The Hero's Journey
The archetype of the "Hero's Journey" was developed by a man named Joseph Campbell, and explained in his book, Hero of a Thousand Faces. Among other things, Campbell asserted that every culture has a "hero's journey" story/myth, and that these all had certain characteristics. To sum it up, the steps of the hero's journey are:
- Ignorance: the hero's doesn't know he's special
- Mentor: a mentor teaches the hero of his power
- Initiation/trial: the hero must go through a training period
- Scar: the hero receives some sort of scar. NOTE: This scar could be external (like Harry Potter's scar on his head) or internal (like Harry's emotional scar of the loss of his parents)
- Denial: the hero denies his power and/or responsibility (usually in the form of "It can't be me, I can't do it")
- Acceptance: the hero accepts his power and/or responsibility (usually in the form of "I have to do it to save ___________.")
- Dragon: The hero must fight a "dragon." (Dragon = whatever great evil the hero must vanquish, i.e. Voldemort, Darth Vader, Sauruman, etc.)
If you're interested in this sort of jazz, check out The Power of Myth, also by Joseph Campbell, or some basic books of Carl Jung, Campbell's predecessor.
You may also want to check out these links:
A good summary of an interview with Campbell explaining these ideas can be found here.
This site goes more in-depth about the hero's journey than I went over in class. It's very interesting.
