Friday, April 9, 2010
The Hero's Journey
I have noticed throughout the last couple of weeks, as we have been working on our mythology unit in English class, that there are few stories out there that do not follow the pattern of the hero's journey. Each story has a main character, usually the hero, that has some sort of quest or mission to complete and save either himself, his country, the world and/or his close friends and family. He always meets a wise man along the way that helps him to realize what he needs to do and how to accomplish it. Of course, there is always the villain, who will stop at nothing to get his way. Among these main character archetypes,there are often other characters who play an important part in helping or hindering the hero. My question is, are there ANY stories at all that you can think of that don't have a hero, villain and sage? I, myself, cannot think of any.
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I've found that when I was watching Step Brothers last night, I randomly thought that there isn't really a real "Hero Story" to the plot.
ReplyDeleteBrennan and Dale are basically their own mentors who help themselves out rather than finding an 'old man' to help them. The old man, if anything, is their enemy. Their therapists don't really come to play within the mentorship.
I did notice that there were various archetypes, such as the tempress (Alice). Dale and Brennan could be seen as 'heros' for saving the Catalina Wine Mixer, but they don't really follow it all. Their road of trials would be when they became friends and went through the issues of sleep walking, their father/step father, and the younger children who bullied them.
In theory, I found it somewhat follows the model, but not entirely.
Interesting! I myself have never seen that movie, but you sound pretty convincing in that it doesn't really follow the heros journey pattern. I have never seen a movie that hasn't. Interesting...
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