Milkman Hero's Journey Analysis

The calling for gold is actually the hidden calling for Milkman’s hero’s journey “Road of Trial” (Campbell). Milkman’s hero journey started out as a quest looking for gold, but instead he encounters trials that ultimately brought him to a higher stage of mind. On his trip to the Deep South, Milkman encounters “a series of tests, tasks, or ordeal that the person [hero] must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests” (Campbell). Furthermore, the existence of these trials is how Morrison helps reinforced the male centric monomyth model, because it is Milkman that goes through these tests, and not anyone else, not even Pilate. The first test on his quest happens while looking for the cave where his father and Pilate hid …show more content…
Early in his critique of Morrison’s book, Brenner implies that Milkman is in fact the hero of Morrison’s monomyth with his nine parts of Rank’s monomyth, but he contests that Milkman is the only hero in the novel, nor should a hero be a male figure. In the review of Brenner’s nine parts rank’s monomyth, he distinguishes “the standard saga of the hero” which depicts Milkman as the hero of Morrison’s monomyth novel. He said, “The hero is the child of most distinguished parents, usually the son of a king…His origin is preceded by difficulties…He is then saved by animals, or by lowly people” (Brenner). This is exactly how the story unfold in the novel, Brenner implies that this is what makes Milkman the hero of the novel because he is the one who experienced the nine parts Rank’s monomyth. However, Brenner thinks there is another hero in the novel, and he implies that Morrison purposely placed this hero to show her criticism of the male centric monomyth. Brenner states in his