Shrek has observed the grandiose procession during the reading of his summoning, and remarks he is out of place, being an ogre. By highlighting the differences brought upon by the notice, Shrek demonstrates he understands that his life is about to change drastically, fulfilling his call to adventure. Under pressure from Fiona and Donkey, his loyal friend, Shrek embarks on the road to Far Far Away. When he finally enters the gate of the extravagant city, Shrek sighs and asserts that “[they] are definitely not in the swamp anymore” (Adamson, Asbury, Vernon, Shrek 2). The area between Shrek’s swamp and the land of Far Far Away that he crosses serves as a threshold,...
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...accepts his wife’s life of royalty, and assimilates into an unfamiliar family, ending his journey.
Shrek’s endeavor closely follows the structure of the journey of the hero, as he departs from his swamp, initiates an adventure of saving his wife, and returns to his old life with new developments. After saving Fiona, Shrek does not gain anything physically; however, he gains knowledge that he originally did not have, and grows emotionally. He is able to accept Fiona’s parents, and learns that they are actually kind hearted people, despite their royal demeanor. Shrek understands what Fiona has gone through on her parent’s side, helping him strengthen his love. The journey of the hero may follow the heroes’ physical steps and accomplishments, but it also assists heroes in transcending and breaking through their old barriers into new ones of knowledge and confidence.
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. 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. One well-known example of “The Hero’s Journey” from popular culture is the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling. In the novel, Harry Potter, the main character, is the chosen one and “The Hero’s Journey” applies to his life from the moment he is attacked by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named as a baby.
This is noticeable when the fairytale creatures were banished to the swamp by Lord Farquaad. Since they were not normal human beings, they were seen as outcasts and thus banished away from the kingdom. This is also obvious when the townspeople go to kill Shrek with pitchforks. Shrek, being an ogre, is seen as different from the townspeople and a threat to them. This causes them to want to kill him to ensure security. The second thing I noticed in Shrek ties along with in-group and outgroup, which is prejudice. Prejudice is seen in Shrek during the scene when Shrek has a conversation with Donkey explaining why the world doesn’t understand him. Shrek spoke of the prejudice people had towards him. He told Donkey that people judge him before they even get to know him. People view him as a big, ugly, stupid ogre who wants to do nothing but eat them. This is the reason why Shrek is so isolated and avoids becoming close with anyone. The townspeople are prejudice towards Shrek because of his appearance which is similar to how certain people are prejudice based on skin color. Right after this, friendship formulation occurs between Shrek and Donkey. Like Shrek, Donkey has been treated
Tens of thousands of stories fit into the hero’s journey archetype created by Christopher Volger. Out of these, a large number of them are stories with remakes that share notable resemblances to their heroes’ journeys. However, none of these quite match those very strong similarities found between Homer’s The Odyssey and Joel Coens ’s O
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.”
The first scene of Shrek starts off with him in his swamp having fun to an upbeat track (All Star by Smash Mouth), which presents Shrek to be a laidback, peaceful character. After the opening scene, there were a bunch of nearby villagers, who have negative stereotypes about ogres, headed towards Shrek’s swamp to try to drive him away from there (Constructivism). The usage of stereotypes set a theme for the film, to never judge a book by its cover. Once Shrek met Donkey and Fiona, neither one of them assumed that because Shrek was an ogre, it meant he is an evil monster. In addition, everyone else in the movie does not call him Shrek. Everyone calls him “Ogre” instead, further confirming the stereotype. In another scene after Fiona goes into a cave at night to sleep, Shrek and Donkey have a conversation of the aftermath of their quest to rescue Fiona. Shrek goes off on a tangent about how people hate him despite not even getting to know him. Donkey shows an example of personal construct by telling Shrek that he never thought of him as an ugly monster. This scene shows the bipolar dimensions aspect, where people who never tried to know more about Shrek would have a default negative view about him. Donkey, who learned more about Shrek during their journey, does not characterize him as any type of villain and
Fiona fall in love. Then Fiona turns out to be an ogre, and then Shrek
The final element that I thought was very important to the play was the theme. The theme was the main thing that the musical was about and basically the whole reason for several actors, directors, producers, prop designers, etc. to spend so much time and effort to put on the play. One major theme in the musical was the theme of acceptance. Ogres aren’t typical characters in fairy tales that are accepted very much. The story of Shrek and Fiona teach people that it’s okay to be different and to be yourself which i think is a very important lesson.
Then he has a vision of home, "where his four beautiful daughters would have had their lunch and might be playing tennis" and sees himself as free to be an explorer. In starting his journey he walks away from reality and enters a fantasy world where he is a great explorer about to conquer the Lucinda River that he names after his wife. In reality he ignored his wife, engaged in adulte...
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
In this essay I am going to analyse the characters of shrek and Lord Farquaad, and write about how filmmakers use different camera angles, lighting, music and setting to create an unusual fairy tale. The giant in jack and the beanstalk is what we expect of giants/ogres. In traditional fairy tales ogres are normally man-eating beast, at the beginning of shrek, shrek is what you expect him to be like. When the farmers go to his swamp and the meet shrek. When shrek is shouting at them the low angle camera shot makes shrek look intimidating to the crowd and audience.
These timeless tales relate a message that readers throughout the ages can understand and relate to. While each of these tales is not exactly alike, they do share a common core of events. Some event and or character flaw necessitates a journey of some kind, whether it is an actual physical journey or a metaphorical one. The hardships and obstacles encountered on said journey lead to spiritual growth and build character. Rarely does a person find himself unchanged once the journey is over.
Many of the stories that have been told for centuries, or have recently been created, incorporate the story of a young innocent character who embarks on a journey and becomes a hero, known as The Hero’s Journey; a series of steps that all heroes follow. This journey not only shows the main character becoming a hero but also shows the hero move along a path similar to that of adolescence, the path between childhood and maturity. The Hero’s Journey was created by a man by the name of Joseph Campbell. He wrote a book called The Hero with One Thousand Faces, a novel containing a variety of stories that follow the steps of the Hero’s Journey. One famous creation that follows The Hero’s Journey is the science fiction film trilogy: Star Wars, created by George Lucas. Lucas depicts the struggles that take place along the path of adolescence through the story of a protagonist Luke Skywalker, who strives to become a Jedi Knight to show that Campbell’s Hero’s Journey reflects the struggles that youth go through whether they are depicted in a story or not.
Myths have been a great example of the hero’s journey. Many heroes have journeys and trials to face throughout their life. Most of their journeys start out with their origin and end with the return. However, the hero’s role remains identical to every other hero. Most heroes like Gilgamesh has heroic traits because of the stages in the hero's journey. Gilgamesh is a man who can turn into a hero by changing himself, even when he has unusual circumstances surrounding his birth. Gilgamesh is viewed as a hero due to the stages of the hero's journey.
The widely popular film Shrek, produced and distributed by DreamWorks in 2001, grossed a total of $484,409,218 in worldwide sales (Box Office Mojo). The success of the film has led DreamWorks to create several shorts, companion films, and sequels. From its memorable characters to its whimsical, edgy humor, Shrek was an amazing, highly successful animation that would pave the way for DreamWorks to make billions off the franchise. Shrek’s success can be attributed to three main factors: the range of ages it appeals to, its creative use of intertextuality, and its ability to cover a wide range of the fairy tale functions proposed by Vladimir Propp.
The animated film Shrek is a Dreamworks fairy tale that teaches us to look beyond what we expect to see, by completely subverting the traditional fairy tale concepts of gender, appearance and beauty. The characters in Shrek are vastly different from what we would expect to see in their appearance and behaviour. With unexpected plot twists, the directors of Shrek create important messages and morals that would not usually be conveyed, using techniques such as humour. The techniques have been placed strategically to result in an entertaining and educational film.