The idea of ‘The Hero’s Journey’ comes from a book called ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’, a work by Joseph Campbell, first published in 1949. It was originally described as an academic work of comparative mythology, but its importance for writers has gone way beyond its scholarly merits.
Campbell’s book discusses a theory, based both on the work of Carl Jung and Campbell’s own studies of ancient mythology, that there is a ‘monomyth’ – an archetypical journey of an archetypal hero found in all mythological stories. Campbell was not claiming to have invented this, rather he claimed it has always been there:
“A hero [male or female] ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”
Later writers claimed the structure underpinned all storytelling, and it became the de facto standard in many creative writing and scriptwriting courses. Most significantly, Christopher Vogler turned the Hero’s Journey model into the ‘credo’ of the Disney studio. His seven-page studio memo, “A Practical Guide to The Hero with a Thousand Faces” was given to every scriptwriter, producer and director in the Disney organisation. Consequently, if you are a writer, reader, editor, filmmaker or any other sort of human being who has been raised in Western Culture in the last fifty years, you grew up bathed in stories that follow the formula. From the mid-20th Century onwards, we find it explicitly in children’s and fantasy literature – Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Watership Down. It’s somewhat more hidden in most adult literary fiction, but such is its ubiquity that it’s clearly evident in all genre fiction: Crime, Romance etc.
To get to the important details, Vogler’s commentary on the structure (which I find the most concincing) concisely describes twelve major steps in the journey:
- The Ordinary World: the hero is first seen in their everyday life. They may or may not seem content, but the important thing here is for readers (or viewers of the movie) to engage with the character and their loves/wants/needs/problems. This is preparation for a long journey in their company. Usually, we are given a clue to some flaw or weakness in the hero that will come back to haunt them later; it will prove (conveniently) the thing which is most thoroughly tested on the journey.
- The Call to Adventure: the initiating incident (sometimes called ‘the inciting incident’) of the story. The step is often called the ‘Glimpse of the Extraordinary World’. Basically, something happens that shows the hero a different world, or threatens the one they are already in.
- Refusal of the Call: the hero experiences some hesitation to answer the call, and we may even see that the hero’s character flaw or weakness is at the heart of their reluctance. This key step seems to have become more important in modern literature. We don’t like heroes who are too keen to march off towards a conflict. We want our heroes to show humility and reluctance. (Think of the way Luke Skywalker initially rejects everything that Obi-Wan Kinobi tells him about his destiny, and/or the way Harry Potter denies he’s a wizard).
- Meeting with the Mentor: the hero meets someone who provides the necessary knowledge, or confidence needed to succeed on the adventure.
- Crossing the First Threshold: the hero finally commits to the adventure. This step is sometimes called ‘Acceptance of the Call’. In a three-act story, this is where Act One finishes. In line with the ‘Refusal’, the hero does not always commit to the adventure willingly (Luke Skywalker signs up to the Star Wars adventure only after the Evil Empire massacres his family and burns his home to the ground; Katniss Everdeen only volunteers to go off and kill people in a televised gladiatorial contest to save her sister).
- Tests, Allies and Enemies: the hero marches into the extraordinary world, facing small trials, and making friends and enemies. This is often the longest step in a book or movie. The hero often goes from small defeats to the self-delusion that they are slowly winning during this step
- Approach to the Innermost Cave: things start to go wrong, the hero’s weaknesses start to emerge and come into highlight as the main Antagonist (the big baddie, real or psychological) in the story start to flex their muscles.
- The Ordeal: I’ve seen this step described as a ‘Little Death’, but it’s basically where the the hero gets the bejeebers kicked out of them by the antagonist. The hero faces the experiences ‘death and rebirth’ and we see that this failure is directly related to the aforementioned flaw or weakness.
- Reward: the hero experiences the consequences of surviving death. As part of the reward, the hero sees that they must fix their character flaw or weakness. They commit to change. (When people ask you what a story is about, and you struggle to describe it, look for this step along the journey, i.e the place where the hero changes. The beginning and middle of stories are always about the things that lead up to and prompt change; the last part of of a story is proving that the change has made a difference.)
- The Road Back: the reborn/changed hero struggles to make the change stick, but eventually emerges stronger and better, and ready to fight.
- The Resurrection: there is this last battle to fight. This step might as well be called Redemption, as much as Resurrection. It is the part where the hero must put everything on the line and finally defeat the antagonist (the big baddie). Only after victory is the fully reborn hero ready to go home.
- Return with the Elixir: the improved hero returns to the ordinary world, usually bearing gifts, but sometimes his changed presence is gift enough for the people he returns to.
So that’s the Hero’s Journey narrative model. In a follow up post, I’ll show you how some of the classics (I’ll be selecting some novels from the BBC’s Big Read survey) follow the Hero’s Journey structure.
Contributed by D.N. Martin
leicesterwritersclub.com 