The Monomyth: How it is used Throughout My Daily Life
Brock Andrew Kawana
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Email: sqwp@iup.edu
April 26, 2010
Abstract:
“A hero’s venture forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons upon his fellow man.” Joseph Campbell used this as his description when asked about the monomyth in his book, A Hero with a Thousand Faces. He related that many stories such as fairytales, movies and even religions follow this common structure relating to mythology. The results of my study defined how this idea of monomyth or hero’s adventure is used commonly throughout my daily life. As a human being I do not remember when my life began and will not know when it will end. However, it must have both a beginning and end. When using Campbell’s seventeen-step structure of the hero’s adventure or monomyth it breaks down the apparent trials of life I go through which can relate to other human beings.
What is “The Monomyth”:
There are seventeen steps that essentially tell the story of the hero’s adventure/monomyth with each have their own significant meaning to create a vast story to be told:
Call to Adventure
Refusal of Call
Supernatural Aid
Crossing 1st Threshold
Belly of the Whale
Road of Trials
Meeting with the Goddess
Temptation
Atonement with the Father
Apostasis
The Ultimate Boon
Refusal of Return
Magic Flight
Rescue from Without
Crossing the Return Threshold
Master of Two Worlds
Freedom to Live
Methodology:
Being that the monomyth deals with a journey of a hero and as human beings we are all heroes. Not in the sense of Hollywood’s image where we go out and save old women from burning buildings or kittens out of trees, but in a more literal sense in that we overcome our daily obstacles each day. We are our own hero and the information we bestow onto others is heroic as well as the information we receive from others. After talking with colleagues and professors I decided to write down my thoughts on life because as the journey is autoethnographical it focuses on myself. However, a wise person once told me that when we stop focusing on ourselves and look to the world around us. That is when ironically we learn the most about ourselves and thus improve ourselves even more.
Conclusions:
As I was writing my children’s novella book my mind began to become succumbed with questions. This happened because of my meetings with colleagues and professors. The question that stuck out most was from the author Tom Robbins when he stated “Who can make love stay?” In his book Still With Woodpecker. That stuck in as my call to adventure to see if I could figure the answer out to that. My apotheosis was that love can stay through the memories that we build and moments throughout time with people. We can learn from one another and thus learn each other’s journeys.
References:
Campbell, Joseph. “The Seventeen Stages of the Monomyth.” Scribd. 11 Apr. 2010
< http://www.scribd.com/doc/19224168/Joseph-Campbells-MONOMYTH-The-Seventeen-Stages-presented-by-the-Royal-Society-of-Account-Plannin>
