Joseph Campbell's 'The Hero's Journey' Materials

by Ziad Shihab/ March 1st, 2021

Science Fiction Writers Workshop:

Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey

This page contains a bunch of material to help you understand traditional plotting using mythologist Joseph Campbell's notion of "the hero's journey" or "the monomyth" from his book, "The Hero with a Thousand Faces." Do not think of this as a formula you must follow; in fact, this has kind of been done to death, as many critics suggest. It's also more useful for longer works than short stories. However, it's still perhaps the most-useful tool for helping you get past that point when you run into plot problems, or you feel you're forcing your characters to do something unnatural, or can't figure out why your story just feels flat. Enjoy, and here's hoping your protagonist drags your reader along on her journey!

First you'll see a few diagrams that show the journey visually, which I find really helps, and then you'll find a wonderful chart on the bottom of this page that analyzes how Star Wars and The Matrix used Campbell's monomyth.

Here's a simplified diagram:

Next up, a detailed diagram by Lisa A. Paltz Spindler:

Now one with great detail:

Finally, I love this gameboard-style depiction:

Next up, a nice analysis of two popular SF works and how they use Campbell's ideas, by the "Star Wars Origins" people.

Campbell	Star Wars	The Matrix
I: Departure
The call to adventure	Princess Leia's message	"Follow the white rabbit"
Refusal of the call	Must help with the harvest	Neo won't climb out window
Supernatural aid	Obi-wan rescues Luke from sandpeople	Trinity extracts the "bug" from Neo
Crossing the first threshold	Escaping Tatooine	Neo is taken out of the Matrix for the first time
The belly of the whale	Trash compactor	Torture room
II: Initiation
The road of trials	Lightsaber practice	Sparring with Morpheus
The meeting with the goddess	Princess Leia (wears white, in earlier scripts was a "sister" of a mystic order)	The Oracle
Temptation away from the true path	Luke is tempted by the Dark Side	Cypher (the failed messiah) is tempted by the world of comfortable illusions
Atonement with the Father	Darth and Luke reconcile	Neo rescues and comes to agree (that he's The One) with his father-figure, Morpheus
Apotheosis (becoming god-like)	Luke becomes a Jedi	Neo becomes The One
The ultimate boon	Death Star destroyed	Humanity's salvation now within reach
III: Return
Refusal of the return	"Luke, come on!" Luke wants to stay to avenge Obi-Wan	Neo fights agent instead of running
The magic flight	Millennium Falcon	"Jacking in"
Rescue from without	Han saves Luke from Darth	Trinity saves Neo from agents
Crossing the return threshold	Millennium Falcon destroys pursuing TIE fighters	Neo fights Agent Smith
Master of the two worlds	Victory ceremony	Neo's declares victory over machines in final phone call
Freedom to live	Rebellion is victorious over Empire	Humans are victorious over machines
Common Mythic Elements
Two Worlds (mundane and special)	Planetside vs. The Death Star	Reality vs. The Matrix
The Mentor	Obi-Wan Kenobi	Morpheus
The Oracle	Yoda	The Oracle
The Prophecy	Luke will overthrow the Emperor	Morpheus will find (and Trinity will fall for) "The One"
Failed Hero	Biggs	In an early version of the script, Morpheus once believed that Cypher was "The One"
Wearing Enemy's Skin	Luke and Han wear stormtrooper outfits	Neo jumps into agent's skin
Shapeshifter (the Hero isn't sure if he can trust this character)	Han Solo	Cypher
Animal familiar	R2-D2, Chewbacca	N/A
Chasing a lone animal into the enchanted wood (the animal usually gets away)	Luke follows R2 into the Jundland Wastes; The Millennium Falcon follows a lone TIE fighter into range of the Death Star	Neo "follows the white rabbit" to the nightclub where he meets Trinity

And there it is, a pretty good introduction to Campbell's Hero's Journey; now start using this to analyze your own work. I hope you find this useful!

Back to Workshop resources page.

updated 6/30/2012

Joseph Campbell's 'The Hero's Journey' Materials

Science Fiction Writers Workshop:

Campbell

Star Wars

The Matrix

I: Departure

II: Initiation

III: Return

Common Mythic Elements