A Story Story
My first introduction to “monomyth” was when I was 17 years old.
I was in English Class at Indian Hills Highschool in Oakland, NJ.
Cherylin Roeser presided.
Ms. Roeser was a brilliant teacher. She was quick witted, charismatic, and always seemed to have a rebuttal for our frequent objections to her consistently over-rigorous syllabus.
Ms. Roeser was the sort of teacher who changed her students. I believe, for the better. We became something different in her classroom. Something more critical. More thoughtful. More adaptable. And she was known throughout the district for working her students hard.
To that end, she had one infamous annual assignment; The Roeser Paper.
The Roeser Paper was a 25-30 page research paper, the point of which was to choose an author, read three of their books, study the extant literature on their work, and create an analysis and discussion of their literary style.
That paper was a monster.
It took time. It took focus. And sometimes it took staying up very late and going to school very tired. (Especially, if you had a habit for procrastination… which, at the time, I proudly did.)
The author I chose to write my paper on was J.R.R. Tolkien. And the books of his I chose to read were, of course, The Lords of The Rings trilogy.
The thesis of my paper was that Tolkien’s interest in philology had exposed him to medieval literature, which inspired a plot-driven style, typical of medieval-era stories.
During the age of ancient english, which Tolkien studied extensively, stories didn’t focus as much on characters as they do today. They were more about what was happening. So Tolkien made things happen in his stories.
This man straight-up jacked the literary style of the ancients, and drafted an epic tale of valorous fantasy-fiction for generations of nerds thenceforward to fawn over and bore people to death with analyses of.
That said… this essay isn’t about The Lord of The Rings. This essay is about Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey. The Lord of The Rings is just a fantastic example of Campbell’s analysis in action.
Campbell’s thesis in The Hero’s Journey, for our purposes today, is that there is only one myth — the monomyth — and that this myth requires its hero to follow a specific story arc in their journey, regardless of the details of their particular instance of it.
The journey basically goes: Hero has a problem, Hero faces challenge related to problem, Hero returns to life as it was before the problem. That’s why plays have three acts. (Cue minds being blown)
Understanding Campbell’s hero’s journey has led me to write better stories.
It also may have led me to be a better person, since the ethics of hard-work, justice, and accomplishment are woven inextricably into it.
So, without further ado, I encourage those of you who have never heard of Joseph Campbell to strap in…
Cause we’re talking monomyth today; and this little knowledge nugget is gonna breathe the life of three thousand years of storytelling R&D into your tall-tales from this day forward.
That’s a writer’s promise.
Enter: Hero
Act 1: Departure
Call To Adventure
Hero’s journey begins at a resting place. Call it the ordinary world. Hero is going about their business introducing ordinary settings and ordinary characters, when suddenly!™ the ordinary world is disturbed by some outside force.
Refusal of The Call
At first, Hero is not prepared to accept their call to adventure. They deny it. They fear for their safety, or are compelled by some other obligation to ignore the call.
Meeting the Mentor
But then, Mentor appears! Mentor has experience in dealing with the disturbing force which threatens Hero’s ordinary world. Mentor gives Hero information about the disturbing force, and a direction to follow to overcome it. Mentor points Hero back in the direction of adventure.
Crossing the First Threshold
Armed with new knowledge of the challenge, Hero accepts the call to adventure, and embarks on their journey toward overcoming the disturbance to their ordinary world.
Belly of the Whale
Hero resolves to enter the challenge world. The rules of the challenge world are different than those of the ordinary world. Now that Hero has accepted the call to adventure, the stakes are raised, and the conditions of the challenge prove themselves completely different than those of Hero’s ordinary world.
Act 2 - Initiation
The Road of Trials
Hero is faced with obstacles and resistance almost immediately, as they dive into the challenge world. The path is difficult. The difficulty of the path tests Hero’s conviction toward accomplishing their goal.
The meeting with the Goddess
Hero is at their limit. They cannot continue, but suddenly… divine intervention. A new character enters who endows Hero and their party with power to overcome the trials of the challenge world.
Temptation
Having been endowed with power to overcome their challenges, Hero’s resolve must be tested in a different way. A character enters who promises Hero rest, relaxation, and satisfaction without accomplishment. Hero must deny the temptation to rest, and return to the challenge at hand.
Atonement with the Abyss
After facing temptation, Hero meets the ultimate power of both worlds. Hero’s atonement with the abyss rests in reconciliation of want with need. Want, being Hero’s preferred outcome, and need, being the journey’s necessary outcome.
Apotheosis
Hero comes to understand that overcoming the challenge set before them is part of the eternal. They realize the full meaning of their endeavor and resolve to follow it through to completion.
The Ultimate Boon
Hero has proven themselves worthy, they face the ultimate obstacle of the challenge world. Their quest, at last, is met.
Act 3 - Return
Refusal of the Return
Having reached the goal of their quest, Hero may hesitate to return to the ordinary world. They may not be prepared to share the bounty of their journey. They may have unfinished business in the challenge world.
The Magic Flight
To return to the home world, Hero must escape from the challenge world. Hero may or may not succeed in escaping the challenge world to return to the ordinary world. Failure to escape the challenge world is known as tragedy.
Rescue from Without
In order to return to the ordinary world, Hero may require assistance. This is especially the case if they have been weakened in their fight to secure the ultimate boon.
The Crossing of the Return Threshold
Hero shares the boon of their journey with their home world. They may or may not, in fact, succeed in sharing the boon, though.
Master of Two Worlds
Having conquered the challenge world and returned to the peace and quiet of the ordinary world, Hero is comfortable with both challenge life and ordinary life. Often, this synthesis comes from mastery of spirituality along their journey.
Freedom to Live
Having mastered both worlds, the hero is released from fear of death. Upon release, the hero becomes free, finally, to live. This freedom, we know, as “happily ever after.”
And that is IT... that’s the official story of humanity.
Obviously, not every story follows this exact structure. And there have been more than a few developments and extrapolations on Campbell’s work since it was published, but that’s the gist of the thing.
Personally, I like the Pixar story design just as well as I like this one. (Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.) It’s a bit simpler and still makes some great stories.
Still, Campbell’s journey, or something like it, has had so many analogues in the various cultures of humanity that we would be remiss not to inquire as to what stories themselves mean to our species.
They are the core of our communications.
The way a story is woven allows us to refer to one part of it in order to reconstruct another, and its characters allow us to learn about ourselves and our human condition without having to suffer the pains of the hero’s challenge. They give us reference to valuable personal information which we would not otherwise have the opportunity to gain.
It is through stories that we come to realize that we, ourselves, are a tale in telling. One chapter beginning and another ending, all at once and always.
Stories show us the sameness of ourselves with our fellow. And in so showing, they facilitate our ability to socialize with, to learn from, and to enjoy the company of each other…
So we tell them.
From The Epoch of Gilgamesh, to The Lord of The Rings, to Disney’s Moana; We communicate the highest parts of ourselves through story, and we set moral and material expectations for those we interact with.
It is our story-bound ethics, therefore, which have gotten us this far — and it is those same storied ethics, which will see us through to our happy end.