Introduction: The hero’s quest (also known as a monomyth) is a standard archetype found in myths, legends and other stories that have a heroic protagonist. There are 17 different elements that structure the hero’s quest.
1) Call to adventure
2) Refusal of call
3) Supernatural aid
4) Crossing the first threshold
5) The belly of the whale or rebirth
6) Road of trials
7) Meeting with the goddess
8) Woman as temptress/temptation
9) Atonement with father
10) Apotheosis (glorifying to a divine level)
11) The ultimate boon
12) Refusal of return
13) Magic flight
14) Rescue from without
15) Crossing the return threshold
16) Master of two worlds
17) Freedom to live
These elements have made up the plotline and backbone of stories and legends throughout the ages, but now the elements are being used heavily in film today.
Objectives: This unit will allow students will understand the main elements that make up a heroic journey and know their function. Students will use media such as film, youtube, and blogs as tools to delve deeper into the texts presented in class. Students will be able to pick elements of the monomyth out of an unfamiliar film and note its significance to the work as a whole and the values our societies expect from a hero.
Texts: Beowulf
Star Wars: A New Hope
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars: return of the Jedi
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Matrix
The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Revolutions
For students not familiar with these films, important clips will be shown in class so everyone can have the same references.
Grade Assessment: Grades will be based around factors: 20% will be on class participation and discussion facilitation, 60% will be based on blog posts, 10% attendance, 10% final examination.
Lesson One:
-Define what a Hero is.
a) Ask students who their favorite hero figure is. (Batman, Robin Hood, Frodo)
b) What notions do they already have of Heroes? What do they expect a hero to do, or go through?
c) How does one become a hero?
-List the 17 elements and define what they mean.
a) Apotheosis is a big word
b) The goddess is not always a goddess verbatim
c) The belly of the whale isn’t literal
d) Two worlds doesn’t exactly mean planets, etc…
-Assignment: Create a blog to keep track of progress on each text we discuss. Students are encouraged to find clips of their own on youtube to post on their blogs that have significance to any one of the monomyth elements.
Lesson Two:
-Call to adventure and refusal of call
a) Explain how some force or person attempts to nudge the hero out the door, only to find that the hero is resistant to leave.
b) Show a clip from Episode One where R2D2 gives Luke Leah’s distress call.
c) Discuss what kind of reaction that would evoke in the student’s lives if they were faced with an adventure proposition.
d) Show the red-pill/blue-pill scene from The Matrix, and discuss the pro and cons of curiosity and call for something greater vs. the duty one has to the life they have been leading before said option presented itself.
-Assignment: Write a description of what the student would do if put into either one of these situations. Would they refuse the call and stay with Uncle Owen on the moisture farm, or go with Obi Wan to danger, excitement and perilous adventure. They could write what they’d do in Neo’s shoes. Red Pill? Blue Pill? Why? Why not? What is the appeal of adventuring off into the unknown?
Lesson Three:
-Supernatural Aid and Crossing of the Threshold.
a) Discuss popular culture icons and heroes who seem to have a magical talisman or tool that grants the hero additional powers. (i.e. Jack Sparrow’s compass that doesn’t point north, Green Lantern’s ring, Wonder Woman’s magic lasso, any X-Men power). Why are these items useful? What do they do to enhance the story?
b) Discuss the story of King Arthur and the Lady of the Lake myth vs. the sword in the stone myth. What powers Excalibur has and how it was given to him.
c) Show the clip from The Fellowship of the Ring where Sam and Frodo realize that they are farther away from home than they’ve ever been. Discuss the emotions going on in the scene. How did Peter Jackson really make that a powerful action of exiting the Shire and the Hobbit’s comfort zone?
-Assignment: Write in the student’s blogs either an experience where the student had a threshold to cross into unfamiliar territory. How did you feel when you did it? What were the driving forces behind your actions? Try and find a clip on youtube of a different director’s take on crossing thresholds. OR If the student could have a magical talisman or weapon or tool, what would it be and why? (i.e. magic-homework-writing-pencil). What purpose would it serve in your life? Is it necessary for your advancement in life? Try to find a youtube clip of a magical weapon or talisman in action. Analyze its purpose.
Lesson Four:
-The belly of the whale/rebirth and the road of trials
a) Discuss what the phrase “Into the belly of the whale.” And what it really means. Look at the story of Jonah and the Whale in the bible and see if there are any references to the bible in each of the films.
b) Show the clip from A New Hope where the Millennium Falcon is sucked into the Death Star via tractor beam. Discuss the whale imagery of the death star being something unbelievably massive, so massive that the plot can advance within its entity.
c) Show a clip from The Fellowship of the Ring in the mines of Moria. This clip functions as both inside the belly of the whale, as they are deep within the mountain roots, and the trial and rebirth when the hobbits have to fight and Frodo is spared and reborn after being speared by a cave troll. Discuss the rebirthing process and where we can see it in popular culture today. (i.e. Austin Powers unfreezing himself, Jesus coming back to life after his trial and death)
-Assignment: Find clips on youtube of characters being reborn. What are the cinematic elements that make scenes like these extra emotional, or stunning? Are the characters brought back clothed in white, like Gandalf was? Do they have new mannerisms? Write also about a “whale” seen in popular culture, that a protagonist needs to enter to face a trial. How is this “whale” depicted in these clips? What happens inside the “whale”?
Lesson Five:
-Meeting with the Goddess and the Temptation
a) Discuss gender roles of heroes found in pop culture. Are most heroes men or women? Do they have different values or standards put upon them? If male heroes are tempted by female temptresses often, how does this conversely affect a female hero and her temptations on her hero journey?
b) Show the clip from The Matrix where Neo meets the Oracle. Discuss why the Oracle is a woman? Discuss how having a superior woman figure can contrast the manly skills of the hero and to remind the audience that the hero is still mortal.
Assignment- Blog about temptation and its effects on people society holds in high regards (Bill Clinton affair?). How do we see our heroes tempted and depicted as mortals? Tabloid magazines are good sources to show stars as normal human beings and flawed, unlike how they are presented in movies and ads. Blog on the phenomena of tabloids and how they are related to this element in a heroic quest.
Lesson Six:
-Atonement with father and Apotheosis
a) Discuss the importance of heritage and how it hasn’t changed that much from medieval aristocracies. (wealthy business owners pass down their company and money to child, etc) How does family play a role in the lives of modern heroes, like batman’s parents having been killed when he was young, or Superman’s parents sending him from Krypton to Earth?
b) Show the famous clip from The Empire Strikes Back, where Luke learns that Vader is his father. What kinds of emotions are going through Luke at this time? What were Vader’s motives for telling Luke this information? How does this change the plot from here onward? What was Luke’s reaction to this news?
c) Discuss glorification to a divine status, and how it is used in culture today. Movie stars and musicians are often glorified beyond their true worth, but what does that say about our society? How are characters such as Beowulf glorified for his actions in Hrothgar? Why is he glorified and others not? How does this reflect culture?
Assignment- Blog about the importance our society places on different actions, live winning the Super Bowl vs. saving families from a house-fire. Why do we place value in certain places rather than others? What does it say about our own values as people? How can this portion of a hero’s journey allow us to reflect upon our own values of family, especially a patriarchal family, and the actions from which we receive praise?
Grading Period: Students will have enough material in their blogs combined with in-class discussion participation to assess their grades thus far. Grading of the blogs will take into account the organization of discussion points, how well they stayed on topic and how deep they went into their research or reflection on the current topic. The amount of videos found and posted from youtube will be taken into account also as this course has an emphasis on teaching media tools and using media to enhance learning.
Lesson Seven:
-The Ultimate Boon and The Refusal of Return
a) Explain exactly what a boon is, and why they are valued. Why do we call it a boon instead of gift or reward? Is applause reward enough for some heroes? Why does the boon need to be superior to all other boons?
b) Look at Beowulf and how he receives the magic sword Hrunting and shiny armor from the king, and then show the clip from Fellowship of the Ring where the fellowship is granted gifts to help their journey by Galadrial.
c) Discuss why heroes always want to stay in with the danger instead of going somewhere safe. Why are they hesitant to enter into the fray, but always refuse to exit it before the quest is completed? Is it our society’s emphasis and value on a rebellious person, or a person who sees things through to the end? How do we see people like injured football players wanting to stay in the game to finish it, even though they have a sprained ankle?
d) Show a clip of an injured football player going back into the game to finish it off. Analyze the crowd’s reaction to the player coming back in. How does that reflect our values? Our culture? Why is he a hero for going back in, and refusing to return to the bench?
Assignment- Blog about what you would do if you were caught in a struggle and had the option to exit the battle or ordeal without completing it, but also meaning that your safety is ensured. What makes a coward? Is accepting a ticket home cowardly? Why are cowards looked down upon so much? They do live longest. If you had to go through a trial or ordeal, what would you expect in return? After this class is done, you expect a good grade, but you need to complete it fully to obtain that grade. How is this similar to the questing hero’s story?
Lesson Eight:
-Magic Flight and Rescue from Without
a) In every action movie, there has to be a car chase. If there is no other element of the monomyth presented in an action film, the chase scene is required. Magic flight is the chase scene where “bad guys” are pursuing them and they miraculously escape their clutches. Everyone has seen scenes like this because they are so commonly used and prominent and flashy, in media today, we cannot help but see the showy exits heroes make from the evildoer’s lair.
b) Show the clip from A New Hope when TIE fighters and Vader are chasing the X-wing fighters along the rim of the Death Star. How is it exciting? What techniques did the director use to make it an action packed ride through space?
c) At the end of their journey, the hero may also need a bit more help to make it home safely. Sometimes they need to be rescued by friends or humanity to show the audience once again that the hero is mortal. Show the clip from The Matrix Revolutions where Neo is trapped in the Trainman’s limbo between worlds. Trinity and Morpheus then break him out. Discuss why someone with the powers Neo has, would need outside assistance to break out of his prison? Do we sympathize with heroes that are rescued that can’t do it themselves?
Assignment- Create a collage of images from Flicker or Google Images of chase scenes and how they are presented from early film to today. Consider the 1930s car chase scene vs. the Bourne Identity or other fast paced action packed films. Explain why you chose those images and how they are significant to the monomyth we are studying.
Lesson Nine:
-Crossing the Return Threshold and Master of Two Worlds
a) The homecoming parade is a representation of the returning threshold of the hero’s quest. High School football players go off to face an ordeal and come back to be praised by their home state. This is part of the monomyth that is seen everywhere today, soldiers coming home from war and astronauts returning from space.
b) Show clip from The Return of the King where the four hobbits return to the Shire clad in full armor (and Pippin and Merry are a couple of feet taller) riding on ponies. How do they react to the Shire-folk upon their return? How do the Shire-folk react to their homecoming? What is exactly happening in this scene as seen thought the director’s eyes?
c) Mastery of two worlds is the definite sign that a hero’s quest is over as they now control two powers, or entities or tracks of land or respects. Show the scene in Return of the Jedi at Vader’s funeral where the ghosts of Anakin Skywalker, Obi Wan Kenobi and Yoda are revealed to Luke. How are the spirits, being succumbed to the force, transcendental of one world and the next? How will Luke be able to Master the earthly world with the force and then succumb to it to master death as well, as his teachers and father did? How does this make Luke a master of two worlds?
Assignment- Blog about the questions, where do we see heroes mastering two different entities at the end of films? How to they reign over these entities or worlds? As just rulers? As tyrants? The same can be said of the football players coming home from winning an away game (mastering two worlds), how do they use that fame and popularity after they have crossed the return threshold? Find videos on youtube concerning people crossing the return threshold, like graduations playing Pomp and Circumstance.
Lesson Ten:
-Freedom to Live
a) This final stage is where the hero is finally at peace and that society recognizes the duty that the hero has performed for them. This is the “and then they lived happily ever after” portion of the story. Peace is restored, conflict resolved and the hero is no more use to society, so the hero settles down to a life of peace.
b) Show clip from Return of the King where Samwise Gamgee and Rosie get married and have little hobbit children. Sam, as an adventurer has returned home and settles down for an ordinary life without unexpected surprises or adventures. Discuss why the hero doesn’t go on to have more adventures? How does the society accept the hero back in? Is the hero comfortable to be back in society? Does the society always accept the hero back? (i.e. US troops in Vietnam)
-Assignment: Create a final blog post concerning an old, aging hero and how they might act, and talk, and their mannerisms. How are they distinctly different from the other people? Is the old hero happy? Does the hero live in the past with his memories or does he try to forget what happened in the past? This post is speculative and interpretation-based, so grading will be conducted based upon the creativeness and depth of your interpretative post.
Grading Period: With the students’ blogs completed, asses their grades based on the aforementioned criteria, depth, clarity, sticking to the topic, youtube posts, creativeness, and expansion on ideas.
Final Examination: For the final exam, students will be given a sheet with all 17 elements of the monomyth on it, and asked to watch a full-length film in class, while completing the worksheet. They will watch Disney’s The Lion King and pick out the different elements of the monomyth as they occur in the film. They will then be asked to write a short paragraph on each element, explaining its significance in the journey of Simba through the pride lands. Although not all of the elements are represented in this film, the students should be able to spot the elements that are not present or that have a variation on the classical role. This exam will be 10% of their final grade.
Works Cited:
http://www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/wong991.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth
http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~sparks/sffilm/mmswtab.html
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/showthread.php?t=477292
http://teachingmedialiteracy.pbwiki.com/
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