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Character Analysis: The Hero's Journey

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The Hero’s Journey is a philosophy by professor, author, and philosopher Joseph Campbell stating that all hero’s go through this common cycle consisting of three stages, the Separation, the death and rebirth, and the return. In Campbell’s philosophy, he believes there are two types of deeds a hero can go through, a psychological and a physical. And in the Joy Luck Club Jing-mei goes through a psychological transformation to make a psychological deed. Campbell introduces this idea of a psychological deed in one of his interviews on PBS, “ The other kind is the spiritual deed, in which the hero learns to experience the supernormal range of human spiritual life and then comes back with a message.” After reading the Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, it …show more content…
In this first stage, the hero, or the character has a realization or this unhappiness with their regular world that the conditions that they are in currently are just not good enough, and that makes them want to leave the ordinary world into a world of unknown and filled with challenges in order to achieve their goal. As previously stated, Jing-mei has a constant feeling that she couldn’t live up to her mother’s expectations. This quote by June illustrates how much she feels that she can’t live up to her mother’s expectations, “Why don’t you like me the way I am? I’m not a genius! I can’t play the piano. And even if I could, I wouldn’t go on TV even if you paid me a million dollars!” (136). This constant feeling causes her to have a distaste towards her mother and her methods. But after numerous incidents, June realizes how much her mother truly loved her. This quote by Suyuan is when she gives her daughter the green jade, which June takes care of ever so carefully, “This is young jade. It is a very light color now, but if you wear it every day it will become more green” (208-209). When Suyuan says this statement, she is implying that the green jade is Jing-mei, although she isn’t perfect or very well knowledgeable, over a period of time, she will grow wiser and she will become a more successful person. This is the moment in which Jing-mei first realizes her mother’s love for her, and this can also be …show more content…
In this stage, the hero goes through a transformation that prepares them for the upcoming battle. During the transformation, the hero also goes through a section in which they recall their mentor’s training and they apply it to use their goals. I believe in this section, Jing-mei goes through this process by further acknowledging and realizing her mother’s love for her by recalling all the times in the past in which her mother surprised her. This quote by June explaining something surprising that her mother did is an example of this. “So she surprised me. A few years ago, she offered to give me the piano, for my thirtieth birthday” (143). This displayed to her that regardless of how disappointed she may seem, Suyuan is truly proud off her daughter. This is one of the few points in which June is reborn as a new person who has a newfound love and respect for her mother, unlike her former self who had a sense of hatred for her mother. “But when she arrived in the new country, the immigration officials pulled her swan away from her, leaving the woman fluttering her arms and with only one swan feather for a memory… For a long time now the woman wanted to giver daughter the single swan feather…” (17). All that Suyuan has ever wanted is the well being of Jing-mei. When she brought that swan to America, she had brought it so that she could give it to her

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