Joseph Campbell Heroism Analysis

955 Words4 Pages

After viewing the film and reading the transcript I was able to learn many things about heroism and the types of heroism. Joseph Campbell believes that there are two types of heroes. One is a physical hero which requires saving someone’s life or sacrificing himself/herself for someone else. Meanwhile, the other type of hero is a spiritual hero which learned a way of experiencing a super normal range of spiritual life and came back to tell it. However, I am confused with Campbell’s interpretation on the spiritual hero because people do not come back from the dead. On the other hand, the physical hero makes sense because when people save someone’s else life they are considered heroes and are given an award. Campbell makes a strong point …show more content…

In addition, the complicated paths that we have to follow have already been followed; thus, we only need to follow the footsteps of the hero before us. Instead of finding hate we have found love. Moreover, we thought we had to kill one another, but we had to punish ourselves for all the mistakes we have done. Although we thought we were alone in our journeys, we were with the world. The adventure that Campbell speaks of is the heroic journey we have to face. He is saying the heroic journey we are going to face has already been faced by many other heroes. We can “slay ourselves” by punishing ourselves for the mistakes that we have done. We can “be with all the world” by joining the heroic journey they have faced. In other words, the world has experienced the heroic journey, therefore, if we join the heroic journey then we can “be with all the world” and not be alone as we thought we were. Heroes’ stories are a significant part of our life because they educate us on how to become heroes. In addition, they teach us mistakes that should be avoided. In other words, they tell us how to act the proper way. Mythological heroes have taught us that there are many ways to become a hero and that you can be a hero without knowing it. In addition, they educate us about what is right and what is wrong. Mythological heroes help us identify the bad guys and how we can be heroes by saving people from the bad