...Heroes are defined as people who help and save people. It could also be defined as someone who goes on a dangerous adventure with many obstacles that the person has to surmount. Heroes are everywhere. Odysseus is the hero of the “Odyssey” by a blind poet, Homer. Odysseus fights in Trojan War for 10 years and it took him another decade for him to get home. He had to pass many hardships to get to his homeland Ithaca. The three main stages in Campbell’s “The Hero’s Journey” that exemplified in Homer’s The Odyssey are the crossing of the first threshold,the road of trials, and freedom to live. For example, Joseph Campbell describes that the crossing of the first threshold is the hero which is Odysseus who is accompanied by the guide which is Athena, the goddess of wisdom goes beyond the boundaries of his or his everyday, enter the wilderness, and has the first encounter with...
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...“The Odyssey” Paper The hero’s journey is an archetypical template for the majority of stories that was first identified by the American scholar Joseph Campbell. The hero’s journey is also frequently referred to as the monomyth. As it appears in the tales of so many cultures, the monomyth is significant because it helps to identify the values and beliefs of a society. Perhaps most often, the hero’s journey is found in ancient Greek myths and legends. One of the most notable examples of the monomyth in Greek literature is “The Odyssey”, which was written by Homer around the end of the eighth century BCE. In the epic poem “The Odyssey”, Telemachus matures into a brave adult capable of sitting next to his father as the Prince of Ithaca. Telemachus’ hero’s journey begins with his Call to Adventure...
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...Another character who has a fragmented hero’s journey is Odysseus from The Odyssey. Odysseus is the hero in this story despite his flaws, and his hero’s journey is his road back home where “home” is the elixir. His hero’s journey follows the guidelines well, missing steps or ghosting over some. The first steps starting with Ordinary world and ending with crossing the threshold are substituted for Odysseus’s fight in the Trojan war that lasts ten years. Because he was taken from his ordinary world to fight without protest, the story glances over these few steps, picking up at step 6. In other words, his journey starts with an Ordinary world but doesn’t engage with steps two through 5; therefore, his journey follows only part of the guidelines...
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...The Odyssey and Heros Journey Essay “You don’t choose your destiny, your destiny is already chosen and handed to you.” In each story the main character takes certain steps in life that lead to the same ending. The Odyssey by Homer explains Odysseus's return to home. In the Odyssey by Homer through chapters nine through twelve, Odysseus displays some of Joseph Campbell’s seventeen steps of the Hero’s Journey. On the subject of the 17 steps Odysseus takes, one of them is Belly of the whale. Belly of the whale means that the hero willingly crosses the point of no return. “But I would not listen to them, and shouted out to him in rage, ‘Cyclops, if anyone asks you who it was that put your eye out and spoiled your beauty say it was the valiant warrior Ulysses, son of Laertes, who lives in Ithaca.” (Homer 77) None of Odysseus men are still with him because Odysseus was unable to save his comrades lives because the “recklessness of their own ways destroyed them all”, by devouring the cattle of the sun, so the sun god took...
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...The Hero’s Journey Imagine what it would be like to be a hero on a grand quest, what if I told you many of the stages of a hero’s journey are a part of every teenagers life. This is a very important view, as it focuses on the understanding of the life and journey of a teenager. This point of view will allow for three different stories to all be explained by the same general idea. There is the story of growing maturity of Holden in Catcher in the Rye, king Odysseus’ heroic journey home, and the tale of the mighty Gorgon slayer, Perseus. 1. Herald comes and greets a fool who will soon become a hero In the Odyssey Athena, the goddess of wisdom, is Odysseus’ mentor and guide. Athena disguises herself as many different people trying to make things go right for Odysseus on his way home. Since Odysseus is Athena’s favorite mortal, she even gets him out of many troubles that the Gods put him through. Athena did everything she could to see Odysseus succeed because she knew he was capable of amazing feats. Both mentors knew that their students could do amazing things, but it is the student that must do the work. In Catcher in the Rye, Mr. Spencer in the beginning is like Athena, even though Mr. Spencer was not the one to go to...
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...Hero’s Journey A Hero’s Journey is a process in which the main character goes through trails. Maily in relationships with other people but it could be with events that happen. In this case the main character in Ender Wiggin. In 1871 the Hero’s Journey was first brought to light. A man named Edward Taylor observed the common patterns in most stories, that he came up with a hero’s journey. Later on people took his idea and made it better, they added steps in the journey. One of the first Hero's Journey that we read this year was The Odyssey. It showed the journey of Odysseus, his adventures can be compared to Ender’s in many different ways. The idea of a Hero’s Journey was to take the main character of a story and show his adventures throughout the story....
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...In both the Odyssey, by Homer, and The Epic of Gilgamesh, created by the Sumerians, both were stories created a long time ago made for folklore or to explain what has happened in a certain time in history. Both stories contain myths, unimaginable acts, and just the idea of immortality is present in both stories. The historic novels both have their own twists to the stories as well as some similarities in the story. In both stories, the Odyssey and The Epic of Gilgamesh, there are similar character archetypes, villains, plot, and the hero’s journey. Although in the Odyssey, most of the villains turned out to be allies, whereas in the Epic of Gilgamesh, they stayed enemies and didn’t switch over to his side. The Hero’s Journey in both stories...
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...When people think of heroes, their minds jump from Odysseus to Cam Newton. Why? These two come from different cultures, different time periods, and even different universes or realities. On one hand, Odysseus battled mythical monsters in the Mediterranean Sea for 20 years, while Cam Newton played football on the Auburn Plains for 4 years. However, both will be remembered for their legacies – Odysseus in the Iliad and Odyssey, Cam in the Raine room (Auburn hall of awards) – and for performing miraculous feats for the something greater than themselves. A few years ago, in Latin class, we studied the Hero’s Journey. We examined the Odyssey and Star Wars, comparing the main characters and their plotlines. After the unit, we recognized all notorious heroes follow the same 14-step journey, regardless of time and culture. The villains, the scenery, the motive might change across movies and books, but heroes sifted out the same: suffer a major crisis, passage through the “belly of the beast” (term for going on a physical journey), and transform themselves. In pop culture, the entertainment industry manipulates the hero stereotype, pumping out films like the Avengers and Harry Potter. These heroes possess a special ability...
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...The Hero’s Journey was a concept created by Joseph Campbell. This concept was displayed in The Odyssey by Homer and in O, Brother, Where Art Thou? created by the Coen brothers. In O Brother Where Art Thou? and The Odyssey the many elements of the Hero’s Journey are evident in the two tales. Three elements are Meeting the Mentor; Allies, Tests, and Enemies; and Resurrection. The mentor between both of the tales are different, but they both hold the element of the Hero’s Journey. Meeting the Mentor is the 4th step in The Hero’s Journey, if you follow the original order. In O, Brother the mentor is the blind man they encounter at the beginning of the movie. The blind man is a mentor to Everett, the main character, because he gives him a prophecy to guide him. He says this prophecy while on the pump car when the trio gets onto it to escape. In The Odyssey the mentor is Athena. She appears a lot...
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...Task Essay Outline: The Hero’s Journey. Directions: Use your completed close-reading charts on “The Hero’s Adventure” and “The Hero’s Journey,” as well as your annotations from “The Odyssey” to complete this outline for your research simulation essay. 10 point classwork grade Introduction Hook Statement - Engage the reader with a compelling quote or question related to the topic How does the Hero’s journey structure contribute to the development of Odysseus’ character as an epic hero and aligns with his journey? Background Information - Provide necessary context about the topic and its significance In the Odyssey, Odysseus goes through many phases/challenges of which align with the “stages” in the Hero’s Journey. These...
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... A Hero’s Journey with Odysseus Of all literature works read thus far, the Odyssey full fills the hero’s journey in all aspects of the story. Throughout this story there are vivid examples of how the hero’s journey is outlined. From the beginning of “the hero’s journey”, which is the call to adventure Odysseus will begin his journey when he makes the choice of going into battle in the Trojan War. There will also be specific events in this epic story to display “the hero’s journey” even further. Eventually the end of the journey will be revealed when Odysseus regains his family, friends, and home. This part of hero’s journey is called the return. As stated earlier, the hero’s journey starts out in the Odyssey with the call to adventure. This is shown when Odysseus goes to Troy. He had the right to refuse but he goes anyway. He didn’t want to leave his wife and son, but he felt it to be his duty to show his son what a true man and soldier he was. There were plenty supernatural aids within this story. One would be Athena. Athena is a goddess who always helped Odysseus along his journey. One example of how she helps him is that she convinces Zeus to send Hermes to Calypso. Hermes gives instructions to Calypso to release Odysseus from her prison. If Athena never would have convinced Zeus Odysseus might not have ever left Calypso’s island which would have prevented him from returning home. Circe is also a supernatural aid in the Odyssey. She was a sorceress...
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...“The Hero’s Journey” is an element that is used in most famous stories. “The Hero’s Journey” states that character's search for a specific treasure or for themselves and their place in the world. This element is prevalent in The Odyssey by Homer. In this epic poem the hero, Odysseus, sets out to war in Troy. He takes 20 long painful years to return home whilst always keeping his family in mind. In Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief directed by Chris Columbus. His quest begins once he is wrongly accused of stealing Zeus’ Lightning Bolt. His mother is then stolen from him by Hades. Percy is determined to save her but while looking for her, he finds his true place and purpose in the world. Both of these stories share “The Hero’s...
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...of a single tale or story. The tale or story represents a mythological adventure being magnified in the rites of passage. Also, the myth goes around in a cycle and is repeated with different social and cultural references throughout the world. Furthermore, Leeming explains that, “the monomyth itself is an expression of the journey of the hero figure, of our journey through physical and psychic life, and of the evolutionary path of humanity to full consciousness” (Leeming). Homer’s use of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth in the Odyssey seen with Odysseus, the hero and main character, provides a great structure throughout the epic in several ways. To begin, the monomyth in the Odyssey can be divided into 11 stages of the hero journey. The first stage that structures Homer’s epic is birth or the ordinary world. Odysseus is born to his father Laertes in Greece under no distinguished ancestry to boast of. Rasovsky stated, As Odysseus grew to be a young boy he showed signs of his talents which included archery (Rasovsky). Going further on with Rasovsky’s findings, Odysseus was intelligent, clever, and exhibited strength through his appearance (Rasovsky). In the Odyssey, Odysseus’s ordinary world is on the peaceful island of Ithaca. Odysseus is the well-loved and respected king of the island. He has a wife, Penelope, whom he is madly in love with. Homer creates the birth and ordinary world of Odysseus to establish a pedigree, meaning how special he is, in order to foreshadow his destiny later...
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...A Modern Hero’s Journey: A Short Play due dates: brainstorming due 4/7 Dr. Harrison cover letter, map, setting, character list due 4/11 English 1h formal essay, inc. WC page due 4/16 Spring 2014 You, or you and one partner, are Hollywood screenwriters who have a brilliant idea for a movie about a modern hero’s journey, modeled on Odysseus’s journey, and given a structure by Joseph Campbell: in other words, you will be showing your hero’s origin and his separation (you’ll have to create your own back story since we don’t observe Odysseus’s origin in The Odyssey), and his initiation and return to his homeland. Your job is to make the story your own by creating your own character names, setting, and back story, and then modeling your journey on the specific encounters Odysseus has, as he makes his way home. You will pitch your story to me (I’m really a famous Hollywood director—my stage name is dr.h--traveling incognito as a San Jose high school English teacher): For me to consider your story and launch you to stardom, your pitch, uploaded to your website(s) must accomplish all of the following: Cover letter: please find a template for cover letters, or create your own, to address me and give me a brief one-paragraph pitch: what is your story and why should I want to read on? Brainstorming: During class time, you will create a googledoc in which you (or you and your partner) brainstorm each of the following. Upload this googledoc to your website(s)...
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...The Odyssey by Homer and the poem “Ithaka” by C.F. Cavafy depict a magical journey full of surprises representing the ruling importance of the journey over the destination. In these two writings, the destination is Ithaka, a beautiful island located in Greece. However, the journey is the one who increases the value and beautifulness of Ithaka in Odysseus’ eyes. In The Odyssey, both Telemachus and Odysseus embark on an expedition which shape their character and views of the world. Ithaka was only their destination; the journey magically transformed Odysseus and Telemachus. Expeditions shape heroes, change their perspectives of the world, and increase their self-esteem. For instance, Telemachus’s voyage increased his maturity; he turned into...
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