Jung and the Archetypes: “The Enemy Within”
“Whoever the hero may be, he or she journeys for us, carries us metaphorically into our darker side, […] where the monsters inside of us take on terrifyingly real forms, where our deepest wishes sometimes are fulfilled.” (Leeming 203, 204).
I’ve always been drawn to hero quests. One of my favorites is Star Trek, though it isn’t a typical hero quest. The stories of each incarnation of Star Trek are thought provoking explorations of the human psyche on both societal and individual levels, often taking on contemporary social issues and setting them in the future with aliens playing the part of the good guys almost as often as they are the villains. My favorite incarnation of Star Trek is the original series, filmed in the late 1960s. The hero archetype of this series is Captain James T. Kirk, who was both ordinary (born in Iowa) and extraordinary (youngest Captain in Starfleet history). (Kirk). However, he was not necessarily always a good man; he cheated on a test that was supposed to show the character of future commanders by how they handle a no-win scenario. (Kobayashi).
Many episodes explored Kirk’s darker side, but one episode was very literal, “The Enemy Within”. The following is a brief synopsis of the episode:
“With his landing party stranded on a lethally cold planet, Kirk is 'split ' into two Kirks, one evil, and one good. The good Kirk, weak because he lacks half of his persona, does not know that his evil Twin is
All heroes around the world go through a journey of their own. Those journeys can be a physical, , mental, emotional journey, and lots more. These types of personal journeys are demonstrated in an epic poem, The Odyssey, by Homer, an interview, The Hero’s adventure by Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers, a short poem, Courage by Anne Sexton, a graphic novel, The Odyssey by Gareth Hinds. They all show how journeys can be transformative and show a person’s strengths and/or weaknesses.
Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Cat Woman; when you hear the word hero or heroine that is who you think of. The most famous heroes of all time, as well as the not so famous heroes such as Hazel, fit the archetype of a hero; they are all courageous, resourceful, and strong-willed. Most people don’t notice that almost all action/adventure movies and novels are the same. All of their stories fit the archetypal pattern of a heroic quest. A heroic quest consists of twelve steps that the hero completes throughout his or her journey. In this essay, I will be explaining the parallels between Watership Down by Richard Adams and the archetypal pattern of a heroic quest; as well as the parallels between
The Hero’s Journey is a situational archetype of every story made, whether it’s a poem, narrative or film they all tell this Journey.
On a Journey In most forms of literature heroes go through their own journey. In The Princess Bride by William Goldman, Westley must go on an adventure to save his one true love, Buttercup. During the film The Wizard of Oz a girl named Dorothy is taken by a tornado to the land of Oz and must go on a quest to return to her family. The hero archetype is found in many religions and mythologies.
"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 men."
Aspects such as abnormality, the visits to the supernatural world, and greater knowledge gain than original expected of the epic hero archetype guide the reader through this story. Leading them to realize that without understanding the dangers of something irreversible mistakes may be made and yet at the same time wisdom allows for innovation and progress to
In everyone’s life, we experience fear. It is an emotion which seizes everyone’s attention and actions. It can cause a person to perform something they never imagined doing. Yet, after constant submission to the same feeling of fear, one becomes desensitized to it. The same chemical reactions in someone's head which caused their heart to race and mind to blank no longer has those same effects. It leads a person to wonder how they can survive past this dreadful feeling. Yet, there are people who stand in the face of fear and experience these feelings so no one else has to, heros. One of the main traits of a hero is standing resilient in the face of fear and the adversity which accompanies it.
Although epic hero’s either fictional or non-fictional have similar journeys while becoming a hero, each character has distinct characteristics that present divergent outcomes. Two of the most evident characteristics that come to mind when thinking of a hero is bravery and strength. Amongst Gilgamesh, Beowulf, Luke Skywalker, Sunjata, and Rostam they’re all brave strong men with their own traits that shape them into heroes. All five of these men’s lives begin in an ordinary world when they receive a call to an adventure. Each hero has the choice to either refuse or accept the journey that they have been called upon. In “The Hero With A Thousand Faces,” Campbell’s gives an example of how the call to adventure
The “hero’s journey”, coined by Joseph Campbell, is a pattern in the plot structure of literature, myths, and oral tradition in which the hero is consistently faced with similar obstacles and achieves many of the same goals. The first part of the hero’s journey is “The Call.” The hero is usually living a very comfortable and easy life, unaware of the journey ahead. The hero is then faced with a situation or dilemma which eventually causes them to seek change. The hero, at this point, tends to refuse the call to adventure in fear of the unknown. Once the hero has been given the strength to push past the unknown, they have entered the threshold. The hero will experience many challenges and temptations where the hero is tested, eventually reaching “The Abyss,” the most difficult challenge. The hero is then transformed by these trials and returns home to every-day life and begins to contribute to their society. The novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the protagonist, Janie, experiences the hero’s journey first-hand through overcoming obstacles and transforming herself. In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, the heroine Janie overcomes many obstacles and is therefore transformed into a self reliant woman.
men to go through all of the monsters they have to face on their journey home. Like this example
The Hero’s Journey is a list of steps comprised by Joseph Campbell that describes the steps a hero must take on his adventure. The works of “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” by the Coen brothers and “The Odyssey” of Homer, embody and resemble the threshold of adventure in “The Hero’s Journey” where a hero crosses into an unknown world and carries out a challenging adventure in order to live freely by carrying out steps such as The Supreme Ordeal, The Road Back, and Returning with the Elixir.
Throughout history it becomes apparent that all the great stories: The Odyssey, Great Expectations, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are all founded on a similar theme. The same plot line, a hero, most often the protagonist, faces danger and adversity to the highest extreme but always comes out on top. He is depicted as the pinnacle of human triumph and in essence, demonstrates a fundamental strength that all men should strive to achieve. These stories were, “ full of darkness and danger. And sometimes one did not want to know the end; How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? In the end, it is only a passing thing. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out even clearer. Those
hero's journey is not solely “applicable to fiction but also to the journeys that everyone goes
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
While the rest of his friends are busy storming a Horronym fortress in a final assault, first lieutenant Terry Atticus finds himself all alone back at the base. Apparently his superior didn’t take too kindly to some pipes in the officer’s latrine that were accidently reversed by Atticus and thus the hapless lieutenant is missing out on the biggest battle of all time. However, while rooting around in the supply room Atticus discovers a prototype mech which he promptly takes into the sewers for some target practice. Instead of finding the snakebats he was expecting, Atticus discovers a whole bunch of aliens and takes it upon himself to take them all out.