The Romance Narrative: The Hero's Journey

To play a role given to us, isn’t fun once we learn of it, however, breaking away pushes us further into the journey. The Hero's Journey, a repetitive process that seems to be in the basic natural structure of every human, and despite any efforts are often replicating it ourselves. Following the journey is simple and sometimes unavoidable. The whole journey is mapped out by Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey. Then seen in Dracula, Bedazzled, and Noah. Also, in a easier way Howl's Moving Castle and The Game.

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 has a theory called The Hero’s Journey in where an individual is shown in a mundane world, called to an adventure, and goes on the adventure. In the adventure, the individual goes on the path of trials that consisting of making new friends, new mentors, new enemies, facing new challenges, gaining new skills, and new knowledge. When the individual comes back to their mundane world, they are the master of two worlds through their new experiences they've gained in the adventure. The Hero’s Journey has been repeated in literature and films through many years: two examples that have The Hero’s Journey are the films, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.

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.

Change is inevitable. Whether it be positive or negative, change is constantly happening. More than often change can take you from the known world and spit you into the unknown, where you return a changed person. While embarking on the journeys provoked by change, you are on a hero’s journeys. The hero’s journey was popularized by Joseph Campbell. When describing what prompts hero’s journeys, Joseph Campbell said,

Two books can seem completely different from each other when judged by characteristics such as genre, plot, and theme. However, if people were to look at the books together and as a whole, they might notice one striking similarity between the two. That striking similarity is known as the hero’s journey. First observed and documented by Joseph Campbell, the hero’s journey is a concept in which heroes, or people who commit actions for the greater good, follow a three-step cycle known as departure, fulfillment, and return. At the first stage of the hero’s journey, the hero receives a call to an adventure that takes him from the comforts of his home. Next, at the most important stage of the hero’s journey, the hero begins to experience life

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.

It describes the typical adventure of the archetype known as The Hero, the person who goes out and achieves great deeds on behalf of the group, tribe, or civilization.” The 12 stages of this are ‘the ordinary world’, ‘the call to adventure’, ‘refusal of the call’, ‘meeting with the mentor’, ‘crossing the threshold’, ‘tests, allies and enemies’, ‘approach’, ‘the ordeal’, ‘the reward’, ‘the road back’, ‘the resurrection’ and finally ‘return with the

As I was hunting through the mystical forest Herot looking for the meal of the night.I was to return to the cave by 9 o’clock to tuck in my precious son to bed.He had a fever that kept on going up and down,and the only thing thing that could help him was a small monster in the forest.I felt this sudden pain in my chest.I ignored the feeling thinking it was just a normal heart burn.I killed the little monster and brought it back home expecting Grendel to be in bed sleeping.I flew into the cave and called out to him.

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.

Joseph Campbell, an American mythological researcher, wrote a famous book entitled The Hero with a Thousand Faces In his lifelong research Campbell discovered many common patterns running through hero myths and stories from around the world. Years of research lead Campbell to discover several basic stages that almost every hero-quest goes through Many followers of Campbell have defined the stages of his mono-myth in various ways, sometimes supplying different names for certain stages. For this reason there are many different versions of the Hero’s Journey that retain the same basic elements. these steps are ;ordinary world : This step refers to the hero's normal life at the start of the story, before the adventure begins. Call to Adventure:

Hannah the MII woke up and got dressed into her favorite racing suit. She hopped into her shiny, blue, new, bright car. The whirl of the engine flew as they lined up. Mario said “let's-a-go” before the beginning of the race. Hannah had a feeling that something was going to go wrong but forgot the fear. They were in the moo moo meadow and were so excited. Just then the ghost held up the sign that said “3-2-1” and the karts flew with a blink of an eye past the starting line. Mario raced into first place as he got the extra boost, while Hannah was stuck without the boost but was making her way to 6th place.

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:

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

A romance requires the telling of a true story in remote places and times. The Knight’s Tale begins with the lines “Once upon a time,” to retell the old events of Theseus in the ancient city of Athens (24). The Knight’s tale meets the requirement of a medieval romance in the first sentence, as it opens with a tale of a far off land in ancient times. Idealized aristocratic conduct, another requirement a medieval romance must meet, becomes present