Joseph Campbell

Campbell begins his explanation of the hero’s journey by revealing the first step of his monomyth, The Call to Adventure. The call can not be seen as physical nor as musical, instead it can be viewed as every person's tether to the universe and when the universe pulls that tether, it demands the attention of those it calls. The universe should not be seen as tyrannical however, for it calls a person to adventure not to be cruel but to bestow the knowledge that a rite of passage must soon be…

Every hero goes through a journey cycle, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, Katniss Everdeen, et cetera et cetera. Each of these heroes’ journey cycle has an effect on the theme of their respective stories as well as helping to develop their plots. James Dashner’s novel, The Maze Runner, helps express this statement as Dashner utilizes the hero’s journey in order to introduce and develop the theme of his novel, while employing the hero’s journey in a way that helps form his plot in an intriguing way.…

Myth is a primeval way through which every culture defines its character and offers a way to understand the world. Humans use myth to describe and understand “archetypal or universal significance” (Cupitt, 1997, p.5) and to establish their perception of cultural experiences. Different cultures have their own myths that systemise their human experience as “one of the functions of myth is to convert numinous indefiniteness into nominal definiteness and to make what is uncanny familiar and…

The Delineation of Heroes in Literature Prevalent in this culture, much of humankind has indisputably become increasingly favorable to one another whether it is of concern within a smaller collection of individuals or in a bigger societal sense, with this deriving from not only a moral obligation but also the evident presence of physiological empathy, ultimately emphasizing the rise of heroism. For the purposes of elucidation, one must first explore the concept of a hero. There are three…

King Arthur and Spiderman are two fictitious characters that are both similar, and dissimilar to each other. In an excerpt from Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, he writes about monomyth, which is a twelve step process that is divided into four sections. This represents a continuous cycle that the character in the story must go through in order to complete their journey. King Arthur and Spiderman follow the cycle of the Heroes Journey by events in their lives made parallel to the…

The phrase “crossing the Rubicon” was first used in 49-45BC by Julius Caesar. The phase was used by Caesar when he seized power in the Roman Empire. It was at the moment that Caesars army crossed Rubicon, which was forbidden since it meant immediate act of war against the Republic of Italy. Once crossed, Caesar had started a war with Italy. But today it generally means “the point of no return” meaning a choice or action that can never be reversed or fixed, it’s a choice that will stick with you…

Myths are an important part of a culture and society. As the article “Myth: Global Dictionary of Theology” states many people so not understand their importance to a society. Many people see it as a “completely fabricated story” (Myth: Global Dictionary of Theology). This article also emphasizes the impossibility of finding a single definition for the term “myth.” I was interested in reading the different ideas on myth, however I agreed that no one person had the correct, all encompassing,…

How does Greek Mythology Gods, art and fables fit into our lives? People today have told so many stories about the Greek God Hades that it’s hard to figure out which ones are close to the truth. Well, as close to the truth as it can get because they are myths. Let’s start from the beginning. Hades, the brother of Zeus and Poseidon, Was kicked out and banished to the underworld where he became ruler of the dead. One of the main things people get confused about is the simple fact that Hades is not…

Heroes The 19th century poet, Philip James Bailey once said, “The hero is the world-man, in whose heart One passion stands for all...” this means that a hero has passion for everything he or she does and who cares and helps everyone. When a hero becomes old or dies for what he was was doing to help people, he/she becomes a legend. Therefore, a hero is defined as legendary. Two legendary heroes are Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas. Both men lived in history, in 19th century United States…

The appropriation of Greek myth in modern narrative fiction has increased in the last ten years, specifically in the young adult genre. Book series such as Oh. My. Gods. and The Goddess Test draw young girls into the world of classical myths, while Percy Jackson and the Olympians captivated an entire generation and introduced them to the complexities and themes of the poll of mythic traditions from Ancient Greece. These new stories that incorporate the mythos help "[re-introduce] an audience…