Summary Of Joseph Campbell's 'The Adventure Of The Hero'

Eddie Abilez
Period 3 English 4
Mr. McQueary
8/17/15
Part One- The Adventure of the Hero
Prologue
Joseph Campbell writes about his theory that through every culture, their myths, about the trials the hero faces, are universal. He states, “…it will be always the one, shape-shifting yet marvelously constant story that we find…” referring to the myths he is very non-lenient with his theory. He also states, "... myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation." In this quote the inexhaustible energies he is referring to are actually the energy of the subconscious and how it essentially has the same ideas universally. Campbell uses many examples to show this. The first example
He tells the reader that there are many characteristics that are shared between this story and the typical hero’s journey. That being the “Call to Adventure” where she drops the ball, the “Herald” arriving, which is the frog, and finally “The World Navel” which represents the subconscious. “Refusal of the Call” is what typically happens if the hero hears the call but does not answer it. The hero ends up imprisoned either physically or psychologically. He backs that up with the story of a nymph who ends up turned into a flower (physically imprisoned) and King Minos who feared everything around him (psychologically imprisoned). Campbell says that this just delays the hero until they are ready to answer the call. “Supernatural Aid” is the figure who appears once the hero answers the call. Campbell adds three points of analysis in a different aspect then he usually does: the first is that he included the fairy tales, not to devalue them but to show how influential they are, the second is in the story of the Arab prince where he writes in great length the details for the long myth, the third is shown in how the Hero’s Journey is in different cultures. “The Crossing of the First Threshold" is the first time the hero goes into a new land physically and mentally but it is blocked by a Guardian which the hero must overcome. “The Belly of the Whale" is where the hero is symbolically or physically swallowed and
“The Shapeshifter” Campbell says, "…There is no final system for the interpretation of myths…" so it’s meaningless but depending on how people look at it, it is a necessity. “The Function of Myth, Cult, and Meditation” the way we look at things, like how other people look or what they do for a living, are meaningless. Campbell writes, "[they are] costumes which we wear for a time on the stage of the world." "The aim," he writes, "is not to see, but to realize that one is, that essence; then one is free to wander as that essence in the world ...” He brought up in a previous section and said if we could realize the essence of the Hero’s Journey society could move past our restricting walls. “The Hero Today” Campbell talks about how each one of us could be a hero but as a society we cannot all be heroes. ” Humanity, has become too materialistic and too individualistic to have room for that which transcends the physical world and/or separate, personal identity” “Society, has nothing to offer the Hero - it is the Hero who has much to offer society, and must do so.” This falls in line with the quote spoken by John F. Kennedy: “…ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.” Throughout this book Campbell was telling us how similar people are as a whole, not just in culture but psychologically, but we have not united because we are too focused on