The Quest Archetype
When examining various cultural myths, one archetype keeps repeating—the image of the quest. This archetype functions with various different mythologies as a method of learning about the world, both its external features and what is inside the self. The quest comes from ancient origins and is found in Classical Western culture, but has been fine tuned through the generations. In its most modern interpretations, there are continuing elements of the age old myth, where extenuating circumstances or hubris, place the hero in turmoil and needing to find an answer. Having additional sexual charges, it is clear that through the quest, adulthood is not only reached but embraced. This answer represents a completeness of being, where the individual is exposed to the whole truth of the universe, unbiased by cultural fragmentations. Thus, the quest represents a crucial journey to be made in the search for enlightenment, a fact which is common across cultural borders. Along this journey, mistakes are made in part through the natural exhibition of hubris in which personal flaws are revealed, and the young figure must change his or her priorities, beliefs, or behaviors in order to transcend his current state and reach some form of enlightenment.
The archetype of the quest is an image engrained in numerous cultures around the world. Thus it must be rooted in our very psychology, stemming from some cognitive need to search for meaning. There is the reappearance of the constant quest for meaning to the external world and every day events in the work of Carl Jung (Stevens 37). According to Stevens, “the basic motive of human psychology is the quest for wholeness,” (Stevens 39).
Thus, the quest archetype provides the path to on...
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...o reach a sense of wholeness in that it presents the opportunity to adjust behavior and belief patterns to a more morally conscious state. Through learning from mistakes and misgivings, the individual finds truth.
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mythic story of the questing hero is a metaphor of the inward journey to self-knowledge, that
The quest narrative is a common method of narration present in almost every adventure story in one form or another. One key characteristic which defines all quest narratives, irrespective of type, is the search for a “Holy Grail” – symbolic of something the protagonist desires. In a quest narrative it is often appropriate to refer to the protagonist as the hero. However, despite the connotations of the word “hero” to a figure who is flawless in both form and disposition, the hero usually does not begin the story as a perfect figure; the hero must undergo a series of trials and tribulations to which the hero emerges as a changed character. It is this journey to achieve greatness that characterizes all quest narratives. “Sonny’s Blues” (1959) by James Baldwin and “Araby” (1916) by James Joyce can both be interpreted as quest narratives because they each adhere to the archetype established by quest narrative. For instance both stories have the symbolic Holy Grail that gives objectification to each protagonist’s desires. In addition there are instances in both texts of a trial that changes the protagonist’s outlook, allowing the character to achieve realization in completing his quest. In “Sonny’s Blues” and “Araby” there is a “Holy Grail”– fulfilling the role as big brother in “Sonny’s Blues” and the girl in “Araby” – and a trial that serves as the protagonist’s rebirth – the deaths of family members in “Sonny’s Blues” and the bazaar in “Araby”; these symbols make both texts quest narratives.
For centuries, authors have been writing stories about man's journey of self-discovery. Spanning almost three-thousand years, the Epic of Gilgamesh, Homer's Odyssey, and Dante's Inferno are three stories where a journey of self-discovery is central to the plot. The main characters, Gilgamesh, Telemachus, and Dante, respectively, find themselves making a journey that ultimately changes them for the better. The journeys may not be exactly the same, but they do share a common chain of events. Character deficiencies and external events force these three characters to embark on a journey that may be physical, metaphorical, or both. As their journeys progress, each man is forced to overcome certain obstacles and hardships. At the end of the journey, each man has been changed, both mentally and spiritually. These timeless tales relate a message that readers throughout the ages can understand and relate to.
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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.
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The writer acquaints the reader with the idea of myth. While recognizing that researchers contrast enormously on the exact definition, Oswalt demands that this should not discourage the single person from looking for a decent meaning of the saying. While trying to help characterize the saying, he records four essential qualities of a myth. These qualities conclude that people have practically zero natural worth, they are relatively absence of enthusiasm toward history, they are fascinated with magic and the occult, and they refuse to acknowledge obligation regarding individual
“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”.
In this chapter, a quest is defined to consist of five main elements: (a) a quester, (b) a place to go, (c) a stated reason to go there, (d) challenges and trials en route, and (e) a reason and go there. Element (a), the quester, is understood to be embarking on a journey while being with or without the realization that he/she is on a quest. The quester is also often depicted as one of youth because youth is accompanied with inexperience and a lack of self knowledge which allows the ultimate goal of the quest to be fulfilled which is the gating of this knowledge.
(200)This mythic study will define the first ten stages of the hero’s journey as defined by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell defines the various stages of the hero’s journey within the context of a universal mythic "cycle” found in world ligature. These similar events define the universal stages of the hero’s journey in (1) the call to adventure, (2) refusal of the call, (3) supernatural aid, (4) the first threshold, (5) challenges, (6)revelation (7) abyss (rebirth), (8) transformation, (9) atonement, and (10) the return in the gift of the goddess. These ten stages define the cycle of the heroic journey, which
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