Monomyth And Hero's Journey

An archetype is defined as an image, story-pattern, character, setting, symbol, or situation that recurs frequently in literature and in life. It demonstrates universal human experiences and associates strongly with readers through a subconscious understanding. In the Epic of Gilgamesh the main character, Gilgamesh, is an example of a superheroic archetypal hero. He took on an epic quest for everlasting life by following the archetypal steps of a hero’s journey. Through suffering due to tragedy, realizing the nature of his quest, seeking help from a mentor, experiencing failure, and returning home with a companion, Gilgamesh’s story followed the situational archetype of a hero’s journey.

Many people find the story, “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkein as just an invigorating story of a normally unadventurous hobbit who goes on an adventure. Others may “read between the lines” and see that each event that takes place within the book is a symbol. These symbols are called archetypes. An archetype is basically a symbol or character in a story that represents common experiences, and has become patterns in English literature. In The Hobbit, the archetypes/symbols include: a quest, communion and, death and resurrection/ descent into the underworld.

With every corner we turn in today’s culture, we become more and more aware of the archetypes that surround us. Archetypes are the works of a typical character, situation, setting, or symbol that can be found in fantasy and reality. An example would be the renowned medieval story Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Pearl Poet. The author permeates the story with situational, symbolic, and character archetypes that illustrate the profound life of Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain was apprehensive of his journey at first, but as time passes, he began to make choices that unveils to the audience the true flawed knight that he was.

In 1949, Joseph Campbell published his book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” It details his theory of the “monomyth,” a theory that illustrates how many heroic mythological stories have similar outlines and archetypes. During his discussion of the second chapter of the monomyth, Campbell says that the monomyth can “serve as a general pattern for men and women” in their everyday lives (121). In many circumstances, comparisons can be made between normal situations throughout life and the monomyth. When a challenge of task is encountered in life, it can be analyzed under the three main stages of the monomyth: the departure, the initiation, and the return.

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.

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.

A key to understanding his writing, says author Tom Robbins, is a knowledge of Greek myth. A particular influence on him is the life and work of Joseph Campbell, author of several books on mythology (Hoyser and Stookey 9). Campbell, in turn, owes influence to the insights of analytic psychologist Carl Jung. Jung recognized the patterns within myths --- throughout the world and across all cultures -- of characters, situations, and events, and identified these recurring images as archetypes (Harris and Platzner 40). Campbell

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.

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 traditions of storytelling have long been used as a means to impart wisdom and life lessons to others. One of the most effective ways in which this is done is through the use of archetypes. While it is possible to look at these images in a general way, one may also focus an analysis on a single tale. In this way it is possible to explore the particular images used and their significance in a given situation, (often a coming of age rite of

In his renowned work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell defined the essential stages of the Heroic Journey, using examples from a wide range of myths and stories. His objective was not only to establish the framework for hero tales, but also to convey why these elements of the monomyth prevail in so many different works. Campbell’s view states that “the hero myth is really written about every human being: we are all heroes struggling to accomplish our adventure” (Whomsley, 185). From this perspective, it seems justified that these patterns continue to appear in so many stories adventure and heroism; we all want our

In his argument raising novella, Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad conveys exquisite literary knowledge. His use of archetypes allows the reader to connect the novella to the mythological lens. The mythological lens focuses on characters, how they react to different situations as well as each other, the connection to greek mythology, and several types of archetypes. Through analysis of the archetypes and symbols in Heart of Darkness, the reader can analyze Marlow’s journey to and visit in Africa.

Freud broke the structure of the mind into two topographies. The first topography consisted of the conscious, unconscious and the preconscious. The conscious part of the mind is made up of our thoughts, memories, feelings, beliefs and motivations which we are aware at any given instant. This is the part of our mental processing that we can think and talk about reasonably. The unconscious holds one’s basic instincts and impulses and our repressed childhood memories.

After indulging in a multitude of stories, whether it be books, myths, movies, or videogames, an observant person would notice the repetitious story-telling that occurs throughout the various mediums of literature. These monomythic patterns do not exist merely as the product of poor storytelling, but rather as a way of creating conflict, character development, and theme in a narrative. The Arthurian legend Sir Gawain and the Green Knight tells the story of Sir Gawain and the journey to his beheading in order to preserve the order of Camelot, and carries many of the monomythic archetypes (both relating to characters and situational) defined in Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces, but also a variety of symbols to help define the conflicts, character development, and themes of the poem.

There are many arguments that have generated from the assumption that, human being is a product of his environment likewise; (McLeod, 2013), “nothing they say happen by chance, whatever a man does or say must have being thought about beforehand”. It is not unconscious, the theory made use of conflictual statement for instance, every behavior and feeling is deeply rooted in the unconscious mind, which means, what one does, is not being aware or not preplan, also, childhood experiences are also affects a person’s behavior and feeling. All the experiences a man has right from childhood age influence the character or personality of a person. It is widely argued that all behavior has a cause, whether conscious or unconscious action has being preconceived or determined. As long as nothing is new, whatever happens to a man has being happening in the past, the same scenarios applicable to attitude. Little information or experience exposed to right from childhood age does make impact on the later development of a person.