1. The Hero’s Journey
The Path to Discovery

2. Hero’s Journey
The Hero’s Journey is a pattern of narrative identified by the American scholar Joseph Campbell that appears in drama, storytelling, myth, religious ritual, and psychological development. It describes the typical adventure of The Hero, the person who goes out and achieves great deeds on behalf of the group, tribe, or civilization.

3. Stages 1: Ordinary World
The hero, uneasy, uncomfortable or unaware, is introduced sympathetically so the audience can identify with the situation or dilemma. The hero is shown against a background of environment, heredity, and personal history. Some kind of polarity in the hero’s life is pulling in different directions and causing stress.
Separation: Hero is dragged from the comforts of home to experience growth and change.

4. Step 2: The Call to Adventure
Something shakes up the situation, either from external pressures or from something rising up from deep within, so the hero must face the beginnings of change.
The Call: realization of
imbalance or injustice in the
hero’s life that invites him into the adventure, the unknown.

5. Stage 3: Refusal of the Call
The hero feels the fear of the unknown and tries to turn away from the adventure, however briefly. Alternately, another character may express the uncertainty and danger ahead.

6. Stage 4: Crossing the Threshold
The hero commits to leaving the Ordinary World and entering a new region or condition with unfamiliar rules and values.
The jumping off point for the adventure---- the point between known and unknown.

7. Stage 5: Tests, Allies, and Enemies
The hero is tested and sorts our allegiances in the Special World.
They undergo obstacles/difficult experiences that test the hero. The hero emerges stronger from each challenge.

8. Tests, Allies, and Enemies continued.
MENTOR: a guide that keeps the hero focused on her goal. Helps hero obtain the skills to overcome challenges. Must die so that hero can face biggest challenge alone.

9. Stage 6: The Ordeal / Inmost Cave
Near the middle of the story, the hero enters a central space in the Special World and confronts death or faces his or her greatest fear. Out of the moment of death comes a new life.
we are held in
suspense
and tension, not
knowing if he will
live or die.

10. Talisman
Just when things are at their worst, help in the form of a supernatural gift.
produces magical effects that ‘saves’ the hero.
Can be a person or a thing.

11. Stage 7: The Resurrection
* The hero must be reborn and cleansed in one last Ordeal of death and Resurrection before returning to the Ordinary World of the living.
This is often a second life-and-death moment, almost a replay of the death and rebirth of the Supreme Ordeal.
By the hero’s action, the
polarities that were in
conflict at the beginning
are being resolved.

12. Stage 8: The Reward and Return
The hero takes possession of the treasure won by facing death. There may be celebration, but there is also danger of losing the treasure again. The hero returns home or continues the journey, bearing some element of the treasure that has the power to transform the world as the hero has been transformed.

13. Stage 8: The Reward and Return continued
final stage where the hero contributes to society.
shares the gift of experience, knowledge, and wisdom—gained through the journey—with the broader community.

14. HERO
The word “hero” is Greek, from a root that means “to protect and serve.” A Hero is someone who is willing to sacrifice his own needs on behalf of others, like a shepherd who will sacrifice to protect and serve his flock. At the root of the idea of Hero is the concept of self-sacrifice.

15. Archetypal Characters
What is an archetype?
An original model or prototype.
A character that represents the model of a stereotypical character.

16. Brainstorm
On a separate sheet of paper, think of a time that you have seen the “Hero’s Journey” played out? Think of movies, books, or any other literary outlet.
Label each step and give a play-by-play example of the scenario within the example.