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Into Thin Air: The Monomyth

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The monomyth, a story arc template introduced by Joseph Campbell in 1949, describes the “hero’s journey” as seventeen stages, but it can be simplified into three parts: a main character goes on an adventure, faces a crisis, and returns, notably changed. Though used in fictitious outlines, this narrative can occur in real life too. John Krakauer, the author of the memoir Into Thin Air, underwent a horrific experience on Mount Everest, when he was present for the May 10, 1996 disaster. Even though Krakauer’s account is nonfiction, it parallels the monomyth structure. Campbell’s first section is departure: a stage where the hero, Krakauer, lives in the normal world and receives an opportunity to take an extraordinary adventure. Krakauer explains …show more content…

Initiation is described as the stage in which the hero “faces tasks or trials”, and the hardships Krakauer ends up facing more than qualify.He immediately realizes that the altitude is down right awful, making a point to note that “[t]he ration of misery to pleasure was greater by an order of magnitude than any other mountain I'd been on.”(157). He and his teammates get almost instantaneous altitude sickness, leaving them deeply uncomfortable at the best, and “delirious, stumbling like a drunk, and coughing up pink, blood-laced froth ”(125) at the worst. This is only the beginning, though- during the descent, his teammates start dying off.
Instead of horror and inability to continue, Krakauer’s lack of oxygen and shocked state leaves him “dull and unresponsive” (133) and unable to process how truly awful things are. This is how the last stage, return, manifests for him. In many stories, the hero receives a powerful token or a trophy of some variety. Unfortunately for Krakauer, his trophy or token is major PTSD and trauma. He goes on to write his book, shares his experiences and lessons he has learned, but he ultimately does not see his time on the mountain as positive or a prize

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In chapters 14 and 15 of Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer becomes more than just an investigator or a narrator, he becomes a character. He tells his story of climbing the Devils Thumb, which exposes the similarities between himself and McCandless. This aids to his understanding of McCandless’s motivations, without ever meeting him, due to the parallels in their personalities and family issues. Chapter 14 is devoted to Krakauer’s story about his youthful love for mountain climbing. At age 23, he plans to do a dangerous climb on the Devil’s Thumb in Alaska alone. “

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Throughout chapters 8 and 9, the author showed his bias towards Chris McCandless, which is an act of defiance to his position as an objective journalist, when he attempted to alter the readers’ negative point of view towards Chris by the introduction of different people who had similar experiences and characteristics as him and then making comparison. After reading the previous chapters, the readers have already made their own judgement on Chris, which are probably mostly negative. To address this issue, Krakauer initiates chapter 8 by introducing negative comments and mails not only about Chris but also to him, the author. These will serve as an argument that he will later attempt to disprove while at the same time, still informing the readers about what makes Chris special and unique.

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Christopher McCandless, the protagonist of the novel and film Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer, is not your average guy. Driven by his minimalist ideals and hate for society, he challenged the status quo and embarked on a journey that eventually lead to his unforeseen demise. A tragic hero, defined by esteemed writer, Arthur Miller, is a literary character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces, brings on tragedy. Christopher McCandless fulfills the role of Miller’s tragic hero due to the fact that his tragic flaw of minimalism and aversion towards society had lead him to his death.

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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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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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OVERARCHING THEMES Though The Odyssey and Paradise Lost are penned during completely separate time periods–with a span of roughly nine centuries between the writing of each–the two works still share many similar themes and subject matters. Some are more vital components for the genre in general, necessary for a piece of literature to be considered an epic; others remain less conspicuous, though with just as great an impact on the overall story. Heroism and the Hero’s Journey: One of the most defining elements of an epic work is the presence of the Hero’s Journey, also known as the monomyth. Introduced by Joseph Campbell, the Hero’s Journey describes the typical narrative pattern that accompanies many forms of storytelling, most commonly and most easily seen in classical literature.

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Table 13 exhibits the third and the last section of the Monomyth which is the return. This part has six stages that recount the resolution to the hero-myth adventure. This is the Departure in reverse where this time the hero retraces his pathway back home after attaining the objective of his mission in his magical journey from the unknown realm. He comes back to the familiarity of his old world a changed person with a renewed sense of purpose to share the wisdom he gained to the people of his land. The hero often achieves contentment of life knowing he that he had already overcome the worst adversities and he is ready to face the battle once again should fate call him to do so.

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Using experience from helping write these works, as well as experiences and information he learned throughout his entire life, Joseph Campbell wrote his well renowned and award winning book The Hero with a Thousand Faces in 1949. It was here that Campbell described the idea of the aforementioned monomyth. The Joseph Campbell Foundation describes the monomyth as, “a universal pattern that is the essence of, and common to, heroic tales in every culture” (“About Joseph Campbell”). This is largely true, as Campbell’s monomythic concept follows a specific set of 17 steps to every hero’s journey. The steps are encompassed and divided amongst three larger stages: The Departure, The Initiation, and The Return.

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Joseph Campbell, the author of The Hero With A Thousand Faces, writes, “The crossing first of the open sewer, then of the perfectly clear river flowing over grass, the appearance of the willing helper at the critical moment, and the high, firm ground beyond the final stream. These are the everlastingly recurrent themes of the wonderful song of the soul 's high adventure.” (Campbell 20). These themes presented by Joseph Campbell illustrate what has become known as the “The Hero’s Journey” or “Monomyth”. The Monomyth structure has grown to become the most widespread form of storytelling and writing throughout all forms of media.

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To establish his credibility, Krakauer demonstrates extensive research of Chris’ life and correlates his life with Chris’; as a result, he discloses his deep connection with Chris. For example, Krakauer constructs a body of evidence to support his argument; however, Krakauer asserts that he is an “impartial biographer”

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His journal also holds words of disappointment in his last days. He speaks of his desperate and progressively futile efforts to survive. His journal entries were also published. The new York times published his journal entries which lead to his story being published by Jon KrakAuer. Both men’s journals are the only evidence of their dream being pursued in the wilderness of

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Campbell writes about the concept that countless myths all share a basic structure, called the monomyth. In this, the hero of the story undergoes a number of steps in his journey, labelled Departure, Initiation and Return (cf. Ahmed, 2012, 4): (1) In the Departure stage, the hero enters a strange world of often supernatural powers and events, after being called to it in the normal world he’s lived in (cf. Colbert, 2008, 208).

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