Monomyth In Huck Finn

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Every monomyth follows a specific step-by-step path, and Mark Twain’s, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is no different. With the usage of a call to adventure: genuine and juvenile; supreme ordeal: the use of a mentor to break through a threshold; transformation: hero standing up for what he believes in; and finishing the story with the Hero’s Return, this novel follows all of the steps of a monomyth. In Twain’s novel, Huck Finn is the archetypical hero because he follows all of the steps, in order, set by Joseph Campbell's layout of a monomyth. Every monomyth, that follows Campbell’s layout, starts with a call to adventure. In Huck’s case there is more than one call. Multiple “calls to adventure” in a monomyth might hang up some readers on the juvenile …show more content…

The Adventure is finished with Aunt Sally adopting Huck, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a pot of gold at the end of this adventure. Jim finally receives his freedom, “then tell him about his being free,and take him backup home on a steamboat,”(257) Huck’s main goal is achieved. The death of Huck’s father is even a reward in itself, “Well, den, you kin git yo' money when you wants it, kase dat wuz him.” (257) His father leaves Huck with lots of money and with his father’s absence Huck is now free from his old life. The best reward of all, escaping Sowarism, was given to Huck because Tom finally leaves Huck’s adventure, at the very end, and Tom’s romanticism is finally out of Huck’s way. The end of Huck’s adventure is a classic monomyth victory, with plenty of reward and the feeling of completion left in the hearts of