The Hero’s Journey

Identified by the American scholar Joseph Campbell, the Hero’s Journey is a structured pattern of narrative used in drama, storytelling, and myth.  The Hero faces seemingly insurmountable challenges and achieves great deeds on behalf of the group, tribe, or civilization. Although the pattern will vary, the hero’s external and internal journey follows a similar prototype.

Its stages are:

1. The ordinary world:  The hero is introduced against a background of environment, heredity, and personal history.  Some kind of polarity in the hero’s life is causing stress.
2. The call to adventure:  Something shakes up the situation, either from external pressures or from something within.
3. Refusal of the call:  The hero fears the unknown and tries to turn away from the adventure.  Another character may also express the uncertainty.
4. Meeting with the mentor: The hero comes across a person(s) of knowledge who gives him or her training, equipment, or advice that will help on the journey.  Or the hero reaches within to a source of courage and wisdom.
5. Crossing the threshold:  Usually at the end of Act One, the hero commits to entering a new region or condition with unfamiliar rules and values.
6. Tests, allies and enemies:  The hero is faced with internal and external challenges, conflicts and tests of his strength, character and will.
7. The ordeal:  Near the middle of the story, the hero confronts death or faces his greatest fear.  Out of the moment of death comes a new life.
8. The reward:  The hero takes control of the fortune won by facing death.  Although there may be celebration, there is also danger of losing the treasure again.
9. The road back:  About three-fourths of the way through the story, the hero is driven to complete the adventure.  This journey is punctuated with urgency and great risk.
10. The resurrection:   At the climax, the hero is tested once more on the threshold of home.  He is purified by a last sacrifice, another moment of death and rebirth, but on a superior and more absolute level.  By the hero’s action, the opposing forces that were in conflict at the beginning are finally resolved.
11. Return with the elixir:  The hero continues the journey or returns home. He now bears an element of the treasure and is inspired to transform the world as the hero has been transformed.

Essay Questions for The Hero’s Journey

As a true story, much of Reza’s life authentically follows the hero’s journey.  In literary analysis essay, examine the elements in the story wherein Reza’s life does or does not follow the course of a hero’s journey. Throughout your analysis, discuss the significance of Reza as a real hero.

As a true story, much of Reza’s life authentically follows the hero’s journey.  In an expository essay, examine the significance of each stage of the hero’s journey.  Why are these defining stages in the development of a hero?  How did the stages contribute, or not contribute, to the development of Reza as a hero?

As a true story, much of Reza’s life authentically follows the hero’s journey.  In a persuasive essay, develop an argument to defend or refute the statement that Reza life authentically mirrors that of a classic hero’s journey.  Use specific examples from the story as well as

As a true story, much of Reza’s life authentically follows the hero’s journey.  In a comparison/contrast essay, choose a classic hero such as Odysseus, Christ, Luke Skywalker, Moses, Budda or Prometheus, and discuss the significant similarities and differences of Reza’s journey with that of a classic hero.  The comparative analysis is to move beyond that ‘what happened’ and examine ‘why it is important.’  For each chapter, there is a suggested research topic(s) that enhances the understanding of some aspect of that chapter.  The instructor can design the parameters of the project to reflect the needs and level of his or her class.  It is strongly encourage to include a short class presentation, with optional visual enhancements, to best enrich the experience for the entire class.

Against the dramatic landscape of world altering events, Reza’s heroric journey unfolds.

Curriculum