Bear Ribs
Well-known member
The hero's journey is hardly required for every story. It looks a bit like it if you squint because it's so generic, and if a story doesn't all it's steps people gloss over that and say it's mostly following it. But in reality a lot of stories don't, good stories too. Let's review the steps:
1. Ordinary World
2. Call To Adventure
3. Refusal Of The Call
4. Meeting The Mentor
5. Crossing The Threshold
6. Tests, Allies, Enemies
7. Approach To The Inmost Cave
8. Ordeal
9. Reward (Seizing The Sword)
10. The Road Back
11. Resurrection
12. Return With The Elixir
Now I'm going to compare three adventure (it would be unfair to choose nonheroic tales like romances) stories to these steps.
Star Wars follows it pretty closely. This is, I suspect, in part because the Monomyth was written as a snobbish attempt to explain why a sci-fi movie was popular, so it was specifically crafted to fit Star Wars. No really, when Star Wars came out a lot of critics had been adamant that escapist fantasy like sci-fi was mere plebian trash and the Hero's Journey cleaned a lot of egg off their faces by making it seem like Star Wars was really highbrow disguised as sci-fi.
Even then a big chunk of it is nonsensical. Luke never leaves the "Special World" for instance, he remains there the rest of his life and doesn't return to the farm.
Now let's compare another story specifically mentioned in A Hero's Journey, the Odysssey. Odysseus doesn't start in the normal world, he was already in the special world from day 1 (though granted his goal is to return to normal life with Penelope so you can argue that he was in the normal world offscreen). Odysseus doesn't receive a call to adventure nor refuse it, he's heading home as soon as the war's over. He certainly meets no mentor, Odysseus is already the craftiest SOB in Greece and a great warrior besides, he's prime mentor material himself. Tests, allies, enemies? Well yeah, that stage of the Hero's Journey just states that the hero will have to overcome obstacles. Duh? Of course he will, that's so generic it's like saying the story will have characters in it.
Odysseus journey to the Underworld is treated as the Inmost Cave but that's rather nonsensical to me. Actually the entire inmost cave concept is, it's equated to Luke confronting himself in the cave on Dagobah for instance which has zero similarity to Odysseus sailing off to Greek Hell in order to consult the dead. Odysseus does get a bit of the Supreme Ordeal killing Penelope's suitors... but were those guys really the bigger threat than the Cyclops, Scylla and Charibydis, or Circe? Well it's the final part of the journey so we can say it maps there, perhaps. Odysseus does indeed return to the normal world afterwards so that part maps out, though he's hardly changed a bit. He starts off the most cunning warrior in the world who's deeply devoted to Penelope, and ends the story the most cunning warrior in the world who's deeply devoted to Penelope.
Now let's look at James Bond. Bond never lived in the normal world and is in the special world the entire time. He never refuses the call to adventure, and the call itself is generally just another day at the office for him, literally since he goes into M's office and gets told to go do something. Like Odysseus Bond needs no mentor and is already crafty, wily, and capable. Bond does not change significantly in any of his stories. Like all characters, Bond has allies, enemies, and obstacles but who the heck doesn't? Bond does indeed go into his enemy's deepest sanctum and has his greatest fight there, then returns having succeeded and gets rewarded (normally with poon) so that part maps, then he fails completely at returning to the normal life.
In reality the Monomyth is a dressed up 3-act structure. In just about all stories you find that structure because it's so simple, problem happens in act 1, danger increases as obstacles are overcome, things come to a climactic confrontation in act II, and finally the tension ratchets back down in act III as we see the results of the problem solving. This applies to near all stories ever because it's so generic and a logical a way to write stories. Overall while Star Wars maps quite well to the monomyth the Odyssey and James Bond stories map perhaps... 30% or so I'd guess? But they map 100% to the three act structure. The Monomyth simply takes basic storytelling practice and chops it up with additional steps and frilly obfuscating language that make it less generic and cause it to map less effectively to many stories, but also disguises that it basically boils down to "Stories have a beginning, middle, and end."
1. Ordinary World
2. Call To Adventure
3. Refusal Of The Call
4. Meeting The Mentor
5. Crossing The Threshold
6. Tests, Allies, Enemies
7. Approach To The Inmost Cave
8. Ordeal
9. Reward (Seizing The Sword)
10. The Road Back
11. Resurrection
12. Return With The Elixir
Now I'm going to compare three adventure (it would be unfair to choose nonheroic tales like romances) stories to these steps.
Star Wars follows it pretty closely. This is, I suspect, in part because the Monomyth was written as a snobbish attempt to explain why a sci-fi movie was popular, so it was specifically crafted to fit Star Wars. No really, when Star Wars came out a lot of critics had been adamant that escapist fantasy like sci-fi was mere plebian trash and the Hero's Journey cleaned a lot of egg off their faces by making it seem like Star Wars was really highbrow disguised as sci-fi.
Even then a big chunk of it is nonsensical. Luke never leaves the "Special World" for instance, he remains there the rest of his life and doesn't return to the farm.
Now let's compare another story specifically mentioned in A Hero's Journey, the Odysssey. Odysseus doesn't start in the normal world, he was already in the special world from day 1 (though granted his goal is to return to normal life with Penelope so you can argue that he was in the normal world offscreen). Odysseus doesn't receive a call to adventure nor refuse it, he's heading home as soon as the war's over. He certainly meets no mentor, Odysseus is already the craftiest SOB in Greece and a great warrior besides, he's prime mentor material himself. Tests, allies, enemies? Well yeah, that stage of the Hero's Journey just states that the hero will have to overcome obstacles. Duh? Of course he will, that's so generic it's like saying the story will have characters in it.
Odysseus journey to the Underworld is treated as the Inmost Cave but that's rather nonsensical to me. Actually the entire inmost cave concept is, it's equated to Luke confronting himself in the cave on Dagobah for instance which has zero similarity to Odysseus sailing off to Greek Hell in order to consult the dead. Odysseus does get a bit of the Supreme Ordeal killing Penelope's suitors... but were those guys really the bigger threat than the Cyclops, Scylla and Charibydis, or Circe? Well it's the final part of the journey so we can say it maps there, perhaps. Odysseus does indeed return to the normal world afterwards so that part maps out, though he's hardly changed a bit. He starts off the most cunning warrior in the world who's deeply devoted to Penelope, and ends the story the most cunning warrior in the world who's deeply devoted to Penelope.
Now let's look at James Bond. Bond never lived in the normal world and is in the special world the entire time. He never refuses the call to adventure, and the call itself is generally just another day at the office for him, literally since he goes into M's office and gets told to go do something. Like Odysseus Bond needs no mentor and is already crafty, wily, and capable. Bond does not change significantly in any of his stories. Like all characters, Bond has allies, enemies, and obstacles but who the heck doesn't? Bond does indeed go into his enemy's deepest sanctum and has his greatest fight there, then returns having succeeded and gets rewarded (normally with poon) so that part maps, then he fails completely at returning to the normal life.
In reality the Monomyth is a dressed up 3-act structure. In just about all stories you find that structure because it's so simple, problem happens in act 1, danger increases as obstacles are overcome, things come to a climactic confrontation in act II, and finally the tension ratchets back down in act III as we see the results of the problem solving. This applies to near all stories ever because it's so generic and a logical a way to write stories. Overall while Star Wars maps quite well to the monomyth the Odyssey and James Bond stories map perhaps... 30% or so I'd guess? But they map 100% to the three act structure. The Monomyth simply takes basic storytelling practice and chops it up with additional steps and frilly obfuscating language that make it less generic and cause it to map less effectively to many stories, but also disguises that it basically boils down to "Stories have a beginning, middle, and end."
