Week 5: The Hero Journey

Finally, with students' individual, collective, and experiential conceptions of what it is to be a "hero," we were able to introduce Joseph Campbell's well-known "Hero Journey," which, when charted, is instantly recognizable by its shape: a circle with a horizontal line through the middle of it.

​​This journey, which begins at 12:00 and moves clockwise (in this model), will take the hero from his or her "home"--either a literal home or a comfort zone, a status quo--and call him or her to adventure, to a mission of some sort. The following video proved quite helpful in engaging students' imaginations and something that they were unknowingly already familiar with (if, like many teenagers, they listened to music, watched TV, watched movies, played video games, or, on a more elevated plane, went to church or synagogue or temple, believed in things bigger themselves, had dreams for their futures, saw things in their worlds that needed changing, etc.):

As a test of their understanding of the various stages of the hero journey as conceived by Joseph Campbell (well, according to him, as conceived by all humanity since the beginning of time), students chose an individual or group project to demonstrate their ability to apply the journey to an original story. We hope to share some of these on the website soon--short stories, videos, and more!