The Hero Monomyth

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The Hero Monomyth

• Joseph Campbell
• Most quotes are from
• The Power of Myth
• Taken from www.emich.edu/public/english/childlit/M
  onomyth.ppt

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• Moyers Why are there so many stories of the
  hero in mythology?
• Campbell Because thats whats worth writing
  about. (123)

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Example

• Heres one example of an application of Joseph
  Campbells ideas to a contemporary text, Hunger
  Games

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The Question

• is not whether we tell the same hero story
  over and over again (it is pretty clear that we
  do), the question is, Why?
• Why are we compelled to tell and re-tell the
  same story? Is there something about this
  particular narrative we are drawn to, or that we,
  as humans, need?

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Lets begin with the basic pattern

• 1. A call to adventure, which the hero has to
  accept or decline
• 2. A road of trials, at which the hero succeeds
  or fails
• 3. Achieving the goal or "boon", which often
  results in important self-knowledge
• 4. A return to the ordinary world, at which the
  hero can succeed or fail
• 5. Applying the boon what the hero has gained
  can be used to improve the world

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Where the Wild Things Are

• By Maurice Sendak
• Is a deceptively simple picture book for children
  that follows this pattern . . .

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Max learns

• To be more human, a better human
• To love and to be loved
• To conquer his fears, his inner demons
• Self control, especially the ability to master
  his emotions

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Campbell on the spirit quest

• All of these different mythologies give us
  the same essential quest. You leave the world
  that youre in and go into a depth or into a
  distance or up to a height. There you come to
  what was missing in your consciousness in the
  world you formerly inhabited. Then comes the
  problem of either staying with that, and letting
  the world drop off, or returning with that boon
  and trying to hold on to it as you move back into
  your social world again. Thats not an easy
  thing to do (129).

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The popularity of Harry Potter and Hunger Games

• Campbell argued that contemporary, industrial
  cultures are starved for myth, America has no
  ethos, he said. What were learning in our
  schools is not the wisdom of life. Such wisdom
  learning how to live can only come from myth
  (8-9).
• Are we, as a culture, starved for myth?
• Who are our contemporary heroes?

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Campbell claims that myth has four functions

• Mystical
• Cosmological
• Sociological
• Pedagogical

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1. Mystical

• Myth helps us to realize what a wonder the
  universe is, what a wonder you are, and
  experiencing awe before this mystery (31).
• It is it not so much about learning the meaning
  of life, as it is about taking pleasure in the
  experience of living.

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2. Cosmological

• Myth shows us the shape of the universe, but
  showing it in such a way that the mystery comes
  through (31).
• It explains why things are the way they are,
  but not in the same ways that science explains
  these things.

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3. Sociological

• Myth is a way of supporting and validating a
  certain social order (31).
• Myth both reflects and helps to shape a
  particular cultures values and belief systems.

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4. Pedagogical

• Myth teaches us how to live a human lifetime
  under any circumstances (31).
• Myth can teach us how to be more human, how to
  be better humans, how to survive, how to know
  ourselves, and how to lose ourselves. Myths are
  models for living.

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Popular Culture as myth

• Campbell argues that in our contemporary,
  diffused, destabilized, commercial culture (made
  up of many sub-cultures) where there are no
  unifying myths, we create unifying myths through
  popular culture.
• Most of these follow the pattern of the hero
  monomyth . . .

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Campbell outlined 17 Stages of the Hero Monomyth

• Were not going into that much detail here! (Im
  borrowing from Wikipedia, a great source for
  over-simplified information.)
• If you are interested in learning more, read The
  Hero with a Thousand Faces.

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The Call to Adventure

• The adventure begins with the hero receiving a
  call to action, such as a threat to the peace of
  the community, or the hero simply falls into or
  blunders into it.

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The Herald

• The call is often announced to the hero by
  another character, who acts as a "herald". The
  herald, often represented as dark or terrifying
  and judged evil by the world, may call the
  character to adventure simply by the crisis of
  his appearance.

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There is a choice

• The hero-to-be can refuse the call (not a good
  idea, because characters who refuse the call
  often dont end well)
• Or, the hero can choose to accept the call and
  begin the journey.

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Crossing the First Threshold

• The hero must cross the threshold between the
  world he is familiar with and that which he is
  not.

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Supernatural Aid

• After the hero has accepted the call, he
  encounters a protective figure (often elderly)
  who provides special tools and advice for the
  adventure ahead, such as an amulet or a weapon.

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Tests, Allies, and Enemies

• The hero, rather than passing a threshold, passes
  into the new zone by means of rebirth. He/She
  must pass tests of allegiance.

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Approach

• The Hero and his/her allies ready themselves for
  battle in the special world.

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Initiation The Road of Trials

• The hero is challenged to survive a succession of
  obstacles and, in so doing, amplifies his
  consciousness. The hero is helped covertly by the
  supernatural helper or may discover a benign
  power supporting him in his passage.

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Road of Trials Why so many tasks?

• Campbell said, Theres no reward without
  renunciation, without paying the price. The Koran
  says, Do you think that you shall enter the
  Garden of Bliss without such trials as came to
  those who passed before you? (126).
• The hero has to be tested, has to be proven
  worthy. Also, learning self-consciousness is a
  long path.

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ROT Why are so many tasks in labyrinths and
underworlds?

• The belly of the whale (from the story of
  Jonah) Its a decent into the dark.
  Psychologically, the whale represents the power
  of life locked in the unconscious (146).
• The hero (like Max) has to come to terms with
  his subconscious mind, that dark part of himself
  beyond his control and mastery.

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ROT The Journey Within

• Campbell used the phrase the journey within to
  demonstrate the way that the heros journey
  represents an individuals journey toward
  self-knowledge. This self-knowledge is an
  understanding of self, not necessarily a mastery
  of self.

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Death and Rebirth Accepting death

• Campbell You dont understand death, you
  learn to acquiesce to death (151).
• The heros greatest task is learning to accept
  his own mortality and the role that death plays
  in the cycle of life.

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ROT Villains

• Villains often are villains precisely because
  they refuse to accept mortality

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ROT Death Eaters

• The heros nemesis, the monster, the villain,
  has not fully developed in his humanity (144).
  The nemesis (Voldemort, Darth Vader, etc.) is
  stunted in spiritual growth and is always a
  threat to the hero because he represents what the
  hero could become if he takes the wrong path.

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Death Eaters

• Defeating Voldemort and the Death Eaters, then,
  is not defeating death. It is defeating the fear
  of death.

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Transforming the Self

• Becoming a hero is about transforming changing
  from one thing into another, from one kind of
  human into another kind The basic motif of the
  universal heros journeyleaving one condition
  and finding the source of life to bring you forth
  into a richer or mature condition (124).
• The hero has to grow up.

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Self-Sacrifice

• Paradoxically, finding the self means learning to
  become selfless, and reaching a place of honor,
  means learning humility
• Losing yourself, giving yourself to some higher
  end, or to anotheryou realize that this itself
  is the ultimate trial. When we quit thinking
  primarily about ourselves and our own
  self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic
  transformation of consciousness (126).

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Btw, Harrys not the only hero

• In HPSS
• Ron
• Hermione

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The Reward and the Road Back

• The hero receives a boon and self-knowledge. He
  or she also may receive a treasure of some sort
  won by facing death.
• Having found bliss and enlightenment in the other
  world, the hero may not want to return to the
  ordinary world to bestow the boon onto his fellow
  man. But he usually does.

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The Resurrection

• The hero is tested one more time closer to home.
  Because of the boon or due to his experience, the
  hero may now perceive both the divine and human
  worlds.

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The Hero Returns

• The hero bestows the boon to his fellow man
  giving them and himself the freedom to live.