In The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), Botswana Email Address Joseph Campbell, professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College, develops his theory that all mythological narratives share the same basic structure.
He refers to this structure as the Hero’s Journey. Campbell summarizes the concept as follows:
“A hero escapes from the common world into a region of supernatural wonders. Extraordinary forces are found, and a decisive victory is won.
Joseph Campbell
The Hero’s Journey is a common narrative archetype, or story model.
Campbell presents 17 total steps of the Hero’s Journey structure.
His theory is male-centric, which is why we’re going to talk about “hero” and not “heroine”.
Campbell’s Hero’s Journey Model
The Hero’s Journey can be summarized in 3 essential steps:
the match : the hero leaves the familiar world behind;
the initiation : the hero learns to navigate the unfamiliar world;
the return : the hero returns to the familiar world.
Next, we’ll explore the details of each of these steps.
the initiation
In the initiation section, the hero enters the “special world”, where he begins to face a series of tasks until reaching the climax of the story the main obstacle or enemy List Provider.
Here, the hero puts into practice everything he has learned on his journey to overcome the obstacle.
Campbell talks about the hero achieving some sort of reward for his troubles — this could be a physical symbol, an “elixir,” or just good old-fashioned wisdom (or both).
