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The Significance Of The Hero's Journey In Harry Potter

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The common theme we see in Harry Potter, in both The Sorcerer’s Stone and The Order of the Phoenix is that in both book Harry Potter is just a variant on the same hero. Do you believe that? Well, Joseph Campbell. Joseph Campbell studied myth and stories from all over the world and wrote the book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces,” in that book he retold many popular stories and myth, and he explained how each story can be categized into the Hero’s Journey. Harry Potter journey in The Sorcerer’s Stone and The Order of the Phoenix can also be categized into Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey.” Harry Potter journey begins and ends in the Dursley or as Joseph Campbell calls it the “ordinary world” in both book, but Harry Potter’s journey goes through …show more content…

In the beginning of the book, Harry Potter lives with the Dursley, who are made up of his mean aunt, Petunia, his cruel uncle, Vernon, and their spoiled son, Dudley. The Dursley do not really want to raise Harry Potter, so the treat him badly by giving him a room in a cupboard under the stairs. Harry Potter is an outcast in the “ordinary world” mostly thanks to his cousin Dudley scaring all the children away from him at school and his aunt and uncle spreading lies about his dead parents, but he himself is weird thanks to wearing his cousin extra-large clothes, which make him look even more smaller and skinner than he already is, messy hair that never goes down, glasses held together with tape, and a scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning. We the reader know just from the first chapter that Harry Potter does not belong in the “ordinary world” but that he is bound to do much greater …show more content…

“He'll be famous -- a legend -- I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future -- there will be books written about Harry -- every child in our world will know his name!" "Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember!” (pg.14) Growing up at the Dursley has kept Harry humble, able to look out for himself, and able to tell the rotten people. Then comes along “the call to adventure” in the form of owl sending invitation to Hogwarts, somewhere Harry Potter never heard about. The Dursley refuse “the call to adventure” for Harry Potter and they go to extreme length to deny him “the call to adventure” but it seems like hiding in a cabin on a island cannot stop “the call to adventure” because Hagrid comes along and gives Harry Potter the choice of coming to the “special

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