Ella Enchanted:A Hero's Journey
Amelia Farmer
9th Grade Honors Literature
27 July 2014
Ella Enchanted: A Hero’s Journey
The famous author Peter S. Beagle once said, “Great heroes need great sorrows or burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed.” Everyone has burdens, but it takes a true hero to overcome a huge burden. In the movie Ella Enchanted, directed by Jane Starz, Ella has been blessed, or really cursed, with the gift of obedience by a fairy named Lucinda. She does anything and everything people tell her to do and has no control over it. As she gets older, people begin to abuse her gift, and she realizes she must find a way to get rid of the great burden, thus beginning her very own Hero’s Journey. Joseph Campbell’s monomyth, or hero’s journey, is a twelve stage process that characters undergo to become heroes. As Ella becomes a hero by going through these stages, her story exemplifies the theme of overcoming burdens. Ella first realizes she must overcome her gift during her call to adventure. The call the adventure is the second stage of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth in which the hero to be is presented with a problem. Ella’s call to adventure is her evil step sisters learning to abuse her gift. At a mall opening, they force Ella to steal a pair of glass slippers. Not only do they make Ella blame her best friend, Aredia, but they also demand Ella cut all ties with her. “I’ve done bad things before… but this is the worst thing the gift has ever made me do. I have to find Lucinda and get her to take the gift back.” Ella has discovered that in order to have a normal life, she must locate Lucinda, the fairy that gave her the gift, and get rid of the gift-gone-wrong. This is the first step Ella takes towards overcoming her burden. “And so Ella set off, glad to be rid or the witches.” Ella shows true signs of a hero, by taking the risk of leaving everything she knows behind to overcome the burden that is holding her back. During the eighth stage of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth,
9th Grade Honors Literature
27 July 2014
Ella Enchanted: A Hero’s Journey
The famous author Peter S. Beagle once said, “Great heroes need great sorrows or burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed.” Everyone has burdens, but it takes a true hero to overcome a huge burden. In the movie Ella Enchanted, directed by Jane Starz, Ella has been blessed, or really cursed, with the gift of obedience by a fairy named Lucinda. She does anything and everything people tell her to do and has no control over it. As she gets older, people begin to abuse her gift, and she realizes she must find a way to get rid of the great burden, thus beginning her very own Hero’s Journey. Joseph Campbell’s monomyth, or hero’s journey, is a twelve stage process that characters undergo to become heroes. As Ella becomes a hero by going through these stages, her story exemplifies the theme of overcoming burdens. Ella first realizes she must overcome her gift during her call to adventure. The call the adventure is the second stage of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth in which the hero to be is presented with a problem. Ella’s call to adventure is her evil step sisters learning to abuse her gift. At a mall opening, they force Ella to steal a pair of glass slippers. Not only do they make Ella blame her best friend, Aredia, but they also demand Ella cut all ties with her. “I’ve done bad things before… but this is the worst thing the gift has ever made me do. I have to find Lucinda and get her to take the gift back.” Ella has discovered that in order to have a normal life, she must locate Lucinda, the fairy that gave her the gift, and get rid of the gift-gone-wrong. This is the first step Ella takes towards overcoming her burden. “And so Ella set off, glad to be rid or the witches.” Ella shows true signs of a hero, by taking the risk of leaving everything she knows behind to overcome the burden that is holding her back. During the eighth stage of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth,