Kenai Our Wild Brother Bear Analysis

Joseph Campbell dedicated his whole life researching patterns that appear in almost every hero story or movie. He discovered that there are a few basics stages that just about every hero character goes through. This cycle is called “the monomyth” or more commonly known as “the hero’s journey.” This paper will compare and contrast Beowulf and Shrek and how each fits into the monomyth. Every story that involves a hero will subsequently follow the concept of the Heroes Journey.

Rebecca and Phillip Stein (2017) discuss monomyth, a hero’s journey, in their book “Anthropology of Religion, Magic, and Witchcraft.” In the text, they use the definition of a monomyth given by Joseph Campbell. Campbell defines it as when “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.” (Stein & Stein, 2017.) According to the text, a hero’s journey has three stages: the departure, the initiation, and the return. (Stein and Stein, 2017.) The Disney movie, The Lion King, is a monomyth movie about a young lion who abandons his role as king of the Pride lands and must come back to save his family and his land when danger ensues. Simba is the son of Mufasa, the current king, therefore he is the rightful heir to the throne. This is the common day world that Simba lives in. His uncle, Scar, is filled with hatred towards both Simba and Mufasa, because he believes he deserves to be king. He comes up with an elaborate plan to kill them both. He tricks Simba into thinking that his father has a surprise for him, and he instructs Simba to wait inside of a canyon while he fetches his Mufasa. Scar deliberately starts a stampede of wildebeests to try and kill Simba. Mufasa arrives to the canyon to witness Simba clinging for his life, on a lone shrub’s branch, as thousands of

The archetype of the Hero’s Journey holds a prevalent pattern in the works of “Initiation” by Sylvia Plath, “A & P” by John Updike, and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker. These works all follow the 17 stages of Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth which are separated in three stages; separation, initiation, and return. The main characters have different characterizations; however, they all follow the basic structure of the Hero’s journey archetype. There are many similarities and differences between the stages that are shown through many context clues and literary devices in each work. The Hero’s Journey archetype expressed in these literary works follow a similar and direct narrative pattern.

Joseph Campbell’s term monomyth can be described as a hero’s journey. Many heroic characters follow the monomyth, no matter the time period or culture the literature was created in. The poem Beowulf is known to follow the adventure of the hero described in Campbell’s monomyth . The hero’s journey consists of three rites of passages: separation, initiation, and return. Beowulf endures each of these stages throughout the epic poem, so his journey does follow Campbell’s monomyth.

During the course of this World Literature class, several stories have been covered that accurately describe Joseph Campbell's mono-myth, or basic pattern found in narratives from every corner of the world. The Hero's Journey in it's entirety has seventeen stages or steps, but if boiled down can be described in three; the departure, the initiation, and the return (Monomyth Cycle). Each stage has several steps, but the cycle describes the hero starting in his initial state, encountering something to change him, and this his return as a changed person. To further explain this concept, there are a few stories covered in this class that can be used.

But to fully grasp an audience, with twelve to fifteen steps is a lot to explain. Joseph Campbell gisted the essential components of the mononmyth as a whole, “The standard path of the mythological hero is a magnification of the formula represented in the rights of a passage: separation—initiation—return” (23). In these simple steps Campbell identified the foundation of all monomyths. In separation, the hero ventures astray from their later “prosaic” life into a region of supernatural wonder (23).Initiation, overzealous figures/forces are encountered and a decisive victory is won (23).Lastly,the now master of the narrative returns from the surreptitious journey with bestowed power

Throughout humankind, many heroes have impacted world’s history. Some are true stories while some have become legends. These storied are retold over and over due to the hero, which shows a common

In the late 1940’s a man named Joseph Campbell shared his Mythic principal with the world. He explains that there is a three-stage formula that he calls a Hero Journey which is the structure of every story. Though most stories are completely different on the outside, the stories are almost structured around these three stages. Stage 1 is the hero leaves the everyday world and enters another world. While Stage 2 the hero is challenged by opposing forces and must pass a series a test throughout the movie. That will then determine who will be victorious, either the hero or the opposing forces. Stage 3 is tied into Stage 2 because if the hero is victorious, they will return to the ordinary world with a gift for the world.

The first stage of the monomyth is the departure. In this stage, the hero first receives “call to adventure,” either directly or sometimes unwittingly. In a real life example, this would be taking on a task, one that is assigned by someone else or one that is chosen by oneself. This could be an assignment at a job, or it could be the desire to pursue a new hobby. Campbell mentions the “refusal of the call,” or the turning away from the journey. In life, when taking on a task, it can seem too difficult or frightening, and the natural desire may be to turn away. Campbell warns that this “converts the adventure into its negative… [and] the subject loses the power of affirmative action and becomes a victim to be saved” (59). Though an adventure may be difficult, the hero will usually gain the assist of a supernatural aid. Many

There are a number of many different archetypes found in works of fiction and nonfiction that bestow upon the hero his true role in a work of literature. In the Middle English, chivalric romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain’s role as the hero emboldens as the story describes more and more archetypes of the quest. The monomyth can be described as the three step process that the hero takes in completing the quest motif. The basic template is supported by “separation, initiation, and return: which might be named the nuclear unit of the monomyth” (Campbell 28). Each of these three categories contain other subcategories, which help understand the different archetypical situation within the work itself. An understanding of three key archetypes -the magic weapon, the boon, and the unhealable wound- reveal the essence of Gawain’s role within the archetypal quest motif.

In 1949, Joseph Campbell popularized his version of the monomyth, or the hero’s journey. In this version, there were seventeen stages which were split into three distinct categories including the Departure, the Initiation, and finally, the Return. Over the course of several years, there have been numerous versions of the hero’s journey; most of them derived from Joseph Campbell’s initial version. After watching “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”, I was able to categorize the events in the movie into Christopher Vogler’s version of the hero’s journey which consists of twelve stages. The twelve stages are 1. The ordinary world, 2. The call to adventure, 3. Refusal of the call, 4. Meeting the master, 5. Crossing the threshold, 6. Tests, allies, and enemies, 7. Approaching the dragon’s den, 8. The ordeal, 9. Seizing the treasure, 10. The road back, 11. Resurrection, and finally, 12. Return with the treasure. However, modern film tends to stray from the typical hero’s journey more than the usual traditional epic poem.

Glancy uses Pushing the Bear to contextualize concrete history. She frames the reality of the Trail of Tears using fictional accounts from multiple narrators, while also integrating historical lists and documents into her story. Pushing the Bear is unique because it tells a history through so many perspectives. Each is relatively short, and the reader is often thrown without transition from one narrator to the next. This technique creates a unique historiography because of its ability to address historical context of a large group as opposed to an individual. By giving all participants of the Trail of Tears a voice, Glancy tells a more “true” history than one ever could using a single narrator account of history. Glancy includes many bills

The Hero’s journey, or in its more correct terminology the Monomyth is an object from the area of comparative mythology. Its definition in the most basic of forms, it is a pattern or outline that is used in storytelling, usually the myth. This pattern is found in many famous pieces from all around the world. In the book The Hero with a Thousand Faces from 1949 by author Joseph Campbell, this pattern is described in detail. Campbell describes that numerous myths from different times and areas of the world seem to share an identical structure in their storytelling. He summarized this with a well-known quote found at the intro of his book:

The monomyth map, also called “The Hero’s Journey,” begins with a hero’s call to adventure. In both Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, both hero’s accept their call to adventure with pride and courage. Beowulf has heard of a demon who has caused much destruction in the Land of the Danes for years. Recalling his past with their king, he voluntarily travels to

In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell delineated the essential features found in myths and stories of heroes and heroic journeys. His purpose in doing so was partly to elucidate the notion that we are all heroes on the course of our own adventures. Looking at contemporary works of fiction through the lens of the heroic monomyth, we are able to make connections between our own heroes and ourselves. Jax