Joseph Campbell & The Hero’s Journey
There’s been volumes of great material written about Joseph Campbell and his Hero’s Journey. Here’s my take on his innovative work. An attempt to simplify it down to its core ideas in “snackable” bites that are easy to comprehend.
Mythology can be simultaneously fascinating and complex. Intrigued by mythology, author Joseph Campbell studied the myth and made the famous claim that nearly all myths, and some other story types, have similar ideas, and the hero’s adventures are almost identical in format. The different stages of adventure identified have come to be called the “hero’s journey.”
Joseph Campbell According to Me
The hero’s story is always a journey of change. It is a journey in which the hero leaves his comfortable, ordinary surroundings to venture into a challenging, unfamiliar world.
In every good story, the hero grows and changes, making a journey from one way of being to the next: from despair to hope, weakness to strength, folly to wisdom, love to hate and back again.
STAGES OF THE JOURNEY
There are 12 steps in Joseph Campbell’s journey:
- THE ORDINARY WORLD
- THE CALL TO ADVENTURE
- THE RELUCTANT HERO
- THE WISE OLD SAGE
