Gabe Snyder Blog 3 (In Class Reading) - The Hero's Journey

The Hero's Journey, popularized by Joseph Campbell, provides a structure to almost every "hero" story in modern media that we've seen. Even non-western media, such as Anime series such as Dragon Ball Z have the hero's journey ingrained into them. For example, the story arc in Dragon Ball Z where our protagonist, Goku, dies and is transported to the afterlife (his call to adventure) to train to become strong enough to fight the big bad of that saga, Vegeta. It's a corny and boyish example but it fits the narrative structure just so so so well! 

What's even crazier is the ability apply the monomyth/hero's journey to works even before the mass culture I was referring to in my last blog. The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Odyssey, the Iliad, etc. All of these showcase this monomyth! What does that say about human culture that we all make up these stories of going away and coming back stronger? Is our confinement to Earth and our homes keeping us complacent with mediocrity? Do we require outside knowledge to beat our own big bads? Do we make myths to comfort us?

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