The Hero’s Journey
Joseph Campbell’s
Hero with a Thousand Faces
(1949)
What you’ll be doing today…
 Identifying qualities that make a hero
 Analyze how a hero becomes a hero using Campbell’s
Monomyth Formula
Question to consider today:
How does a hero become a hero?
What exactly is a hero?
Preamble:
 Take 2 mins to make a list of all the qualities
associated with a hero- be as specific as you
can
Hero Picture Analysis
 Who is this character?
 What makes this
character a hero?
 Does the hero have
any
flaws/weaknesses?
Hero Picture Analysis
 Who is this character?
 What makes this
character a hero?
 Does the hero have
any
flaws/weaknesses?
Hero Picture Analysis
 Who is this character?
 What makes this
character a hero?
 Does the hero have
any
flaws/weaknesses?
Heroes Among Us
“Subway Story”
 We will now take a few minutes to read together a
short story…
 I will read out loud…
 You will annotate or highlight any parts of the story
where you see heroism being demonstrated…
 What did you learn about heroes according to the
story?
 Bringing these out to the floor…
So how do you know when a hero is a
hero?.... In walks in Joseph Campbell…
Joseph Campbell Wrote a book called
“Hero with a
Thousand Faces in
1949- describing the
journey a hero goes
through in mythology
in very specific stages
Examples of Greek Mythology
Greek Mythology
 In pairs, take out the “The Top 10 Heroes of Greek
Legend”
 Compare your understanding of each of the 10 heroes
based on what you read
 You should know the basics now of all 10 heroes…
 Let’s bring these out to the floor…
Achilles Attacking Troy
Examples of Biblical Heroes
 We are now going to watch a short animated version
of the story of David & Goliath
 Some questions to guide you as you watch…
1. What challenges does David have?
2. How does he overcome them?
3. What lesson does this story teach you?
David and Goliath
Creating Your Own Hero…
 To end our session on myths and legends, you are
going to create your own hero.
Here are some simple guidelines:
 You can draw, make a body outline, print from La
Negra an image-your choice
 Choose what powers and characteristics your hero
has
 Do they have an enemy?
 Do they have weaknesses?
 You can include anything else about your hero
Joseph Campbell and The Monomyth
Some questions to get us thinking before we dive into
the Hero’s Journey as described by Campbell..
Take 2 mins to respond to these questions…
1. What are hardest aspects of being a hero?
2. How do you know when you are in fact a hero?
The Hero Must Make Choices…
 In most narratives (stories), the hero is always left
with choices to make…which paths to take…those
choices determine the outcome of the hero’s journey
Campbell called this journey with
stages
The Monomyth
His argument about heroes…
 All major stories in the
bible and in Greek
mythology have a
formula for their
stories
 At the center is the
hero
Some things to know about heroes…
Universal Theme
Archetypes
Truths about life that any
person can connect with i.e.
love, friendship, death, etc
 Every story has different
characters that help and
challenge the hero
 These “other” characters
are called Archetypes
 They are like a
“blueprint” or “model”
Examples of Archetypes
 The hero is never alone in the quest…
 There are people present in the story
that support but also challenge the hero
The 12 Common Archetypes
The Stages of the Monomyth…
Departure
Initiation
Transformation
Return
Departure
The Call: Place in life where
things are going to change
– they may take challenge
willingly or by force
The Threshold: Person
crossed field of adventure
leaving the known and
ventures to unknown
Initiation
 The Challenges: Series of
tests, obstacles, person
must undergo to begin
transformation-failure is a
part of this for growth
 The Abyss: Greatest
challenge of journey, must
face their worst fear alone –
AKA “Slaying the dragon”
Transformation
 The Transformation: Death
and rebirth- part of person
dies so that new one can be
born- i.e. fear must die to
turn into courage
 The Revelation: Sudden
dramatic change in way
person views life
 The Atonement: Person is at
peace with their new selfincorporate changes from
“journey” and are “reborn”
The Return
The Return: Final stage of
journey is return to
everyday life, discovery of
gift based on what they
have learned- essence of
return is contributing those
lessons learned to the
greater society
Questions to Consider…
 How does this theory help us understand the
“hero” in narratives (stories)? What insight
(understanding) do we get?
 What happens if the hero fails one of these
stages, does the hero still exist?
Practicing the Monomyth
 Before you can start to identify the stages using Star
Wars…
 Let’s watch something short so you can practice
 We are watching a 22 minute episode of Ultimate
Spiderman (From Netflix)
 Your job is try and identify the stages present in this
short episode.
 Go ahead and use a Thinking Log for this
 I saw… and I thought….
Questions?
REMINDER and TIP:
Start to make connections with NPR piece for this
week’s blogging.
Star Wars & The Monomyth
 Before we dive into the movie next week, let’s
become familiar with the creator George Lucas and
the saga that is Star Wars
 Here is a documentary from the History Channel that
gives you better insight into Star Wars
 Star Wars: A Legacy Revealed