John Paul Manning
Mrs. Hruby
English 1
16 May 2023
English Final Exam Essay: You Are the Hero
In 1949, Joseph Cample recognized a pattern in stories about heroes. He recognized a pattern in the stages they went through; he called this the hero's journey. We can see this in many things and places, such as The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Bruce Banner from The Avengers, and even ourselves. If we break the hero's journey into stages, we can observe that the second phase is where the hero grows as a person and as a hero.
In The Alchemist, the main character, Santiago, goes through the stages of the hero's journey very apparently. If we focus on the second stage of his journey, his growth as a person and as a hero becomes very obvious. The second
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It is also for us, the everyday humans. We too are the heroes of the story—the story of our lives. We see this throughout our entire lives and every single day. I could go on and write for days about how I have lived the hero's journey over and over, but instead we can zoom out and look out and see how our entire lives are one big hero's journey. If we look at life from that perspective, that would indicate that I am in the second stage of the hero’s journey. I have been constantly dealing with struggles, from which I have learned. One of my biggest struggles, from which I have learned and am still learning, was the transition from middle school to high school. While this is a common struggle for almost all students, that doesn’t mean we should overlook it or write it off in our own lives. When I first began high school, I was filled with adrenaline, which fueled me and kept me on my toes enough to keep up with the workload. This "honeymoon phase" came to an end, and I started falling behind. My grades dropped, and I fell behind with homework. It wasn’t as if I didn’t notice that my grades were slipping; I did not motivate myself to get the work done. As the semester continued, my grades kept slipping, which is why I made the choice to put in the effort and pull through with my grades. I knew this task was not going to be easy, but I had to make that decision if I wanted to remain at Ignatius. In the beginning of my "academic comeback," it was hard; I wasn’t sleeping right or eating well. But very slowly, day after day, it got easier. I dug deep and found the motivation to get work done. By the beginning of the second semester, homework and studying were not as treacherous a task; things were looking better, but as in any hero story, things took a turn. Midway through the second semester, I became too comfortable with how I was doing. I let my guard down, and my grades