Neverwhere Hero's Journey

Neverwhere by Neil Gamin follows the chronicles of Richard Mayhew through the dangerous and magical London Below, a world running parallel to the real London. It was originally made as a television series, and was later adapted into a novel. Throughout the novel Richard is on a journey of self-discovery, and goes from being a fearful coward into a brave friend, and begins to understand what he truly wants in his life. Richard begins this path to enlightenment as he starts to make his own decisions and take control of his life. He also learns to overcome, mainly his fear of the unknown and tries to understand what he does and does not know about the world of London Below so that he can face challenges set before him. Lastly, his journey in
It is seen throughout the novel that Richard is the latter. Instead of being scared and troubled by his situation, Richard tries to overcome his fear of this unknown place and try to learn what he really needs to be afraid of. He does this by asking as many questions as he can, and tries to understand all the answers that he receives. This helps Richard in finding out about the unknown, and allows him to understand his fear and suppress it. An example of him doing this is when “Richard began to understand darkness: darkness as something solid and real, so much more than a simple absence of light. He felt it touch his skin, questing, moving, exploring: gliding through his mind. It slipped into his lungs, behind his eyes, into his mouth...” (Gamin 57). This knowledge gives Richard more confidence as he progresses through the journey. Richard does not apply this method of asking questions to face his fears when he is faced with his greatest fear the beast. The beast terrorizes Richard in his dreams, and it is a fear that he cannot understand. This allows Richard’s fear to manifest and grow within himself when faced with the prophecy of his nightmares such as “He was deep in the sewers, lost in a labyrinth. The Beast was waiting for him. He could hear a slow drip of water. He knew the Beast was waiting”(Gamin 57). It is when he is faced with the beast that he discovers his bravery. Richard’s demonstration of courage here shows reveals his true self, because
The moment that Richard set foot into London Below, his only goals were to return home to London Above and return to his normal life. This is finally granted to him at the end of the novel, and Richard realizes that the world of London Below has changed him, and that a normal life is not what he wants. The quote "Have you ever got everything you ever wanted? And then realized it wasn't what you wanted at all?” (Gamin 200) shows how Richard has found out what he wants from his life. He discovers that all he wants to do is go back to the world of London Below. Richard realizes in that moment that his life in London Above is not what he thought it was, it was just a façade. He understands that the person who he was in London Below expresses who he really wants to be, and he can not be that person in London Above. When he gets back to his home of London Above he can not unpack his bags and “As the days went on, he felt increasingly guilty about not unpacking them. But he did not unpack them” (Gamin 194). This shows how he does not belong in London Above. He does not want a normal life in London Above, but would rather have the exhilarating and strange life back in London Below. Richard can not stop thinking about his time in London Below, and how the man that he was down there