Eric Campbell

In 1949 Joseph Campbell published, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. His book explains what he called the hero’s journey or monomyth. The hero’s journey is the pattern of archetypal stories of heros in all genres. It tells the tale of a hero who goes through certain steps and accomplishes great feats to become who they are. The hero’s journey is used in drama, myths, storytelling, etc. In fact it has been used long before Joseph Campbell gave it a name. In the novel Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott…

Joseph Campbell, an American mythologist and philosopher, introduces the idea of a hero’s journey within his novel The Hero with a Thousand Faces. In his novel, a hero’s journey is described with three basic aspects. These include the departure, in which the character is introduced and must cross a threshold which sets up the journey, fulfillment, which sets up the trials and tribulations that transform the character, and the return, where the character returns to a new status quo. This three…

Jungian Archetypes in “Perseus” The use of Jungian archetypes in the Roman myth, “Perseus,” demonstrates common unconscious prototypes that humanity as a whole shares. In addition, analyzing the myth through these archetypes enlightens modern society about why we have the preconceived images that we do about our societal roles. The Jungian archetype theory has been used for many years to analyze myth, as well as religious and psychological ideas. The definition of the word archetype without the…

Myth is a means of communicating non-empirical truth in an oral culture. Furthermore, a working definition of myth is “A traditional tale with secondary, partial reference to something of collective importance.” (taken from Walter Burkert, Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979] 23).I will argue the nature of the world and the role of human beings in the world is slightly justified by the myths that were passed down by generation.…

The Hero’s Journey in Mythology In 1949, American scholar Joseph Campbell introduced the concept of the hero’s journey, also known as monomyth, in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The concept proposes the pattern continuously seen within heroic stories, where Campbell concludes that all tell the same story in various forms. The pattern follows the protagonist through evolutions of the character, allowing readers to experience the hero evolve from living an ordinary life to emerging…

In “Stopping by the Woods on a snowy evening”, Robert Frost who is the author, constructs a hidden message of suicide throughout the poem. The narrator of the story takes a stroll through the woods, beside him is his horse and his slay. While he is attracted to the excellence of the forested areas, his horse shakes his harness bells to imply he must go home. The horse makes it known that he has commitments at home but that doesn’t pull him far from the charm of nature. On the other hand, is he…

In modern day terms a myth holds a negative connotation, however in the times of Ancient Greece myths told were largely believed. As with any other ancient culture the Greeks used mythology to explain the environment of which mankind lived, how the night changed from light to dark, the seasons and all other natural phenomena’s. Myths were also used to recount historical events so that people could connect with their ancestors, the wars they were in and the places they had been. Without…

The definition of a cultural hero varies by each person who gives an opinion. There are no set guidelines for what a hero is or does. Oxford English Dictionary define a hero as someone who has “superhuman strength, courage, or ability, favoured by the gods.” To somebody, a hero could be the man who swept the nation off of their feet in the political election, and to somebody else, it could be their grandma who lives a plain life up in Kansas on a farm. In this case, a cultural hero is rooted in…

The idea of the hero’s quest is an archetype of literature; it occurs countless times in the history of stories. Many believe that any and all stories follow the path of the hero’s journey. The movie Excalibur includes multiple hero journeys, but the most prominent one is that of King Arthur. By mistake, Arthur successfully attempts to remove the sword Excalibur from the stone, symbolizing that he is the rightful king of the land. This sets him on the task of acquiring respect and recognition,…

Joseph Campbell once wrote, “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself,” and the hero’s journey is divided into three separate parts: departure, fulfillment, and return. Though at first glance, Suyuan Woo, from Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, doesn’t appear to meet this definition of a hero, she actually satisfies it by devoting her life to improving her daughter’s life. Suyuan’s early life is spent in Kweilin, in the midst of the second Sino-Japanese war.…