Article: The Hero’s Journey

18: Freedom to Live

17: Master of Two Worlds / Restoring the World

16: The Return Threshold: Home Again

15: Magical Flight / Rescue from Without

14: Refusal to Return

13: The Ultimate Reward

8: Allies / Helpers

7: First Battle: Threshold Guardian

6: Entering the Unknown: Crossing the Threshold

5: Supernatural Aid / Mentor & Talisman

4: Refusal of and Acceptance of the Call

3: The Call to Adventure

2: The Ordinary World / Humble Upbringing

Increase Font Size Toggle Menu HomeReadBuySign in Search in book: Search Contents Special thanks to...DisclaimerTo the teacher...Dear students...Map of Places in the StoriesPDF Downloads and How to Buy Print Copy Getting Started with Reading Skills Critical ReadingAnnotating While You ReadCreating Discussion QuestionsLearning Vocabulary in ContextBuilding Vocabulary with Suffixes Unit 1: Why Study Greek Mythology? Article: Why Study Greek Mythology?Story: Part 1: The Creation StoryStory: Part 2: The War of the TitansStory: Part 3: The Olympian PantheonArticle: The Olympics: Then and NowArticle: LEGOS in SpaceArticle: Greek Influence in US World’s FairsArticle: American NeoclassicismUnit 1 Writing Task: Putting it All Together Unit 2: Hades and the Underworld Story: Hades and the UnderworldStory: Sisyphus and TantalusStory: Prometheus and PandoraArticle: Opening Pandora’s BoxArticle: Ethos, Pathos, and LogosUnit 2: Writing Task: Putting it All Together Unit 3: Adventure and The Hero’s Journey Story: The Trojan War Part 1: The Apple of DiscordStory: The Trojan War Part 2: Achilles and HectorThe Trojan War Part 3: The Wooden HorseArticle: Cassandra of Climate ChangeArticle: The Hero’s JourneyStory: Theseus and the MinotaurArticle: Procrustean PoliticsStory: The Adventures of HerculesStory: Cadmus and EuropaStory: Jason and the ArgonautsStory: Perseus and MedusaStory: The OdysseyArticle: Resisting the Internet’s GripUnit 3 Writing Task: Putting It All Together Unit 4: Hubris and Nemesis Story: Oedipus the KingArticle: My Son’s Oedipus ComplexStory: Daedalus and IcarusArticle: Businesses and the Icarus ParadoxStory: King Midas and the Golden TouchStory: PhaethonStory: BellerophonArticle: Human Chimeras Already ExistStory: ArachneArticle: Hubristic LeadersArticle: Disasters Due to HubrisUnit 4 Writing Task: Putting it All Together Unit 5: Love and Metamorphosis Story: Echo and NarcissusArticle: Selfies: Narcissism or Not?Story: Cupid and PsycheArticle: When Cupid’s Arrow StrikesStory: Pan and SyrinxStory: Halcyone and CeyxStory: The Story of IoStory: Pyramus and ThisbeStory: Venus and AdonisUnit 5 Writing Task: Putting it All Together Writing and Grammar Skills Appendix Writing Skills: Avoiding PlagiarismWriting Skills: Noun Clauses for Better SentencesGrammar Skills: Active and Passive VoiceGrammar Skills: Gerund and InfinitiveGrammar Skills: Participle Phrases Instructor's Guide Teacher Resources & Cool ToolsInstructor's GuidePresentation TopicsAdditional Journal Topics Additional Materials for Instructors and Students Unit 1 Additional MaterialsUnit 2 Additional MaterialsUnit 3 Additional MaterialsUnit 4 Additional MaterialsUnit 5 Additional MaterialsFun Extras for Students About the authorAbout the BookReferences It’s All Greek to Me! Buy Unit 3: Adventure and The Hero’s Journey Article: The Hero’s Journey Image by alan9187 on PIxabay, Before You Read Discuss the following questions with a classmate. What makes someone a hero? What do heroes do in movies? Why do people love stories about heroes? What are some stories you can think of that have a hero? Skim the next reading. What do you think is the author’s purpose of the text: to inform, entertain, or to persuade? How will that affect the way you take notes on the reading?   Vocabulary in Context This article has a lot of useful vocabulary for reading the rest of the chapter and for use in your next essay. Try to guess the vocabulary in bold. Chances are this kind of story has been told for millennia, and yet people still love them. Many stories that humans have loved throughout time have some interesting patterns, and that there’s a good reason why these kinds of stories strike a chord in us. Superhero movies epitomize the hero’s journey and are becoming bigger and bigger blockbusters each year. Even George Lucas himself, the creator of the groundbreaking Star Wars movie series, noted that Joseph Campbell’s book was very influential to him. This is the point where the person actually crosses into the field of adventure, leaving the known limits of his or her world and venturing into an unknown and dangerous realm where the rules and limits are unknown. The hero may need to fight against foes who are guarding the gate or border of the realm to prevent the hero from coming in. While on their way towards their task, the hero might meet some friends, allies, or people willing to help them. In between facing ordeals, the hero gets to see more of the fantastic land they are in. Not long after she begins her trek on the yellow brick road, Dorothy meets others that will help her on her quest. Numerous times she traverses back and forth from Kansas and the land of Oz and other neighboring fantasy lands filled with interesting characters. The real reason why ordinary humans like ourselves love these kinds of outlandish storylines is that we want to strive to be heroes ourselves. Vocabulary Building Find the word in the paragraph given. Use the synonyms and definition to help. P1: surpass, exceed (v.): ______________________________________________________ P2: a preset pattern (n.): ______________________________________________________ P4: to be a perfect example of (v.): ____________________________________________ P5: clearly, in full detail (adv.): _________________________________________________ P12: a complete and thorough change (n.): ____________________________________ P14: gentle, kind (adj.): _______________________________________________________ P17: although (conj.): _________________________________________________________ P18: equipped (v.): ___________________________________________________________ P19: a magical or medicinal potion (n.): ________________________________________ P20: great happiness (n.): _____________________________________________________ P20: extremely interested (adj.): ______________________________________________ P27: strange, unfamiliar (adj.): _________________________________________________ P28: involve (v.): _____________________________________________________________ The Hero’s Journey Written by Charity Davenport with material from the Wikipedia article “Monomyth“, Illustrations by W.W. Denslow for L. Frank Baum’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Think about one of your favorite movies or stories. Chances are the story has a strong hero that you empathize with and aspire to become. And chances are this kind of story has been told for millennia, and yet people still love them. These stories transcend time and culture. In narratology and comparative mythology, the monomyth, or the hero’s journey, is the common template of a broad category of tales that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, and in a critical crisis wins a victory, and then comes home changed or transformed. The study of hero myth narratives started in 1871 with anthropologist Edward Taylor’s observations of common patterns in plots of heroes’ journeys. Later on, hero myth pattern studies were popularized by Joseph Campbell in his 1949 book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell and other scholars describe narratives of Gautama Buddha, Moses, and Jesus Christ in terms of the monomyth, and notice that many stories that humans have loved throughout time have some interesting patterns, and that there’s a good reason why these kinds of stories strike a chord in us. The stages of the hero’s journey can be found in all kinds of literature and movies, from thousands of years ago to now. Superhero movies epitomize the hero’s journey and are becoming bigger and bigger blockbusters each year. Even George Lucas himself, the creator of the groundbreaking Star Wars movie series, noted that Joseph Campbell’s book was very influential to him. The hero’s journey can be found in books like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and most other fantasy sci-fi books, legends, fairy tales, and comic book series like Spiderman and Batman. Many video games like The Legend of Zelda, Skyrim, the Final Fantasy and even the Pokémon series carry many elements of the hero’s journey. But fantasies aren’t real. Why do we love these stories so much? Because the monsters might not be real, the witches might not be real, and the magical objects and fantastic settings might not be real. But the struggle is. But before we talk about that, we need to dive deeper into the different stages of Campbell’s hero’s journey. The following list of stages also describes stages mentioned by other writers, like David Adams Leeming, who wrote a similar book inspired by Campbell’s book in 1981 called Mythology: The Voyage of the Hero, and Christopher Vogler who published The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers in 2007. As you read, think about examples from stories, movies, or books you have read that might fit these stages. You’ll be surprised. As an example, the story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, America’s most well-known mythology written in 1900 by L. Frank Baum, will be used to help explain the stages. There are many stages–not all monomyths necessarily contain all stages explicitly; some myths may focus on only one of the stages, while others may deal with the stages in a somewhat different order. The stages are divided into three parts–departure, initiation, and return. Part 1: Departure 1: Unusual Birth