Cherian Abraham

English 170 M/T

Elizabeth Guthrie

10/29/19

Minor Assignment #4

 

For Major Assignment #2 I plan on writing an essay which describes what the Hero’s Journey is, while connecting the template to the overarching ideas of dystopia found in our class. By breaking down the five aspects of rhetorical analysis: the audience, the purpose, the stance, the genre, and the media/design: I plan to map the different parts which will go into this essay. It is important to understand how I interpret each aspect of this rhetorical analysis to effectively engage my reader.

My intended audience for Major Assignment #2 is primarily the people in my class. The people in my class represent the generation of kids I grew up with, otherwise known as Generation Z. In order to connect with my main audience, I plan to use the stories we read in our class- “Harrison Bergeron” and The Handmaid’s Tale. As everyone in my class read those two novels, it would be beneficial to implement how the Hero’s Journey can be seen in both stories. I can talk about other stories as well, such as Star Wars or even talk about video games such as Halo, to connect to a broader and wider audience. I feel like implementing different art mediums attracts a wider audience, but since my primary audience is my classmates, I would need to focus in on the dystopian genre. 

The purpose of my essay is to explain, relate, and teach readers about the Hero’s Journey. I feel like knowing about this useful template makes a person a better reader, and a better consumer of media. By knowing the information I plan to write in Major Assignment #2, I feel like my audience would be able to even write stories of their own, if they wanted to. Explaining the Hero’s Journey would involve describing the twelve different parts which comprise the template. Relating the template would involve taking stories my audience would know, and showing how the plots in those stories fit perfectly into the Hero’s Journey template. All of this would allow me to effectively teach readers the uses of this powerful tool in reading and writing.

I have a strong stance on the side for teaching the Hero’s Journey. Some say that the Hero’s Journey can’t relate to every story, and I disagree with that. I believe all stories fit into the template, it’s just that some forms of stories switch up the order to throw off the viewer. One example can be seen in the movie Pulp Fiction (1994). Although the movie doesn’t follow the traditional three part act, the parts involved in the Hero’s Journey are still present. Their just switched up, and not in chronological order. Another argument against the side of the Hero’s Journey is that it forces writers to craft a piece which follows the same beats as any other story. I disagree with this stance as well, as plenty of stories use the building blocks in the template, while implementing new ways to engage the audience.

The genre of my Major Assignment #2 paper is a non-fictional analysis. The references and sources that are going to be used in the paper involve stories in the genres of dystopian, science fiction, fiction and nonfiction. I plan to incorporate Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces (1949) while explaining the parts of the Hero’s Journey. For relating stories to the template, I plan to use Star Wars, the character of Spider-Man, The Handmaid’s Tale, and “Harrison Bergeron”. This may or may not change later on however, as there are so many stories which implement the Hero’s Journey. I will try to incorporate different media forms, such as video games, television shows, and movies.

To communicate my ideas, I plan to use the media form of a paper essay. By using a paper essay, I hope to convey the importance of the Hero’s Journey, while also teaching readers about the concept and the template. Using different media forms such as books, shows, movies, and video games, should strengthen the overall paper, while engaging my audience in a variety of ways.

A rhetorical analysis is meant to teach the audience something they did not know before. I hope by writing this essay, I teach my audience about the Hero’s Journey while also persuading them to use the template to craft stories of their own. It’s good to burrow, and take ideas from your favorite artist and use it in the work you want to make. By crafting something of your own, you’re showing the world your visions of it. The Hero’s Journey allows this to be done in the media of storytelling, and I cannot implore this template enough.