The Hero’s Journey Essay
In literature, authors have the freedom to craft stories in a seemingly endless variety of ways. However, in many books and novels there is a monomyth that connects them together – The Hero’s Journey. The Hero’s Journey consist of three distinct stages: The Departure, The Initiation, and The Return, each with their own substages. Those distinct stages and substages are shown in the novels: Of Mice and Men, The Great Gatsby, and To Kill a Mockingbird. In Of Mice and Men, the monomyth of The Hero’s Journey is demonstrated through the actions of the protagonist named George. George begins his initiation with the “Call to Adventure”, in which he and his counterpart named Lennie are voyaging to their new job “on a ranch …show more content…
Scout begins her Hero’s Journey with the “Call to Adventure” when she, Jem, and the newly arrived Dill all have “the idea of making Boo Radley come out” of his secluded habitat (Lee 3). This shows the “Call to Adventure” because the young trio were drawn to the mystery of Boo. Scout’s departure stage is continued with the “Crossing of the First Threshold” when the kids “peep in the window with the loose shutter” at Boo’s house, thus going closer to Boo than they ever had before and completing the “Crossing of the First Threshold” (69). Scout then moves on to the stage of initiation in which she endures the two substages of the “Road of Trials” and the “Atonement with the Father”. In this novel, the “Road of Trials” is quite literal, as that substage for Scout is her entertaining the facts and evidence of the trial. This substage ends in defeat for Scout, as she feels that Tom (the man on trial) “wasn’t guilty in the first place and [the jury] said he was” (224). Scout ends her initiation with the “Atonement with the Father” when she and Jem were attacked by Bob Ewell who “smelled [like] stale whiskey” and “[walked] heavily and unsteadily” toward them (266-267). This is the “Atonement with the Father” because it shows a standoff between Scout and an ultimate male force in Bob Ewell. Scout enters the final stage of departure with the “Rescue from Without” when she is saved from Bob Ewell by Boo Radley, who eventually leaves Bob with a “kitchen knife stuck up under his ribs” (270). This shows the “Rescue from Without” because Scout was unable to escape from Bob Ewell by herself, so she needed outside intervention from Boo Radley to escape death. Finally, Scout finishes her Hero’s Journey with “Freedom to Live” as she now no longer has to worry about Boo or Bob, and she now fully realizes and understands that Atticus was right when he said,
In literature, authors have the freedom to craft stories in a seemingly endless variety of ways. However, in many books and novels there is a monomyth that connects them together – The Hero’s Journey. The Hero’s Journey consist of three distinct stages: The Departure, The Initiation, and The Return, each with their own substages. Those distinct stages and substages are shown in the novels: Of Mice and Men, The Great Gatsby, and To Kill a Mockingbird. In Of Mice and Men, the monomyth of The Hero’s Journey is demonstrated through the actions of the protagonist named George. George begins his initiation with the “Call to Adventure”, in which he and his counterpart named Lennie are voyaging to their new job “on a ranch …show more content…
Scout begins her Hero’s Journey with the “Call to Adventure” when she, Jem, and the newly arrived Dill all have “the idea of making Boo Radley come out” of his secluded habitat (Lee 3). This shows the “Call to Adventure” because the young trio were drawn to the mystery of Boo. Scout’s departure stage is continued with the “Crossing of the First Threshold” when the kids “peep in the window with the loose shutter” at Boo’s house, thus going closer to Boo than they ever had before and completing the “Crossing of the First Threshold” (69). Scout then moves on to the stage of initiation in which she endures the two substages of the “Road of Trials” and the “Atonement with the Father”. In this novel, the “Road of Trials” is quite literal, as that substage for Scout is her entertaining the facts and evidence of the trial. This substage ends in defeat for Scout, as she feels that Tom (the man on trial) “wasn’t guilty in the first place and [the jury] said he was” (224). Scout ends her initiation with the “Atonement with the Father” when she and Jem were attacked by Bob Ewell who “smelled [like] stale whiskey” and “[walked] heavily and unsteadily” toward them (266-267). This is the “Atonement with the Father” because it shows a standoff between Scout and an ultimate male force in Bob Ewell. Scout enters the final stage of departure with the “Rescue from Without” when she is saved from Bob Ewell by Boo Radley, who eventually leaves Bob with a “kitchen knife stuck up under his ribs” (270). This shows the “Rescue from Without” because Scout was unable to escape from Bob Ewell by herself, so she needed outside intervention from Boo Radley to escape death. Finally, Scout finishes her Hero’s Journey with “Freedom to Live” as she now no longer has to worry about Boo or Bob, and she now fully realizes and understands that Atticus was right when he said,