Cherian Abraham

English 170 M/T

Elizabeth Guthrie

10/29/19

Minor Assignment #3

 

What if I told you every single book, movie, or story, follows the same essential beats, or patterns? From Finding Nemo to the myths of ancient Greece, these stories follow what is called the Hero’s Journey. The Hero’s Journey is a template used by authors when the story involves a hero who goes out on a journey, gets transformed by the journey, and comes home as a different, or better person. Every common story follows the template laid out in the Hero’s Journey without realizing it most of the time. That is why I plan to write this essay. To inform those who don’t know about the Hero’s Journey and to provide context and examples showing the wide range of media which uses this common template.

In order to understand the Hero’s Journey, we need to talk about the man who popularized the term- Joseph Campbell. Campbell was a literature scholar who wrote the book The Hero With a Thousand Faces (1949). Joseph Campbell had extensive knowledge on different myths from a plethora of cultures and saw patterns between these stories. He used works from philosophers such as Carl Jung, and Sigmund Freud as a basis on much of the novel. In my essay, I plan to use this novel as The Hero With a Thousand Faces perfectly describes, and illustrates the journey of an archetypal hero. We see this portrayal over and over again in all forms of characters, from Harry Potter, to Luke Skywalker. Throughout my essay, I plan to explain the template, and the twelve different parts which comprise the Hero’s Journey.

The first part being the hero’s ordinary world, the world we view before the hero gains knowledge or power. After the introduction to the hero’s ordinary world, the call to adventure is set forth, whether this be forced or by accident. There are parts of the hero’s journey which are optional when making a story.such as when the hero refuses to accept the call of adventure in the third part, but this can be interchanged depending on the maker. After the third part, the fourth part includes the meeting of the mentor, or the teacher that trains the hero in our story. The fifth part, which concludes the first third of a story, is the crossing of the first threshold, or the first main problem the hero has to face. These steps outline the preliminary parts of the hero’s journey, and in my essay I plan to go fully in depth on the twelve different parts.

By writing about the Hero’s Journey, I also plan to relate it to the themes found in dystopian stories such as “Harrison Bergeron” and The Handmaid’s Tale. Both stories follow the Hero’s Journey relatively close. And as both stories play an integral role in our class, it would benefit both my classmates and myself on the ways to craft a dystopian story. Dystopian novels use the Hero’s Journey in an interesting way that can’t be used by other genres. This is because, in stories revolving around dystopian societies, the normal world is a world that is not normal to us. As viewers, we see this society, and we connect to the conquest of the hero breaking free from an either discriminatory, or unfair society. Explaining the use of the Hero’s Journey for stories such as  “Harrison Bergeron” or The Handmaid’s Tale is going to be interesting and crucial for the paper.

The importance of the Hero’s Journey template cannot be understated. Every story, from any medium has features from this template is some way. I plan to use examples from stories my classmates would know as well. Classic stories ranging from Harry Potter, to the StarWars series follow the template very closely, so I plan to use both those tales. Besides using the Hero’s Journey to break down a story, people can use the Hero’s Journey to make their own stories. The template is ingrained in our minds, so stories which follow the patterns and beats of the Hero’s Journey are somehow recognizable and easy to understand. By knowing the parts of the template, anyone could make characters and stories which are able to connect to a vast audience of people. That is the great benefit of knowing the Hero’s Journey.

Understanding art is just as important as making it. That is why I think writing this essay is important. By describing the parts of the Hero’s Journey, and explaining the use of each aspect found in the template, I hope my reader gains a better understanding of the different attributes which make up a story. I hope they’ll be able to create and craft worlds of their own.