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Essay On Hero's Journey Or Monomyth

1569 Words7 Pages

Throughout history, humans have crafted countless stories of heroes, from the ancient journeys of Beowulf and Odysseus, to the modern ones of Harry Potter and Meredith Grey. At first glance, these stories are diverse in the extreme, coming from all different cultures and about all manner of heroes. One might think such different tales have nothing in common, but upon a closer examination, one notices a single plot template that is featured in almost every good story ever written. This idea, that heroic stories usually follow the same sequence of action, was realized by a mythologist named Joseph Campbell. Campbell calls this template the ‘Hero’s Journey’ or ‘Monomyth’, which has three major parts: separation, initiation, and return. There is a never-ending list of pieces of literature, movies, and tv shows that follow this monomyth, as it is reflected in nearly all good stories. One modern example of the Hero’s Journey is the book The Hunger Games, written by Suzanne Collins. The Hunger Games is set in the futuristic, dystopian District 12, where the main character Katniss Everdeen is shown in her normal routine. She spends her time hunting to support her family, and is comfortable in the woods and with her place in the world. These first few chapters make up the first stage of the monomyth, The Ordinary World. Katniss is comfortable in both the woods and District 12, but she is aware of the unease of the population, and feels hatred …show more content…

The hero, Katniss, follows the stages of the monomyth almost exactly, showing how Campbell’s concept is so accurate when applied to a real story. Katniss’s adventure follows the monomyth template almost exactly, because The Hunger Games is a story about a hero’s character growing and changing in a powerful way. Clearly, Campbell’s conclusion about a “hero with a thousand faces” makes sense, even in the context of modern day

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The Hunger Games, The Wizard of Earthsea, and The Hero and the Crown almost, if not perfectly, fit into Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey. With the exception of The Hero and the Crown, Katniss and Ged both start “in the ordinary world.” We get to know Katniss and District 12, and Ged as a child in this hometown.

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The hero’s journey archetype has appeared in many forms of literature and will most likely continue to do so for as long as long as literature exists. The story of Equality 7-2521 and his journey to find the true value of individuality is one example of this very commonly used archetype. The hero’s journey usually follows the same basic plot. There is a hero with a place to go and a stated reason to go.

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For this task I will be presenting about Katniss Everdeen from the hunger games and how she is a tragic hero and I will be relating this back to the greek hero Oedipus. What makes a hero, a hero as stated by the reproject “Are people who transform compassion (a personal virtue) into heroic action (a civic virtue). In doing so, they put their best selves forward in service to humanity. A hero is as an individual or a network of people that take action on behalf of others in need, or in defense of integrity or a moral cause” (prezi.com). As you all know Katniss is the main character of hunger games and is identified as a tragic hero from the beginning to the end of the story.

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The concept of “The Hero’s Journey” plays a major role in nearly every piece of fiction humanity has created since its inception, from epic poems to blockbuster movies. In many ways, works of fiction and some pieces of nonfiction could not exist and would not make sense without the concept of a Hero’s Journey; it allows the reader to comprehend and follow the progression of characters over the course of the story. While Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road may not display most of the archetypal qualities found in classic Hero’s Journeys such as J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit or Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad, it most clearly exemplifies the qualities of a Hero’s Journey through the Boy’s character in relation to the mentor, tests and enemies, and the

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The Heroes Journey, identified by American scholar Joseph Campbell, is a pattern of narrative that describes the typical adventure of the main hero, whether that be a fiction or nonfiction hero. The first step is the call to adventure, where something shakes up the hero’s current situation and the hero starts experiencing change. Consequently, this theory is also applied to the fictional hero Odysseus in The Odyssey and the real-life hero Martin Luther King Jr., a civil rights activist. In The Odyssey, Odysseus embarks on a 10-year voyage from Troy to Ithaca and encounters many monsters along the way including a gigantic Cyclops described as “…a brute so huge, he seemed no man at all…” (9 89-90).

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In conclusion, countless people know of Joseph Campbell's definition of a Monomyth. We see the hero's journey outline everywhere in our modern books and movies. Hercules, in the opinion of many, happens to be one of the best examples of Campbell's definition of a

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Everyone has heard a good hero story, because they are everywhere, in the media, in history, and in even with each other. Tales of action and adventures have been around since humans have known how to tell stories, but every story has a similar journey that they embark on. The tale of the hero has many variations, but they each follow the same basic pattern that Joseph Campbell describes in his book A Hero with a Thousand Faces. Some stories only follow the basic outline of a hero, and others can be traced along the route exactly. An example that follows the outline exactly is The NeverEnding Story (1984) which is a movie based on a German book by Michael Ende.

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In his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell discovered a basic pattern that can be found in all stories portraying a hero. In his hero’s monomyth, the main character is called to an adventure into a foreign land and the skills obtained during the journey are later tested to defeat their toughest challenge. An example of a heroic monomyth can be illustrated in Marissa Meyer’s fantasy novel, Cinder, because the heroine is called to an adventure that she at first refuses, explores an unfamiliar landscape, the castle, where she learns more about her tragic past, and soon comes face to face with her greatest adversary. The events of Cinder follow a linear story that begins in New Beijing, China.

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When creating a story, many great minds will use a pattern to enthrall readers and shape them into a hero. Established by Joseph Campbell, The Hero 's Journey is the iconic template many utilize to plan their imaginative tale. The Hero’s Journey is the cycle in which the protagonist ventures into an unknown world where he or she will go through a series of adventures and learn moral lessons. Heroes in ancient myths such as Homer 's epic poem, The Odyssey follows this formula since the protagonist, Odysseus, faces hardships throughout different regions that ultimately change his once arrogant character. Throughout Homer 's monomyth, Odysseus undergoes challenges that teach him the importance of humility.

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The Hunger Games is a fairly popular and typical tale that includes a heroine, courage, and bravery. This story can be read or watched through many different lenses such as a Marxist lens, feminist lens, or even an archetypal lens. Through these lenses one can see as a reader or viewer that this is not just a story that fits into one category, but one that can fit into many. Using the Marxist and feminist lenses a viewer can gain a great depth of knowledge into The Hunger Games story itself.

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Mythologist, college professor, and author Joseph Campbell came up with the idea of the Hero’s Journey, which had a big impact of literature, and still does today. The Hero’s Journey consists of four main parts, with more ideas under each part. These four parts are Departure, Testing, Fulfillment, and Return. Each part is a key aspect of the Hero’s Journey. In The Hunger Games, written by Suzanne Collins, Katniss Everdeen goes through this journey.

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Heroic figures have long been the root of inspiration and fascination for humankind. A myriad of hero myths share themes and patterns that have recurred throughout time in countless narratives. In J. K. Rowling’s books about the young wizard Harry Potter, we find the same themes, motifs and structures that these hero myths are composed of. To analyse the mythical structure in Harry Potter, two influential concepts about the construction of typical hero myths will be discussed in this chapter: psychoanalyst Otto Rank’s theory of the archetypical hero’s life and mythologist Joseph Campbell’s theory of the “monomyth”: • The archetypical hero:

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It aims at resisting traditional assumptions of gender (3). In doing so, feminist literary criticism examines how works of literature perpetuate or challenge patriarchal attitudes. In feminism lens, The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins’ presents itself as a pro-feminist series It challenges gender stereotypes by presenting a female protagonist; Katniss Everdeen. The book has successfully challenged gender stereotypes by showing that men and women are equal. It is the societal constraints that do not provide a level playing field for both genders.

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