The Hero With A Thousand Faces By Joseph Campbell

Isn’t it surprising to know that almost every single story ever written follows the same exact cycle? This pattern is exactly what Joseph Campbell explains in his book The Hero With A Thousand Faces. He shows how every myth follows the story of a hero who embarks on an epic journey: “With the personifications of his destiny to guide and aid him, the hero goes forward in his adventure until he comes to the 'threshold guardian’” (Campbell 60). Threshold guardians are usually shown to be lesser evils that the hero must defeat in order to continue his journey. Once beyond the threshold of the hero’s homeland, “the hero journeys through a world of unfamiliar yet strangely intimate forces, some of which severely threaten him (tests), some of which
The main protagonist Bilbo is always portrayed as good, kind and pure. He never thinks of only himself and is always looking out for his friends and allies. For example, when the giant spiders in Mirkwood forest catch all the dwarves (maybe write captured the dwarves? I dunno sounds better ) . Bilbo "saw the moment had come when he must do something" (Tolkien 148). Despite being small and afraid, he thought only of saving his friends. Despite being a burglar, Bilbo shows that he has a strong moral code, especially when he profits off someone without thinking that he had earned it. This is shown when he returns the keys back to the Elf guard (Tolkien 168) and when he is hesitant about taking part of the gold (Tolkien 276). When Bard and Thorin fought over the gold previously hoarded by Smaug, Bilbo never cared for his own gold, but instead he gave the Arkenstone to the elves and Bard, which caused Thorin to acquiesce to giving them a fourteenth of the gold. However, this gold would be technically Bilbo's share of the profits (Tolkien 250 - 255). Letting the elves and Bard have his share is just one of the ways that Bilbo proves that he is a good character. Keeping this in mind, the reader can easily tell who in the story is evil or bad. One example would be Smaug who represents the dragon in the monomyth, a
Contrasted to the goodness found in Bilbo, nothing in Conrad’s novella is depicted as good. Everything in the story has a darker evil side. From the hollow greed of the European colonists to the darkness found within the Congo jungle, evil is everywhere - inescapable almost. This is why Charlie Marlow’s futile attempts to do good ultimately fail as he is drawn more and more into a world where no absolute goodness can exist. The most that Marlow is able to do is simply choose what he believes is the lesser evil out of them all. At one point in the story, Marlow eavesdrops on the manager and his uncle, also seeing the latter gesture to everything in the vicinity:
I saw him extend his short flipper of an arm for a gesture that took in the forest, the creek, the mud, the river - seemed to beckon with a dishonouring flourish before the sunlit face of the land a treacherous appeal to the lurking death, to the hidden evil, to the profound darkness of its heart. (Conrad 45 -