Theme Of Ulysses In The Hero's Journey

928 Words4 Pages

“The Adventures of Ulysses” Conveys the Hero 's Journey
A Hero 's Journey is a format or a template that most heroic stories include. It has key stages such as The Status Quo, The Call To Adventure, The Departure, Trials, Crisis, The Return and much more. It also has archetypes, the important ones include, Hero, Herald, Threshold Guardians and Shadow. The story of “The Adventures of Ulysses”, written by Bernard Evslin chronicles the journey of Ulysses trying to return to his home, Ithaca, after the Trojan War. He unknowingly angered the God of the Sea, Poseidon, who then, consequently, started plaguing Ulysses and his crew, trying to keep them from ever reaching home. People might think that “The Adventures of Ulysses” is a book that does not follow the Hero 's Journey, although conversely, the novel is a good example of the Hero 's Journey because it exhibits the main stages of the Hero 's Journey, has a departure to the “special world” and it has necessary archetypes.
“The Adventures of Ulysses”, can be …show more content…

Furthermore, it can be said, that not only does the chronicles of Ulysses have key stages but also a clear departure to the “special world”. The special world rolled in the story when Ulysses passed the trial against the Cyclops Polyphemus. The other trials Ulysses faces before Polyphemus all are possible trials that could happen to anyone. Polyphemus was something they never faced before, something they probably haven’t thought ever existed. After confronting Polyphemus, almost every other trial Ulysses and his crew have faced are supernatural. Ulysses has brawled trials such as the sorceress, Circe, Scylla, Charybdis, giants, Calypso, and Sirens. There is also kind of a return from the “special world” because when he returns back to his home, he doesn’t deal with supernatural creatures and the book ends with him defeating humans and resting in peace with his family. Thus, it can be said that the tales of Ulysses has a proper breakthrough into a

Open Document