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27 May 2018

The Basics About The Heros Journey

By Kevin Jackson


It would be hard to find someone who has never heard of this type of literary device before since it has appeared in so many popular films and books, and will probably continue to be used for a long time. The heros journey has been around for so long that people might even recognize it once they hear a little bit about it. It is these easy-to-spot elements that keep people coming back to any book or movie that uses them.

The main thing that happens to heroes who go on journeys like these is that they go from the known to the unknown. That is, they leave their home due to a call to adventure, which they are initially averse to, and are quickly swept up into a world of chaos. After making some kind of life-changing discovery, the hero eventually makes his or her way back home.

By this point, everyone in the world has probably heard of Star Wars, and many people know that the original films had a lot to do with this storytelling device. Writer and director George Lucas himself didn't realize just how many motifs he borrowed from mythology at the time. However, shortly after the original film was released, audiences and critics everywhere identified Campbell's influence.

While there are many who think that this formula has maintained such a wide popularity for so long for a good reason, others think that the categories in the journeys are far too vague. According to critics, there is not much meaning that can be derived from the template itself. That is why the stories that use it have to be able to back it up with their content.

It might sound surprising to some that this literary device can even be used in therapy, but it is true. There are a number of self-help and therapeutic techniques that base their methods on the journeys that these heroes from stories have gone through. Just as the steps in this kind of a quest work together to create a satisfying and emotionally deep story, they can work the same way for a person's psyche to help them live a fuller, happier life.

Like many classic stories, these journeys seem to only focus on how it applies to men. Women who also want to be represented might look up some of the authors who have written a more inclusive heroine's path. This is an excellent response to a one-sided story.

Many people know that a person has to rely on his or her own wits and judgment in order to truly make it in the world. The drawback that some people see with this kind of mythological motif is that it seems to present the message that people have to rely on these special heroes. Some authors who are critics of this have written their own books that present a different message.

It is unfortunate that this type of story is sometimes overused to the point of it becoming uninteresting to some. When the elements of a story can all be predicted before they happen, this does not make for a very exciting story. Big Hollywood movies are often guilty of this because of the pressure to get their movie to do well in the box office.




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