Hero's Journey Essay

Story is an element that persists through the ages and connects all of mankind. The common themes of struggle, triumph, and rebirth are emotional stages that everyone can relate and bond over. Joseph Campbell first coined the term “Hero’s Journey” in the 20th century, while he was studying myths and legends from around the world. Campbell discovered there was a pattern in all of the stories, similar journeys that transcended across cultures and time periods. Thus he created the term “Hero’s Journey” or monomyth to depict the common template used to convey a hero’s adventure. When explaining the significance of Campbell’s “Hero Journey”, Pat Solomon chose to simplify this journey by focusing on the three stages of “Separation, Initiation, and Return” (Solomon). He argued that although many authors try to vary the presentation of Campbell’s format, for the

This portion of my project was illuminated by the element of story in which Pink informs us “is just as integral to the human experience as design because stories are how we remember” (Pink 101). As such, I wanted to create a product that closely followed the Hero’s Journey model to resonate with my viewers, but also something capable of keeping them interested. In order to create this unique layer to my story, I also incorporated remix. In Steal Like An Artist, we were taught, “nothing is original” (Kleon 7). The author alludes to the fact that everyone derives inspiration from other pieces. As such I decided to combine elements from The Myth of Icarus and Moana, two of my favorite stories/movies, into my story. Kleon explains “nothing is ever good or bad, only worth stealing or not” (Kleon 6) and quite frankly I found both Icarus and Moana to both be worthy of stealing. Also, in order to make story easier to convey through a storyboard I condensed Campbell’s original Hero’s Journey to eight stages and altered the stages’ meaning to fit my narrative. My plot developed as