Joseph Campbell’s 17 Stages of the Hero’s Journey excels in providing opportunities for readers to feel a deep connection with the Hero, differentiating them from other characters with unique experiences, thought processes, and evolution. Readers can observe as the Hero is brought through experiences and opportunities that can only be accomplished by someone of higher ability--the main character. There are key “turning point” stages that illustrate the way the Hero’s Journey is written in a way that guides onlookers to view the hero in a special light, keeping the main character close to their heart and creating a contrast from side characters.
As the Hero receives their “call to adventure,” readers can reduce their experience to chance. However, in situations where the Hero is yet to rise to glory, it’s common for them to be seen living a “humble” life. Here, readers are pushed to connect with them as characters. Readers are given the opportunity to relate to the Hero and reflect on their personal experiences against theirs, pushing them to root for the character to achieve more. Initially portraying the Hero as down-to-earth creates the first strand of connection between the reader and the main character. The refusal immediately after their first invitation continues the trend of likable humility in the Hero. The refusal comes alongside reasoning from the Hero as to why they can’t part with their current situation. Their reasoning reveals their values and intentions, sometimes making them more likable when their excuse is embedded with weights of prior obligations to family or work. By having vulnerably revealing interactions in the opening scenes, it introduces the main character as a malleable character, more susceptible to the affection of the viewer. Rather than introducing them as the stereotypical “hero” character, the journey begins with them as a regular civilian. This allows viewers to follow their story stage-by-stage, rooting for and growing alongside the Hero.
The Hero is edged to take on their journey by a supernatural force, amplifying the early ideas that they are different--above--other characters, and planting the roots for the overarching idea that they are the sole person who can complete the mission. As they cross the first threshold, watchers are encouraged to hold their breath and watch their main character as they’re thrown into an unfamiliar environment. Here, the personal connection between the Hero and the reader continues to grow as the unfamiliarity uncovers the Hero’s ambitions, fears, and internal expectations. The “Belly of the Whale” stage represents a turning point in the Hero’s overall experience, in which they experience a “death” and then rebirth, shedding away the person they were before and becoming a more enlightened and powerful version of themself. Here, readers are invited to witness the Hero being rewritten into someone new; in this version, readers would have been able to every single step of their recollection--as if we have known them for their entire life.
Campbell’s 17 steps constantly stimulate the connection between the reader and the Hero--walking readers through developments that shape the Hero into who they are. It creates an experience where viewers are encouraged to be personally invested in the Hero’s journey. Simultaneously, the Hero’s Journey balances the constant reiteration that the main character is a higher, more able, being--the Hero--by providing snippets of fantasy. It creates an interesting dynamic, where readers are able to see themselves in the Hero, but understand that the Hero is a phenomenon in their universe. In the road of trials, the Hero displays their devotion to their quest while showing their transformation into the “stereotypical” hero who is physically and mentally stronger. Beyond their personal transformation that deviates them from the previous, more “regular” version of themself, they have interactions meant to distract or aid a hero. The Hero’s Journey sets them up to encounter the Goddess, who will provide for them, and the Temptress, who attempts to lure them away.
The Hero--if not already--is solidified as “higher” than other characters in the stages of atonement and apostasis. Here, they are challenged once again but exit with the loss of someone or something deeply important to them. Here, their journey becomes insanely personal, no longer replicable by any other character. They have evolved into a character with an understanding of their weight in the world, aware of the gap between them and their peers.
The Hero’s Journey as told by Joseph Campbell creates an alternative plotline that enhances the typical fight-against-a-bigger-evil adventure. The specific order of events in the Hero’s Journey fosters the Hero’s development, inviting readers to follow along and (un?)intentionally drawing them to the Hero. The Hero’s Journey is written in a way that seamlessly transforms the main character into a relatable character, easy for readers to connect with, into a character who is obviously the Hero of the story. The stages and key moments allow for the story to flow naturally and easily allowing readers to be personally invested. By using the combination of personal connection towards the Hero and the persona of singularity, the Hero’s journey does a great job at highlighting them as THE hero.
