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| Joseph Campbell (Britannica) |
Note: The "call," the journey, and the return: these are the basic elements of the "Monomyth" of hero's journey. Get more details below.
Get Ready: Think about your favorite book or movie, or one you've read or seen recently. What was the hero's main challenge? How did she or he accomplish it (or did he/she fail)? Look for a pattern you could compare to other stories.
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| A more elaborate version of the Hero's Journey (Wikipedia) |
Note: In 1949, Joseph Campbell introduced the "Monomyth": the idea that all hero stories share a similar pattern. Find out what it is in this lesson and the next.
Get Ready: What makes a story interesting to you? Can you find a pattern that you think is particularly pleasing?
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| D'Artagnan and the three Musketeers (Wikipedia) |
Note: Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and their protégé d'Artagnan--the Three (plus one) Musketeers! Read about their swashbuckling adventures and political intrigues.
Get Ready: How do you think the use of guns and gunpowder disrupted the "art of war"? Prior to their introduction, fighting was limited to handheld weapons (like knives, swords, clubs, etc.); bows-and-arrows; and spears. How would fighting change when "musketeers" came on the scene?
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| Gulliver at the mercy of the Lilliputians (Wikipedia) |
Note: You might know about Gulliver among the Lilliputians (little people), but what about the giants? Or the talking horses? And how about those Yahoos?
Get Ready: What would it be like to be a giant--like twelve times larger than "normal" people--or a tiny person less than 1/10th normal size? What challenges would it present? What advantages?
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| The Blind Men and the Elephant (Wikipedia) |
Note: The famous Indian tale about six blind men "examining" an elephant and coming to very different conclusions was amusingly put into verse by a 19th-century American poet. Here's the story.
Get Ready: Do you believe that the way you see things is the way everyone does (or ought to)?
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| A Thai illustration of the Four Sights (with only three in view, unless one man is sick and old) (Wikipedia) |
Note: Buddhists mark four key events in the life of their founder: his birth, departure from home, enlightenment, and death. In this story, let's see how he renounced a life of luxury.
Get Ready: In order to follow his path, the Buddha left behind his wife, his newborn son, and his responsibilities to his parents. (He later did much more for them than he could have if he had stayed.) Do you think it's all right for a person to do this?
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| Poster for a 1918 film version of Tarzan of the Apes (Wikipedia) |
Note: Prolific American "pulp" author Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote almost 80 novels, 24 of them about "Tarzan." Let's see the first one!
Get Ready: Did you ever swing on a rope or chain and do a "Tarzan yell"? (It's fun!) If you don't know what I mean, watch an old Tarzan movie!
