Elements Of A Hero's Journey

What images come to mind as you reflect on your childhood? Playgrounds, blackboards, and soccer balls may be among the warmest of memories. Yet for many mermaids swim their thoughts, princesses get swept of their feet, and lions roar to their loyal place in the animal kingdom. There is no doubt that today’s entertainment has most of its touch using classical influences. Walt Disney has produced animated films that have captured the heart and imagination of audiences of all ages around the world through the magic of storytelling and imagery. Many of us appreciate the imagination and magic that Disney puts into its animations with out knowing they are based off of classical and traditional storylines

    “‘I come from under the hill. And under the hill and over the hills my paths led. And through the air, I am he that walks unseen’” (The Hobbit). When the dragon Smaug asks Bilbo of his identity, our hero speaks to him in riddles as to not give away who he is. Bilbo has snuck into Smaug’s lair, using a magical ring to become invisible. This part of his adventure is called the “Ordeal,” one of the twelve stages in the Hero’s Journey Archetype. The Hobbit, an animated film directed by Rankin and Bass, fits the Hero’s Journey Archetype by following these three stages: “Call to Adventure,” “Tests, Allies, [and] Enemies,” and “Ordeal.”

In 2014, I attended the Hero's journey summer program in hope to discover myself and to become a better man. My father who has attended the program many of times introduced me to the foundation and thought I should give it a try under the Young Men’s program with 8 other teens from around the world. Nervous but also excited about discovering who I truly was and what brotherhood really meant I found myself becoming the best of friends with these guys for 7 days. During the trip I learned that in relationships it is not only about how much you have in common, but that you trust each other and can work together as one. I could not tell you those guys last name or their favorite video game but I can tell you that I knew they had my back no matter what.

There I was sitting at the table eating what the nuns like to call food what just looked like to me slop I was sitting with my friend Felix. He came across a carrot and it was a full-size carrot he just sat there and stared at it not even touching it if he did not hurry up and I was going to grab it and eat it.

A few months later, I found myself riding with Halt back to his quaint little cottage nestled in the woods. He was teaching me about animal tracks. As our horses tread against the snow that lay on the ground, I noticed a massive print next to the cottage, and Halt said it was a giant boar. A man was lying in the bushes and came out to claim that he had seen the boar first hand, and that it was a mad and destructive one. Halt told him to go to the castle and tell the Baron to gather a group of men so that we can all go hunt the boar in the morning. The next day, I found myself on horseback on the outside of a circle of warriors, and Horace. If the boar were to escape through our circle, I was to chase it down and finish it off with my bow.

Let me tell you a short story about this boy. It was 9 o'clock in the afternoon when his parent asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said with enthusiasm "I want to be a doctor", not knowing what it is. After that we just went about our days. Ten years later, he's a senior in junior high school getting ready to embark on the road where many have failed. He did what he had to do so that he can graduate. Graduation day was here and pretty quickly. His parents said to him, "no more fun and games, you are going to enter high school. All I want from you is to pass your class of high grades , graduate and go on to college to pursue your career to become a doctor." This kid heard a lot of things when it comes to becoming a doctor and

All stories of common structural elements found universally in myths, fairy tales, dreams, and movies. Stages may be avoided, repeated or shifted upon the needs of the individual story. There are 12 stages that composes the Hero's Journey.

My heart wasn’t with him and it had been this way since the moment he brought me home to his apartment above the garage the day we were wed. I had at this point given up fighting to free myself and sunk deep into my thoughts. Upon remembering the day we met I could recall almost every detail about him; from the twinkle in his eyes to the gleam of his golden watch. There was a gleam of hope which I saw when I looked at him much unlike the strain and exhaustion I see as he lurks in the grey shadows of the garage. Though I detested this awful place, it was not New York I longed to adventure away from, it was him. Him and his oh-so ordinary ways. I wished to live a life of the extravagant and the bold, a life with Tom, a life that was not

Cal walked through a trail in the woods during the last gasps of dying summer. Browning ferns brushed against his jeans while he paced. The trail was overgrown and undefined, and Cal stomped through sticks and tree branches to make his way through. He emerged through the thicket into a clearing for a power line route. He saw the old derelict boat, his family’s boat, nested in its 30 year resting place. He walked up to it and put his hands on the giant steering wheel and looked down at the undergrowth of plants at its base. Traditionally, the end of august was prime huckleberry season. And the base of the old boat was traditional grounds for some sizeable huckleberry bushes. When he was younger, Cal, his sister and cousin would bring buckets

As he walked past the water he saw what was left of what was once his domain, a ruined memory of what he considered his golden age. Abandoned towers, broken pipes, and beanstalks grown up to great heights, leftovers of a world that he knew and loved, over and gone what once was golden and bronze. Afterthoughts of what was now gone leave him depressed, leaving him angry and sad, something which he would surely lose sleep over. Yet somehow he knew he had it good now, his life wasn't over and gone in a pile. Walking past the shores and the dock on the water, he looked past the bricks, the blocks in a pile. He noticed great items, thrown in the water, fungus and ferns and tossed about the area. These items he once used, he would swallow them whole,

A young man sat outside his home and spoke to himself “The moon is as red as fire and is at it’s highest peak above the castle I can see just about everything from here. My wife was right this is the best cottage in the village. My great-grandfather and his brother built it from scratch. I am so happy to raise a family here.” “Charles come inside tell the kids to come in too it’s late,” his wife said. “Oh honey, look at the moon, it’s more beautiful than all the stars tonight,” Charles said. “Yes yes it is beautiful but tomorrow you have to meet with Sir Elliott. Convince him to let us keep our land even though their has been a drought and no one in the kingdom crops have grown and we have no food to offer him to keep our land,” his wife said

women on the couch. “The aging process is apparent to us in the first days of life. Those of us that are cursed age slower and stop at 30.”

Throughout this semester, we mainly discussed the hero’s journey and characteristics as an ancient tale, such as in Beowulf and Grendel. But as we also saw, the hero’s potential is present in everyone with no regard of times. As such, when studying modern stories, we can see that aspects of hero’s journey are still a major theme. In The Matrix, Neo, an average hacker, who might not be seen as a hero in the first place will soon show all characteristics to become one. As a result we would study in this paper how The Matrix as a modern tale with aspects of the hero’s journey, heroes’ archetypes as well as mythical themes, can be considered as a modern example of a hero’s tale.

Allison tried not to worry about David. She also tried to go back to sleep, like the Sheriff suggested. Yet, as the hours of the late night ticked by she found it impossible to do so. It wasn’t that the cabin was uncomfortable. Nor was it that she still feared that the thing would find her. She’d determined hours prior that if it could track her through some normal or preternatural means then it would’ve crashed through the walls and finished what it started. The storm that surged through the area only caused her worry to increase as she laid in the inviting bed, staring at the ceiling.

Suffering is the most important trait in a hero or an anti-hero and therefore it is necessary to have suffering in a heroic journey. Suffering elicits a human reaction by giving the reader the ability to relate, it provides obstacles in the hero’s journey, it is a human trait that has been present in every generation of life, and suffering provides opportunity for both the hero and the reader. When readers can relate to a story or situation, the hero will have more meaning or purpose. Suffering is necessary because it provides the challenge or obstacle the hero will overcome.