Allison Williamson Professor Mary Warner English 112B December 6, 2016 The Hero’s Journey Across Time and Space I read when I was eight years old and was convinced it was the most wonderful, Eragon innovative thing in the world. However, when I brought this up to my older brother, he did what older brothers do best and burst my bubble with six simple words: it’s just with Star Wars dragons. My mind imploded, my illusion shattered, my heart broke. I got over it shortly after by resolving to write my own dragon novel that was ten times better and most definitely not Star However, I wrote what I knew, which just so happened to be a steady stream of fantasy Wars. and science fiction, most of it following one brilliant trend: The Hero’s Journey. This paradigm is essentially impossible to avoid as it is so deeply seeped into today’s novels and films. However, as I grew older I was able to appreciate the monomyth and began to analyze its qualities along with how they related to the media I consumed. While it works its way across various mediums, it also isn’t the only story out there. Even if the pattern was the only way us humans were capable of telling a tale, the variety of stories that do use it and manage to stay their own entity prove that it is not all bad that we have a pattern worked into the creative system. It is a rather helpful tool for me as a writer, and it is important to know that the real creativity lies in the details and execution of a story. One of the most important things about the Hero’s Journey is that it is not just a series of plot points that a hero needs to hit into to make their rank among the great heroes of the past. It is a study of character development, which is an important key to creating relatable,
Allison Williamson Professor Mary Warner English 112B December 6, 2016 The Hero’s Journey Across Time and Space I read Eragon when I was eight years old and was convinced it was the most wonderful, innovative thing in the world. However, when I brought this up to my older brother, he did what older brothers do best and burst my bubble with six simple words: it’s just Star Wars with dragons. My mind imploded, my illusion shattered, my heart broke. I got over it shortly after by resolving to write my own dragon novel that was ten times better and most definitely not Star Wars. However, I wrote what I knew, which just so happened to be a steady stream of fantasy and science fiction, most of it following one brilliant trend: The Hero’s Journey. This paradigm is essentially impossible to avoid as it is so deeply seeped into today’s novels and films. However, as I grew older I was able to appreciate the monomyth and began to analyze its qualities along with how they related to the media I consumed. While it works its way across various mediums, it also isn’t the only story out there. Even if the pattern was the only way us humans were capable of telling a tale, the variety of stories that do use it and manage to stay their own entity prove that it is not all bad that we have a pattern worked into the creative system. It is a rather helpful tool for me as a writer, and it is important to know that the real creativity lies in the details and execution of a story. One of the most important things about the Hero’s Journey is that it is not just a series of plot points that a hero needs to hit into to make their rank among the great heroes of the past. It is a study of character development, which is an important key to creating relatable,
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