Writing Tips 21: More on the Narrative Structure and The Hero’s Journey

In our previous post, we looked at the ‘The Hero’s Journey’ structure. This time, we’re going to look at three examples of modern classics (novels that appeared in the Top 5 of the BBC’s Big Read survey) to see if we can find evidence of the structure underpinning the narrative. Just to remind you, the twelve steps of the Hero’s Journey are:

• The Ordinary World: the hero is first seen in their everyday life.
• The Call to Adventure: the initiating incident (sometimes called ‘the inciting incident’) of the story.
• Refusal of the Call: the hero experiences some hesitation to answer the call.
• 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.
• Tests, Allies and Enemies: the hero marches into the extraordinary world, facing small trials, and making friends and enemies.
• Approach to the Innermost Cave: things start to go wrong.
• The Ordeal: The hero faces ‘death and rebirth’.
• Reward: the hero experiences the consequences of surviving death, and make s abig change.
• The Road Back: the reborn/changed hero struggles to make the change stick.
• The Resurrection: the part where the hero must put everything on the line and finally defeat the antagonist (the big baddie).
• Return with the Elixir: the improved hero returns to the ordinary world, usually bearing gifts.

So let’s first try it out on the first Harry Potter book (The Philosopher’s Stone):

• The Ordinary World-  a boy is living with his aunt and uncle.  He doesn’t know about his parents.
• The Call to Adventure- He starts to do random bits of magic and receives an invitation to a school of magic.
• Refusal of the Call- he denies that it is happening.  His aunt and uncle try to keep him away from the weirdness.  They run off.
• Meeting with the Mentor- Enter Hagrid with his pink umbrella.  “You are a wizard,” he says.  “Your mother and father were a great witch and wizard.  You are the boy who lived.” (In later volumes, Dumbledore and Sirius will play this role)
• Crossing the First Threshold- Off he goes to Hogwarts, via Diagnon Alley
• Tests, Allies and Enemies- Enter all the trials of a new school, plus Ron, Hermione, Snape and the appearance of Quirrell
• Approach to the Innermost Cave- Sent into a forest, Harry witnesses Quirrell drinking unicorn’s blood, the blood that will allow Voldemort to revive once he gets his hands on the philosopher’s stone.
• The Ordeal- Harry and his friends face a series of challenges which nearly kills them all
• Reward- Harry learns to trust (he has to drink a potentially poisonous potion).  He puts his faith in his friends – love.  He also realises (and this is very important) that he is the only one who can be trusted with the stone.  He is the pure one.
• The Road Back- Finally he goes on to face Quirrell/Voldemort alone
• The Resurrection- He defeats him (Quirrell dies but Voldemort escapes because we have 5 more books to sell), due the magical protection that love has given him.
• Return with the Elixir- Dumbledore explains he survived because his mother sacrificed her life to protect him, and neither Voldemort nor Quirrell could understand the power of love.  Then they have a big feast and Gryffindor wins the house cup.

But J.K. Rowling is well known to have used the Hero’s Journey as her model, so that one’s a bit too easy. Let’s try something a bit more challenging: Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’:

• The Ordinary World- Scout lives with her father Atticus and brother Jem in sleepy, Maycomb, Alabama, a town of casual prejudice and rigid social structures.  Dill is just there so Truman Capote had a cameo in the book.  They are terrified of Boo Radley, who keeps leaving them little gifts.  She thinks life is pretty good.
• The Call to Adventure- Atticus is appointed to defend Tom Robinson.  Scout sees the prejudice of the community arise.  She hears her father called a Nigger-Lover
• Refusal of the Call- She refuses to defend him.  In fact, she can’t understand why he’s doing it.
• Meeting with the Mentor- Both her father and Calpurnia try to explain to her what is happening.
• Crossing the First Threshold- A lynch mob comes to the jail.  Atticus is isolated.  Jem and Scout come along and ‘innocently’ shame the mob into dispersing by forcing them to see the situation from Atticus and Tom’s point of view.  Now Scout is fully committed to the outcome of the trial.  She embraces the ostracization that now happens to the Finch family.
• Tests, Allies and Enemies- A bunch of things happen in the lead up to the trial that begins to show up the underlying malaise in the town’s social structure.  The Finch family are essentially ostracised because of what Atticus is doing.
• Approach to the Innermost Cave- Scout witnesses the trial.  She sees the full scale of prejudice in her town.
• The Ordeal- Tom Robinson is convicted and later killed when he tries to escape prison. In the cold reaction of the town and the failure of the justice system, Scout is no longer able to hold on to her past beliefs.
• Reward- She understands her father.  She understands what it means to ‘walk a mile in someone else’s shoes’.  She understands that justice must be absolute and independent.
• The Road Back- they are attacked by Bob Ewell.  Boo Radley kills him.  Scout is able to see this with her ‘new’ perspective
• The Resurrection- She understands Boo Radley who has saved her life.  There’s an argument that she isn’t the agent in here, but there are three things that are significant and signal Scout’s triumph: firstly, she imagines life from Boo’s perspective, and regrets that they had never repaid him for the gifts he had given them.  Secondly, she allows Boo to touch her brother while he’s asleep.  Thirdly she hears and approves of the plan to lie about who killed Bob Ewell.
• Return with the Elixir- She returns to the ordinary world with a new love and understanding of her father and of other people’s problems in general.

All well and good, but Joseph Campbell, you will remember from the previous post in this series, claimed that the Hero’s Journey was an ever-present structure, even if the writer wasn’t aware of it, so it ought to be present in works that predate Campbell’s work. Let’s see if we can identify it in a Nineteenth Century classic, say, ‘Pride and Prejudice’, for example:

• The Ordinary World-  Elizabeth Bennet is living in moderate circumstances with her four sisters: Jane Bennet, the eldest daughter, is distinguished by her kindness and beauty; shares her father’s keen wit and occasionally sarcastic outlook; Mary is not pretty, but is studious, devout and musical albeit lacking in taste; Catherine, sometimes called Kitty, the fourth sister, follows where her younger sister leads, while Lydia is flirtatious and lacks maturity.  If there is a problem, it is that having 5 daughters is an economic problem for Mum and Dad.
• The Call to Adventure- Mr Bingley moves to Netherfield Park, and with him on a visit comes Mr Darcy, a man whom – we know- that Elizabeth is in love with.  Mr Darcy is the call to adventure.  (there is a second possible interpretation in that the call to adventure is about ‘Marriage’ and that Mr Collins is the ‘refused call to adventure’)
• Refusal of the Call- But Elizabeth – through her prejudicial judgement – decides he’s proud and condescending.  He makes unfavourable comments about Jane who is slowly forming an attachment to Mr Bingley.
• Meeting with the Mentor- Several people- her sister Jane who wants to go after Bingley to London and her mother and Aunt and Uncle Gardiner act in this capacity.
• Crossing the First Threshold- Elizabeth goes off to London
• Tests, Allies and Enemies- relationships twist and turn.  It’s a comedy of manners.  Elizabeth wrongly assumes that Darcy has been instrumental in keeping Jane from Mr Bingley.
• Approach to the Innermost Cave- Enter Mr Wickham.  He will be the inner most cave, the point over which Elizabeth will be colossally wrong and Darcy will be vindicated.  Mr Wickham is a man whom Elizabeth thinks is the bee’s Knees and whom Darcy has slandered (Wickham having embezzled and squandered money then tried to elope with Darcy’s sister Georgina)
• The Ordeal- Darcy accuses the Bennet children of being in ‘want of property’ and points out that it was Jane’s own ‘proud’ coldness towards Bingley that had persuaded him that she was not in love with him.  To cap it, on top of being told all these home truths, Wickham runs off with Lydia, Elizabeth’s younger sister.  The family faces ruin, an elopement makes the other sisters unmarriageable.
• Reward- Elizabeth realises that her pride and prejudices have ruined her life and she must put them aside. 
• The Road Back- Darcy has fixed the ‘Lydia and Wickham’ problem by finding them and bribing them into marriage.  Elizabeth is able to acknowledge that she is in love with Darcy. 
• The Resurrection- She even fights for him in an argument with Lady Catherine who wants Darcy to marry her daughter, and threatens to make her life hell.  Lady Catherine is Darcy’s aunt, and being an upper class aristocrat, is the symbol of 19^th century social structure and prejudice that would normally keep couples like Darcy and Elizabeth apart.  Elizabeth essentially bests her in the argument, and Dracy proposes marriage and is accepted.
• Return with the Elixir- It’s a 19^th century novel so everyone gets married.

Contributed by D.N. Martin