Mrs. Uyemura
English 1A
27 May 2013
Road To Freedom The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell, explains the characteristics of the hero’s journey. This journey consists of a hero leaving his or her ordinary world on an adventure to later return as a changed person. The movie Django Unchained tells the story of a newly freed slave, Django, in the world of racism at its most treacherous time. Django learns how to survive in this world and sets out to rescue and free his wife. By analyzing this movie, Campbell’s theory about the hero’s journey can be better understood. Django takes the path of a hero and goes on a journey that will lead him to his ultimate freedom. Campbell states that the first process in a hero’s journey is separation from the ordinary world and call to adventure. In this story Django is just another slave living in 1860’s United States. One evening in the woods, while traveling miles on foot while his owners rode horses, a man named Dr. King Shultz comes forth and seeks out Django specifically. Shultz offers to buy Django but his owners refuse which results in Shultz killing them. Shultz states that he is a bounty hunter in search of the three Brittle Brothers and he knows Djano has seen them. He offers him a deal, in which he helps him find and kill the Brittle Brothers in exchange for his freedom. Django agrees and is then separated from his ordinary world by being released from his chains and getting up on a horse to pursue this new adventure. Campbells theory says once the hero is separated form his ordinary world, his life will forever be changed. The next stop in a hero’s journey is crossing the threshold. This is where the hero is in a completely new world that comes with new rules and facing the unknown. Django and Dr. Shultz arrive in a town where Django is given deathly stares by the citizens because they have never seen a black man on a horse. The town sheriff confronts them and Shultz shoots him