Bruce Campbell

Myths create a reality people believe in and act on. While we may view these myths as simply stories, they shape people’s view of reality. Stories are real to the people who believe them. Aguirre would not have desperately searched for El Dorado if he did not believe it existed. Many signed on to jungle expeditions ill informed and lusting after adventure (Balkan, 31), after hearing rumors of a king who washed off a fresh coat of gold dust everyday (Balkan, 21). People’s belief in myths can…

some miraculous and improbable events that are likely to have never taken place in the real life. However, in case of religious studies, the concept of myth is viewed in a different way since experts in the field of religious studies, such as Joseph Campbell, view the myth not as a fancy story that emerged in folklore under the impact of various factors, but rather as a story based on some actual events that have once taken place but which ultimately transformed into the miraculous story with…

Every mythic hero or heroine’s journey can be traced through the outline of seventeen steps devised by Joseph Campbell. George Lucas’s Star Wars saga contains a unique blend of traditional elements of science fiction and the archetypal structure of a myth. The main protagonist of episodes IV-VI is Luke Skywalker, a boy from Tatooine who goes on an interplanetary journey and learns how to use the Force. Like any other mythic hero or heroine, Luke’s journey can be traced through the seventeen…

The modern day definition of “hero” is usually a figure who goes above and beyond the actions of the average man for the sake of a greater good. In today’s society, anyone can be classified as a hero if their actions surpass a certain threshold of selflessness. However, in literature, a “hero” must fit a very specific criteria to be truly fit such a title. Two major types of heroes in literature include the tragic hero and the epic hero. A tragic hero is an extraordinary character in a dramatic…

Joseph Campbell’s concept of the Hero’s Journey has made it into the plot of almost every story. From the call to adventure to the boon, a main character of a story often follows this traditional path on their journey of adventure. This proves to be no different for the renowned Harry Potter in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Letter after letter, the people of Hogwarts were desperately trying to get Harry to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. However,…

Disability is seen as a myth with many different mythical ideas, but should we really believe everything we see or hear? In this article, the author addresses certain myths about disability. He mainly wants us to accept the fact that, “Normal” is also considered a myth and that disability itself is not automatically mythical either. Dolmage does this by drawing our attention to all the different myths he is proving wrong throughout this article. The main point of this article is to show how many…

humanity, one such person is Malala Yousafzai. In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell states, “the hero is the man of self-achieved submission.” We witness this submission in Malala, who was aware of her potential, and the need to make a stand. She committed herself to fight…

Joseph Campbell, a mythologist, writer and lecturer, discovers common patterns of hero myths and stories that are told from around the world which are still relevant today. Campbell acknowledges the main steps to a mythic hero’s journey, such as the call to adventure, refusal of the call, crossing of the first threshold, and the belly of the whale. The film Divergent reveals these steps of a hero’s journey. Divergent is essentially about the government controlling society by dividing them into…

“Heneral Luna is a film that should be watched by every Filipino from all across the globe.” This was the only statement my mind was able to process and produce the first time I watched the renowned movie Heneral Luna. It was as if my whole tiny and parched patriotic-system was watered and revived. The movie Heneral Luna is a biopic film directed by Jerrold Tarog and produced by Artikulo Uno productions having John Arcilla play the role of Antonio Luna. [1] It was a film narrating the story of…

A valiant, altruistic hero, commonly referred to as the “classic hero”, has been the predominant trope for thousands of years in thousands of works of literature, but a new breed of savior has recently emerged from the land of fiction, and it is taking the world by storm. This new archetype, branded the “modern hero” is a character that rises from adversity onto the unlikely pedestal of a hero status, fumbling along the way with their own motives, but with a determination to reach their heroic…