The Karate Kid Analysis

The Unforeseen Journey of a Karate Master Joseph Campbell, an american mythologist, discovered the many common patterns that ran through the hero’s myths and stories around the world. The many years that Joseph Campbell had researched this topic, he noticed that most and almost every hero's story contained a common pattern , even in diverse cultures. A story that showed this pattern was the movie The Karate Kid. The movie The Karate Kid cataloged the journey of Shao Dre who is learning the basics of karate as well as gaining the dignity that karate embraces. Dre picks up this through the training of his instructor, Mr Han, who taught him the exceptional uses of karate as well as the damages it result in. As the movie progresses, Dre passes through many tests that changes his physically as well as mentally. The Karate Kid embraces the ideas/stages of the hero’s journey from “the ordinary world,” to the “mentor”, to the “test and ordeals”, and to the “supreme ordeal.” Dre, who was at home in the city of Detroit, was forced into the “Ordinary World” of China. In Dre’s journey, Dre and his mother found …show more content…
Dre at this moment was at his weakest point, where he was struggling to find a way taking on Cheng with his injured leg. At this point Dre was at another “ vulnerable” moment due to his injured leg which restricted him to fight Cheng. It seemed that if Dre continued to fight Cheng with this injured leg, Dre would lose the tournament. At this point Dre, “faces possibility of death” because with the injured leg, Dre faced the death of his dignity as a karate kid. However, he continued fighting and as a result, Dre won. Dre didn’t allow the fear of losing to get to him, as he used it to “battle with hostile force and greatest fear”. With this he overcame his pain and fear of losing and used force and the fear of not winning to receive the