We Walk The Hero's Path
To break away from the grooves of our everyday lives, we like to dwell on stories beyond our reach. An account of someone you know personally from before is one, but make-believe narratives have always existed within us timelessly. With these narratives that we ourselves drafted repeatedly over time, we have, at the same time, inadvertently formulated archetypal characters who personify particular and distinct features. Heroes are one of them, a character most of us find to be memorable because of its connection with our childhood fantasies of having power.
Hercules from Grecian and Roman mythology is one character whom we very well know. He is famous for his possession of a tremendous strength that has contributed much to the success of his many great adventures. That being said, his story of greatness reflects a prime example of a character who falls under the hero archetype. For this reason, his narrative set-up also follows the monomyth, which according to Campbell (1949) from his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, is a universal plot structure that every story about a hero’s journey follows on.
Hercules (1997) demonstrates well the typical hero’s journey Campbell’s monomyth is pertaining to. Though an offspring of a divine being, he lives a regular life with ordinary people in a regular world. The transition from the ordinary world to a different one (which in his case is Mount Olympus) is triggered by the discovery of his unknown origin through a medallion. He crosses the first threshold when he decides to become a hero to join his birth family. For this endeavor, he has a magical mentor in the form of an old satyr named Philoctetes to aid and guide him in his path. Hercules’ efforts, however, despite its numbers and greatness, are not enough to deem him as a hero.
Vogler’s (2007) explanation for a hero’s journey does not end here, as the path still continues. Hercules meeting Hades is the second big threshold he has to overcome due to the risks he needs to be mindful of when dealing with an enemy. The moment of despair occurs when he loses his strength in the middle of the battle; however, this does not hinder his eventual victory since he then gains his power back which has helped him overturn the gods’ losing battle with the Titans that Hades has set free. He finally achieves his objective of being a hero, the ultimate treasure as Vogler calls it, when he willingly sacrificed his life to save another person’s. Upon returning to Mount Olympus, he has to choose between living as a revered god, like a hero would be, or spending his life as he used to do. Hercules finally has to overcome this final threshold of him to end his journey. As he chooses to go back to the ordinary world, it shows the development that has taken place within him through the various trials he has surpassed to arrive at that point. Instead of wanting to become more than what he used to be, he matured and has become comfortable with himself, regardless of his differences with other people.
As Jeffrey (2020) states, the hero’s journey is something observable in the human family. Though it is portrayed usually through fictional narratives, personal transformations and developments are phenomena that are not strange to ours, humans. We come into this world bare of desires and live the same life as others. Though bounded by different cultures, in the end, we all similarly exist with a set of rules, norms, customs, and beliefs behind our back. The call to adventure usually occurs after a considerable amount of exposure to worldly things that ignite us to accomplish something in our life. As such, we then cross the first threshold when we finally decide, with conviction, that we are going to take the step.
In this part, like in a hero’s journey, we will meet friends and foes who can greatly influence the determination we have to persevere through the travail. Foes who will prevent you from taking the walk on that path with their words and actions and friends who will encourage and guide you in your resolve. Though without any magic or supernatural abilities, we will have various people as our mentors, whose purpose is to support us and give their wisdom so that a wrong and dangerous path is not taken or a bump along the way can be overcomed. After which, we go to a series of hoops and loops to pass through that will test our character and abilities. We may succeed on some of them or fail, but what is necessary is to stay on the ground and remember what we have come for. Finally, when we have reached our destination and achieved our ultimate goal (treasure), more than this primary aim of ours that we used to hold on through the difficult journey, we acquire the matter of developing and maturing as a person. Had we not decided to take the step through that path, we would not have come far into growing wonderfully as a person who is changed and shaped by both victories and loses along the way.
As for me, I would like to think that I am still at the beginning of the hero’s journey. In particular, I am at the point of crossing the first threshold; however, I believe that it is without trials and friends or foes. I am able to arrive at the point where I currently am because of the many challenges I have resolved myself in, with the influence of the people around me. Whether they are there to dissuade me or help me overcome these trials, they nonetheless affected the way I was able to resolve the difficulties I have faced for me to advance on my chosen path. As I venture my way out in the world a year and a few months from now after graduating university, I am aware of the long road waiting for me, of the many adversities that I am to face and conquer. For the many things I want to accomplish, I am still at the point in life where I have to prepare myself well to have a better journey. For this reason, I believe that I am in the beginning stages of my hero’s journey — neither half-way done nor at the end of it. Every step I take on the path will lead me to the person I want myself to be.
Heroic stories have always formed and been in our imagination since we are young. Though the many adventures we can find there are fictional, the heroic journeys that spur these experiences remain significant in our real life as they are reflected in our struggle to accomplish what we decided for ourselves. It is a long journey on a road that no one is completely certain of but we hope we will get there, and I know I will. As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up…discovering we have the strength to stare it down.”
References:
Hercules . (1997). [Film]. United States .
Jeffrey, S. (2020, February 18). Hero's journey Steps: 10 stages to Joseph Campbell's Monomyth.https://scottjeffrey.com/heros-journey-steps/?fbclid=IwAR1rlawKISjV7xeO-nc2ZhTSe6qR0QJEOBH_UXKsF2aTUHSBZ1T6FSGXVOY#Step_1_The_Ordinary_World.
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