This archetypal pattern of the hero’s journey is one that can be found in almost all folklore, stories, and films. The conflict-laden, transformative pattern of the hero’s journey can also be part of anyone’s writing process. Understanding the pattern is the first step in using it in one’s own writing.
Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey
The seminal work on this archetype is The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. In this book, Campbell explains the whole cycle, which begins with the hero who is “lured, carried away, or else voluntarily proceeds, to the threshold of adventure.” This adventure takes the hero through a series of challenges into a “world of unfamiliar yet strangely intimate forces, some of which severely threaten him (tests), some of which give magical aid (helpers).”
Eventually, the hero must endure an ultimate test or challenge that will bring him or her the benefit of the whole experience. Inevitably, the character gains a new freedom and power that will carry him or her into the world with a “boon” that has the power to heal the world.
The pattern might be difficult, at first, to notice in popular culture, but it really does lie underneath nearly every story or film one can think of. For example, even children’s picture books, such as the classic by Maurice Sendak -Where the Wild Things Are – use this pattern.
The Hero’s Journey in Where the Wild Things Are
In the book, Max leaves his bedroom and voluntarily proceeds to the threshold of adventure to his imaginary jungle world. There he encounters a sea that guards the passage to his own wildness. Max defeats the sea with his boat and goes alive into the kingdom of the Wild Things.
Max journeys through a world of unfamiliar yet strangely intimate forces, some of which threaten him, such as The Wild Things’ antics, some of which give magical aid, like the Wild Things proclaiming Max is the most wild thing of all. When he arrives at the nadir of the mythological round, he undergoes a supreme ordeal of the Wild Rumpus and gains his reward, which is dominion over himself.
The triumph is his own divinization. The hero’s triumph can be seen in his satisfaction in being self-guided. The final work is that of the return. The powers have blessed the hero, and he now sets forth under their protection, knowing he can misbehave and will still be loved.
At the return threshold the transcendental powers must remain behind; the hero re-emerges from the kingdom of dread by becoming at peace with himself. The boon that he brings restores the world because his imagination has strengthened his faith in himself and his place in the world.
Writers can use this pattern to structure their own stories. It is a pattern that appeals to the human subconscious and succeeds on many levels. To begin working with the pattern, see the next article about this topic, which gives an overview of the elements of the hero’s journey.
References:
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New World Library, 2008.
Sendak, Maurice. Where the Wild Things Are. HarperCollins, 1963.
Shaun Perkins - Shaun Perkins, teacher, poet, storyteller, porch-sitter, beekeeper, gardener, writer, has been a high school and university teacher for ...
Join the Conversation