How Fiction Shapes Our Reality
"We have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us. The Labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god. And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. And where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world." - Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Throughout literature, we are constantly reinventing the hero, not the story, to be applicable to our times. The hero is created to reflect these times and serve as an inspiration to the populous; from Superman to Harry Potter, the hero helps the world in the way that serves the audience best. When Superman was created, it was a time where immigrants felt ostracized. Superman served as the ultimate "alien" in order to teach the world acceptance. The 70's were a time where America was losing faith in the government and family structure was disintegrating; Thus Luke Skywalker emerged to re-instill a faith in society and to re-inspire children who were growing up in a turmoiled America. Harry Potter reintroduced the magic of reading to children. Harry Potter was a way to pull children away from technology and foster their imagination. And what do all of these heroes have in common? They are all examples of the monomyth. The monomyth is a story where the protagonist embarks on a path into the supernatural world, leaving the world he knows in order to save it. The monomyth — or the hero's journey — is the path a protagonist must take in order to become a fully realized hero. Why do so many prevalent story lines follow the hero's journey? What makes the monomyth such an important tool in storytelling? The monomyth is essential to modern storytelling because it teaches those who are coming of age about sacrifice, justice, and what it means to be a hero. The monomyth exists in order to inspire the younger generation to emulate these examples of great heroes; to use these examples to be heroes in their own lives. The most effective way to convey a lesson, a truth, to a student to teach by example. If you tell a child to share their toys, will they listen? Rather, if you tell the child a grand story about an orphaned hero that grew up with nothing and was abruptly thrust into a world where he was expected to save the world. A story about a boy so selfless, who shared everything of himself with his peers, and sacrificed himself to prevail over evil. When given this example, how can the child remain selfish? The monomyth allows its audience the opportunity to imagine themselves as worthy heroes. Thus in hindsight, refusing to share their toys becomes meaningless. They will strive to emulate their heroes in every way they can. Where we think we are escaping reality by reading or watching movies of heroes, we are really learning to become heroes ourselves. Throughout the steps of the monomyth, the hero learns important lessons to help him advance in his story. Both the Star Wars and Harry Potter series' use the monomyth to tell their stories. Within each film and book, Harry and Luke go through the hero's journey repeatedly; however we can also look at the entire series as the overarching journey. Looking at Star Wars and Harry Potter we see the lessons Luke and Harry learn and we, the audience, learn the lessons through them as well. We might not ever receive our Hogwarts letter, or learn to use the force; but by following the same journey as these heroes, we learn to apply our own strengths and become heroes in our "muggle" worlds.
In order to understand how the hero's journey can influence our lives, we have to first understand what steps our heroes have to take. The journey for our hero begins with the Departure from the known world. The journey is initiated with the Call to Adventure, the Refusal, and the Mentor.
The Call to Adventure is the protagonist's introduction to his role as a hero. The call comes in order to show the protagonist that he has been living half a life, that he has yet to reach his full potential. It is meant to show the protagonist that he can be something more. The call is important to the audience as well because it is something that all children wait for. This beginning, this push is something we long for because we believe that only a supernatural push will kickstart our lives. Thus, it's important to compare both Luke and Harry's beginnings to understand how the protagonist matures. Luke Skywalker was raised on Tatooine with his uncle and aunt. Luke's uncle acquires two new droids, R2D2 and C3PO, and in the midst of cleaning them he discovers part of an embedded holographic message for one "Obi-Wan Kenobi". The message asks Obi-Wan to save the unknown girl of the hologram, "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope." (Star Wars, A New Hope) R2D2 escapes later that evening and when Luke sets out to save him his "Call to Adventure" begins. Similarly, Harry's uncle and aunt, Vernon and Petunia Dursley, raised him. However, where Luke grew up in a family with love, Harry only knew derision. The only reason Harry's relatives took him in was because of shared blood, and that blood protection kept him safe from the outside world. Inside the house however, he was abused, malnourished, and downtrodden. It isn't until he receives his Hogwarts letter that he learns that there is world other than the hell he was raised in. "Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would? He had no friends, no other relatives — he didn't belong to the library, so he'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake: Mr. H. Potter, The Cupboard under the Stairs, 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey." (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone) Harry's "Call to Adventure" comes with his mentor, when Hagrid comes to collect him and reveal the truth of Harry's origins.
When the mentor comes into play it is a significant turn in the story. The role of the mentor in the monomyth is to guide the protagonist into his path and then he must be outgrown. The mentor is meant to simply push the protagonist into his role as a hero, not to hold his hand through the journey. The audience must understand these lessons because we are all meant to outgrow our mentors. As we mature into adults and progress into our respective paths, we need to carry with us the lessons we've learned from people that guided our maturation [our parents, our teachers, etc.]; however, we must also keep in mind that in order to grow and become independent we have to learn to stand by ourselves. The mentor must save the hero before revealing himself as the mentor. This serves as a reflection on the protagonist's internal struggles. The mentor comes to save the protagonist in a physical battle and by doing so ends his emotional strife. Luke meets his mentor while searching for R2D2. The sand people start attacking Luke and his droids when someone saves them. Luke gets knocked unconscious and wakes up to see Old Ben. R2D2 plays the hologram message and it turns out the Old Ben is actually Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan tells Luke the truth about his origins, and reveals that he is Jedi. He prompts Luke to join him to save the princess. Harry meets his mentor while trying to read his Hogwarts letter. Harry's uncle refuses to let Harry read the letter, and the letters start pouring in [literally] enmasse until Vernon takes everyone to a cabin on an isolated island in the middle of a storm. Hagrid, Harry's mentor, breaks down the door, gives Harry his letter, and divulges to him that he is a wizard. Hagrid spurs Harry to take up his mantle and join a new world. The mentor reveals to the hero his origins and his destiny. However, the hero must refuse his call. "I... can't be a... a wizard. I mean, I'm... just... Harry. Just Harry."(Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone) or "Alderaan? I'm not going to Alderaan. I've got to go home. It's late, I'm in for it as it is." (Star Wars, A New Hope) But the refusal is inevitably futile because Fate will ensure that the hero accepts. The only way to guarantee the hero's acceptance is to destroy the world he knows. If there is nothing to keep him ordinary then he is spurred to become extraordinary. Luke returns home to find devastation. Everything he has known is destroyed, his house is burnt down, and his uncle and aunt are dead. Luke is pushed into action because he has no other alternative. For Harry the choice is relatively simple; to continue a dreary life of abuse or to embrace his origins — realizing his parents weren't drunks as he was led to believe, but rather great "magical" people — and set out on his new life. We must accept that at one point the world we know will "die". That is what it means to come of age. If we cannot accept the changes life brings, then we cannot grow to become better people and become an influence in our new world.
It is also important to understand why the hero is typically orphaned, as it is an archetype that we see often in stories. Superman, Batman, Harry Potter, Frodo, Luke Skywalker, even Moses are all orphaned heroes. But why is it important for them to be raised in this environment? Why should they know loss so young? It is because the orphan teaches us the most significant lessons. The audience grows with them as we see them mature. They are most capable to learn modesty, love, and gratitude. The orphan has to learn about the world through callow eyes. The truths they learn are harder since they have to learn it by themselves — they don't get to learn it at their mother's knee. The orphan appreciates the virtues of family more and understands loss. If the audience learns by extremes, then the orphan is the extreme we need in order to grasp those lessons. We are humbled by their hardships, we learn to love through their struggles, and we are grateful because they lack what we have. Within the orphan archetype, every hero needs to experience the initial loss of his parents and the catalyst, the loss that pushes him into his destiny. The hero's origin is what determines how he will respond to his call. Luke was raised in a peaceful environment, thus he needed to lose everything that tied him to his life in order to follow his destiny. Harry, however, grew up unwanted, abused, and rejected. He was constantly victimized, lied to, and believed that he was a freak. All he needed was an invitation for a change — to realize that he is indeed a special and important person — in order to accept and embrace his destiny.
Now that the protagonist has been launched into the unknown world, we begin to see his Transformation into a hero. His Transformation is prompted through his multiple trials until he finally emerges a hero. "I'm going to keep going until I succeed — or die. Don't think I don't know how this might end. I've known it for years." (Rowling,Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows)
The first threshold in the protagonist's path is the equivalent of an initiation. It is one of the most important tests for the protagonist's transformation into the hero. Once the threshold is passed, the protagonist can no longer insist on being unaware. This threshold is about having faith. The protagonist must encounter an obstacle, overcome it with faith, and realize that there is no turning back to his life of naivety. For Harry this first threshold is his introduction to the Wizarding world. It starts with his first trip into Diagon Alley and continues with his journey to Hogwarts. Throughout all these stages, Harry must continue to have faith that the Wizarding world is real. He has to suspend his disbelief in order to get onto Platform 9 & 3/4 and board the Hogwarts Express. However his transformation comes by opening his eyes and attempting to differentiate between good and evil, "I think I can tell the wrong sort for myself, thanks." (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone) Luke's threshold is his struggle to trust and use the Force. It starts when he and Obi-Wan have to escape Tatooine. He must suspend his disbelief and trust in the power of the Force. When they arrive in Mos Eisley, he needs to have faith in Obi-Wan to get them past the troopers using the Force. Luke crosses the threshold when he finally closes his eyes and trusts in the Force to guide him. This step is imperative for the audience as well. This is that place in our lives where we stop letting other people guide us. We have to open our eyes to the realities of the world, and once you learn these truths, there is no unlearning them. Imagine the conversations that as a child went over your head but now as an adult you understand and participate in. There comes a point in every person's life where you have to shed the naivety you had as a child and start to see the world.
And then comes the Road of Trials. It is in this step where our protagonist starts to become our hero. He is continuously tested and slowly starts to come into his powers in preparation for the final battle. There are many different ways the trials manifest: the Belly of the Whale, the Forest, the Temptress, etc. If we look at the first Star Wars trilogy as a whole, we find that A New Hope is the "Belly of the Whale", The Empire Strikes Back is the "Forest", and Return of the Jedi is the "Temptress". Similarly, Looking through the Harry Potter series, Harry's belly moment is every summer spent at the Dursley's, he steps into the forest in every book, and his "Temptress" moment is every time he chooses love instead of giving into Voldemort.
The "Belly of the Whale" is the moment when the protagonist takes the first step into accepting his inevitable transformation into the hero. This is the moment where he looks back on his life in order to turn away and continue to look forward on his path. The name of the step is a reference to the bible, where the whale swallows Jonah. God gives him a prophecy and asks him to play the messenger to the people of Sodom. When he tries to escape his destiny he gets swallowed by a whale. While living in the belly, Jonah has to reflect on the decisions he made that led him there, chooses to accept his destiny, and delivers the prophecy. The belly of the whale is a place to reflect and accept. A New Hope is that belly for Luke because he is learning to accept his place as a Jedi and hero. Although he continuously denies his new life, he continues to fight forward on this path to emerge the hero he is. With Harry we can consider every summer at the Dursley's as the belly. He returns to this home [which is not a home at all]; He has to reflect on what happened to him in the last year, decide to learn from his mistakes, and determinedly move forward. At the Dursley's, Harry accepts every new step in his transformation. The "Belly of the Whale" is meant to teach us that in order to move forward in our lives we need to acknowledge what brought us here.
"Throughout literature, the act of traversing into the forest is considered to be a transformation for a hero. Traditionally, a boy must travel into a forest and survive on his own to be considered a man; thus, in literature the use of the forest as a place of trials and tests is a common way for the hero to mature and come into his own. " (Mashal, Into the Forest: Harry's Trials) The forest is an important place for trials because nothing in the forest is clear. Your view is blocked and you can't see clearly until you emerge. The Empire Strikes Back is the "Forest" for the Star Wars series. Luke sets on the path of his transformation by training with Yoda in Dagobah, a planet that is essentially one big forest. Here Luke starts to understand how to use the Force and what it means to be a Jedi and a hero. He enters the forest in order to learn and fights the lessons his entire time there. Only when Luke leaves the forest does he finally understand all that Yoda taught him. Within the Harry Potter series, Harry is repeatedly tested within a forest, whether it's his faith, his values, or his life. Every time Harry enters the "Forest" he learns something new to help his transformation. In Book 3, Harry trapped by dementors in the forest and is convinced that his father somehow conjures the Patronus that saves them. But when the time comes for someone to produce the Patronus he realizes that he must do it himself. "He realizes that he must let go of impossible dreams and face the reality before him…. He was able to set aside his own desires and fight for those in need. It was through this trial that Harry learned how to be selfless." His trials in the forest continue to teach him how to be selfless and work for the greater good. Harry learns how to be a hero. In order to do so he must learn to temper himself, work with a team, and understand the value of self-sacrifice. When he enters the Forbidden Forest to surrender to Voldemort, he accepts that being a hero is for the benefit of the world around him. "Harry can finally see that since the moment he discovered he was a wizard, everything has led up to this moment of self-sacrifice. The world had come full circle; his life started when his mother sacrificed herself so he could live and now he has done the same for the rest of the Wizarding world." The forest is a platform for the boy to become a man and to emerge a hero, "the regions of the unknown (desert, jungle, deep sea, alien and, etc.) are free fields for the projection of the unconscious content." (Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces) The trials of the forest help the hero mature and explore his sense of self.
And finally the "Temptress" concludes the hero's trials. The "Temptress" is the moment where we all have to reconsider our beliefs. We must retain our faith in what we are fighting for and refuse to sacrifice those beliefs. This moment comes for Luke in Return of the Jedi. He is a fully realized Jedi and knows he must refuse the call to the dark. Both Darth Vader and the Sith Lord attempt to convert him into a Sith and he must stick to his convictions. Harry's "Temptress" comes at the end of every book. Every time that he has to face Voldemort and decide to continuously fight against him. In every moment Harry could have given in to the temptation and joined Voldemort, "There is no good and evil there is only power and those too weak to seek it." Only when the protagonist overcomes the "Temptress" does he become the hero. It is overcoming the temptation to give up in our goals that leads to our accomplishments. In our coming of age story, we must continue to push through our trials in order to succeed in our lives. If we only learn one lesson from the monomyth, let it be to overcome the temptation to give up. "If you fall behind, run faster. Never give up, never surrender, and rise up against the odds." (Jesse Jackson)
It is through fiction that we learn the most about ourselves. Fiction is the place where we can explore our imagination and learn about the type of person we want to become. Fiction is where we sculpt our world and the monomyth is the tool. With the lessons that we learn through our heroes, by joining them on their respective journeys, we can grow to become heroes ourselves. The monomyth shows us the transformation of a hero through a set series of steps. Both Harry Potter and Star Wars use these steps to teach the audience how to overcome adversity. They introduce important lessons, in creative ways, in order to inspire new generations of children. "With Star Wars George Lucas has created a myth for our time, one that clothes in the garb of the future the ancient spirit quest of the hero." (Lawler, The God Tube: Uncovering the Hidden Spiritual Message in Pop Culture) But the most important lesson the monomyth can teach is to inspire change. We learn that even though the protagonist needs a prompt to emerge a hero, they eventually need to inspire themselves. We need to use what we learn and become advocates of change. Fiction has always spurred the new technologies of the world. Michio Kaku, a well known physicist and author, wrote a book describing impossible technologies and how he would make them exist. He said, that the fiction he read as a child inspired the choices he made in life, "Beyond work and love, I would add two other ingredients that give meaning to life. First, to fulfill whatever talents we are born with. However blessed we are by fate with different abilities and strengths, we should try to develop them to the fullest, rather than allow them to atrophy and decay. We all know individuals who did not fulfill the promise they showed in childhood. Many of them became haunted by the image of what they might have become. Instead of blaming fate, I think we should accept ourselves as we are and try to fulfill whatever dreams are within our capability." (Kaku, Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel) It's not reality that shapes the fiction we read, but the reverse. We need to actively shape our own realities. In fiction there are no limits and we must let that inspire us to push the boundaries of reality. Because ultimately the only hero we have is ourselves.