Summary: The Hero's Journey

Decent Essays
All works of literature and art entwine in a common thread that connects the stories by a universal and malleable outline- the Hero’s Journey. Joseph Campbell’s the Hero’s Journey, or the monomyth, applies to all stories to some degree through its 17-stages. The stages divide into 3 major components- separation (the Call to Adventure), initiation (the Trials), and return (the Aftermath and the Return)- that can pertain to individual journeys of self-actualization or endeavors of resolving external conflicts. Every story follows the monomyth’s structure to any extent. All stories can further separate and classify into any category of Ronald B. Tobias’s 20 Master Plots which include quest and adventure, rivalry and underdog, metamorphosis and

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Hero's Journey

    • 1646 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The term “hero” has been around since the late fourteenth century; however, the term is of an uncertain origin (Etymology, paragraph 2). Based upon controversial etymology beliefs, Webster’s Dictionary defines a ‘hero’ as an individual that is admired for his or her great acts or fine qualities. According to Joseph Campbell, the author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, an individual must go through the cycle of the hero 's journey. The life of a real life hero is reflected by the epic literary example “The Hero’s Journey” that is exhibited in the book The Hero with a Thousand Faces; therefore, a hero in today’s world must undergo the same twelve stages that are listed in “The Hero’s Journey.” The hero’s journey is known for telling…

    • 1646 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The archetypal hero’s journey requires a defined set of events in…

    • 176 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Hero's Journey Summary

    • 1405 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Joseph Campbell is an American scholar of mythology, from his famous book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell’s outline of the archetypes about myths and stories across human cultures to figure out several stages that every hero life goes through in his adventure, which refers to as “the monomyth or The Hero’s Journey”. The hero journey starts at the call away from his ordinary world and brings change. The hero can choose either accept or refuse the call but there will be more danger ahead. As the hero commits the consequences to enter the unknown world, he needs to pass the test to become stronger in order to continue the adventure successfully and overcome the challenges of the journey.…

    • 1405 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For centuries, stories of brave heroes and heroines who overcome great evils to selflessly protect others have captured the hearts of many. A number of such stories can actually be found to possess parallel structures to each other. The 12 Stages of The Hero’s Journey is a form of structure commonly found in Romance Narratives and was introduced in Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth from his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell shows that many journeys, either literal or metaphorical, follow a similar structure. The hero starts in an ordinary, known world but is called to adventure and passes through into an extraordinary, unknown world where he faces challenges, acquires friends and mentors, and ultimately overcomes a central ordeal.…

    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    All narratives refer to an art of storytelling, a sequence that is followed known as the Hero’s Journey. An example of a narrative that exhibits the Hero’s Journey is The Hobbit, a fictional novel written by J.R.R Tolkien, first published in 1937. This is a story about a creature known as a Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, who goes on an enticing adventure. This essay will elucidate why the sixth stage of the Hero’s Journey, tests, allies and enemies, is the most significant within the narrative. More specifically the tests, as they provide readers evidence of the hero’s character progression allowing them to then become more invested in the story, make connections to indulge in critical thinking and develop a better understanding of morals.…

    • 982 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Hero’s Journey was formulated by American scholar Joseph Campbell as a method of analyzing tales, legends, and other forms of storytelling. It consists of various stages that are often present in modern-day media. This popular analytical guide commonly structures many television shows and movies as it provides a linear manner of unfolding a plot in an easy and simple to follow style. Moreover, the hero’s journey supplies the viewing audience a medium and framework of evaluating a narrative through multiple concise phases. According to Campbell these phases are as follow: the ordinary world, the call to adventure, refusal of the call, meeting with the mentor, crossing the threshold, tests, approach, the ordeal, the reward, the road back,…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Hero's Journey Essay

    • 968 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Ethan C. Buck, a dog, went on a journey. The Hero’s Journey. The Hero’s Journey is a set of steps in a narrative to complete a challenge. The hero, in this case Buck, went through countless challenges in his lifetime, and lost many, many owners. Buck had conquered the wilderness, but had lost his innocence along the way.…

    • 968 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hero’s Journey CALL TO ACTION Blip. Blip. Buzz. Text messages one after another came on Asian Name’s iPhone screen. They read, “Where are you?…

    • 1119 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Hero's Journey Essay

    • 1387 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The Hero’s Journey Essay In literature, authors have the freedom to craft stories in a seemingly endless variety of ways. However, in many books and novels there is a monomyth that connects them together – The Hero’s Journey. The Hero’s Journey consist of three distinct stages: The Departure, The Initiation, and The Return, each with their own substages. Those distinct stages and substages are shown in the novels:…

    • 1387 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Hero's Journey

    • 1252 Words
    • 6 Pages

    A myth is a story that holds some kind of significance in a culture, a story that addresses fundamental and difficult questions that we as human beings ask: who or what am I, where did I come from, why am I here, how should I live, what is the right thing to do, what is the universe, how did it all begin? Myths are stories that are told about great men and great women; about the forces of good and evil; about large and small animals; about natural thing as well creatures like giants, gods and other supernatural beings. The complete study of all these stories theire respective elements is called mythology. Now when people hear the term mythology they automatically think of the Greek version, more specifically their gods such as Zeus the top-god,…

    • 1252 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Tragic Hero's Journey

    • 1716 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The tragic hero; a person everyone has always dreamt of being at least once in their life. A tragic hero is a character who has made a judgment error that leads to their own destruction. The idea of this archetype came from Joseph Campbell’s idea of the monomyth cycle. The monomyth cycle is a twelve step approach to the archetype commonly referred to as the “hero’s journey”. Each step is split into the three basic ideas; the departure, initiation, and return (Campbell, 30).…

    • 1716 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    A Hero's Journey

    • 205 Words
    • 1 Pages

    In the train station, a lady comes up to him and asks if he needs help after the man pulls Christopher back to the platform. Although Christopher wants someone to tell him how to get to his mother ‘s house, he doesn’t seek help. He wards her do not close to him, and he has a Swiss Army knife that is sharp enough that is able to cut someone’s fingers off. Then the man and the lady quickly walk away.…

    • 205 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Hero's Journey

    • 264 Words
    • 2 Pages

    stunning, the shoes where a bright yellow leather with black soles They were a poor family so this was a huge achievement for them, especially ever since their poor father Mr. Shoemaker left town. “C’mon girls time to go bed” She says. “Ok Mom, Goodnight” they said in unison.…

    • 264 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    My Hero's Journey

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages

    My mother mysteriously disappeared when I was five years old, leaving my father to care for me alone, and thus inducing my sense of independence and my cynical mindset. My father and I weren’t close though; my father was always disconnected from me, but my grandmother told me that it was since he felt the blame that my mother had abandoned us. I wasn’t even told why my mother abdicated us until I was thirteen. My father and mother fell in love in high school, married, and were supposed to be sweethearts forever, however it didn’t turn out that way. Soon after having me, my mother began taking pain pills for an ongoing back pain problem, and she became addicted to them.…

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    An Epilogue To My Hero

    • 831 Words
    • 4 Pages

    On January 27th, 2014, I saw an old lady getting mugged. The perfect start to your classic boy/girl scout hero story. Or any hero story, really. Anyway, I saw the guy go up to the old lady and try to take her purse. I jumped in quickly before anyone got hurt.…

    • 831 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays