Lecture 3: Heroes

 
cover illustrations from Hero with a Thousand Faces
and VHS Star Wars (IV): A New Hope

one story told 1,000 ways

What's with the cover of Star Wars, and isn't that a picture of Luke Skywalker on the bottom of Joseph Campbell's book?

When George Lucas conceived the nine-episode (four down, five to go) Star Wars series, he set out to create the ultimate hero adventure. His advisor on just what made the ulitmate hero adventure--Joseph Campbell. Campbell studied myth. His Power of Myth series (available on video and in print) is much more accessible than Hero with a Thousand Faces, but the groundwork for his career was laid in this earlier book.

It attempts to make sense of myth, legend, folk tales from as many cultures as he had access to, to show that although there were different languages, customs, clothes, names, locations, plot details, there was a consistent pattern that heroes from all cultures from all times follow. Of course there are exceptions, and he acknowledges that most tales really only have small parts of his "monomyth" structure (refer to The Keys from Hero with a Thousand Faces). Still, he successfully traced the pattern across continents and generations.

His thesis: people reason to the same basic story because it is the one relevant story, the story that corresponds to the human quest. Sometimes the goal is physical; more often it is the quest for enlightenment--what some mystics call transcendence and some psychologists call self-actualization. Whatever terms we apply to the hero quest, the pattern does follow the human journey from birth to infancy to childhood, through adulthood, into the grave (and perhaps beyond).

The quest can be broken into smaller segments: The Departure, The Initiation, The Return. There are several smaller segments in each category:

The Departure

• Call to Adventure. Odysseus being blown off course, Jack climbing up his beanstalk, and Alice falling down the rabbit hole sort of blunder into adventure. Jason drives himself to find the golden fleece to command respect and restore a kingdom. Merlin announces the grail quest to the knights of the round table at a banquet. There are many ways the hero can be called. For us it can be as simple as a friend calling up and saying, "Let's go backpacking this summer; it's something I've always wanted to try."

• Refusal. We can, of course, refuse. "I don't want to go backpacking. It'd be too hard on my wobbly knees." And that's the end of that. Someone could suggest we become ascetics to try and reach higher consciousness, but the priesthood is just not for everybody; much of the time people want to do the safe, predictable thing.

• Supernatural Aid. Sometimes we get a push. In fairy tales it's often a little old man or an old crone that goads the adventurer on. In the movie It's a Wonderful Life Clarence the angel helps George on his journey to self-awareness.

• Crossing the First Threshold. Often something is in our way. It could be the three-headed dog Cerebrus blocking the entrance of hell from Aeneas or Dante. Ogres, monsters, troll under bridges, people with riddles--there are lots of obstacles, things that can defeat the hero at the start. Our own fear of heights, for example, may make us head for the exit just before we are strapped into California Screamin'.

• Belly of the Whale. Sometimes the experience threatens to destroy the hero. Jonah is swallowed by a whale; Hercules, likewise, is swallowed by a sea monster. But the hero that advances is re-born, more powerful than before. This is the logic of many churches and temples--there are gargoyles, dragons, other guardians on the outside; crossing the threshold we are taken away from the everyday world; leaving the religious are said to be transformed, re-energized spiritually.

The Initiation

• Road of Trials. Most of what makes up a good adventure story are the obstacles, the rigors of the way. Hercules had his seven labors. In Lord of the Rings Frodo battles the plotting of Gollum, fights with Ring Wraiths, resists the power of the ring itself on an epic journey to save Middle Earth. For us it's asking for a dance, a first date, getting to know someone, working up to a relationship, and "the road goes ever ever on."

• Meeting with the Goddess. At the high point of the adventure a few things can happen. In the grail quest the grail nourishes and restores the land and the spirit (it serves as both a pagan cornucopia and a Christian symbol); like the Earth Mother it gives life.

• Woman as Temptress. Like the Dark Woman in The Natural the woman can divert the hero. By the way, if the hero is a woman, then the temptation can come from the dark, mysterious stranger (vampire). For real people, the temptation can be anything from drink to drug to just plain laziness (all neatly symbolized in the voyages of Odysseus).

• Atonement with the Father. In James Joyce's Ulysses Stephen Daedalus finds guidance and approval from his surrogate father, Leopold Bloom, after surviving the "tests" of the Dublin streets. And, of course, Simba finally reunites with the spirit of his father at the end of Disney's Lion King.

• The Ultimate Boon. The grail, fleece, cornucopia, enlightenment, the world navel, life everlasting in a "paradise of milk that never fails" (Hebrew), 432,000 heroes in Wotan's hall eating the never-diminishing flesh of a cosmic boar and drinking milk from a she-goat fed by Yggdrasil (the Norse tree of life), even Dante's beatific vision--all are prizes of successful quests. For us it may be a hard-won job at the end of a nerve-wracking career change.

The Return

• Refusal. Yes, again the hero can refuse. One of the Buddhas (enlightened ones) refused to reveal "the truth" to the masses; the message would not be understood by the uninitiated. The shamen who submerges into the kiva and has ecstatic visions may die to us in the process (transcend).

• Magic Flight. If the hero angers some powerful enemies during the quest, he/she would be pursued, as the Gorgon sisters chase Perseus after he's beheaded Medusa.

• Rescue from Without. The hero may need a nudge. Athena urges Odysseus on, Achilles is given special armor forged by Hepehestos, Dorothy is given some common sense magic by the Glenda in The Wizard of Oz.

• Crossing the Return Threshold. The greatest problem here is that the enlightened one appears to be insane. People don't understand the change. Some cultures will not allow their priests to ever touch the ground because the connection would be like some sci-fi matter / anti-matter collision.

• Master of Two Worlds. and Freedom to Live. The returning hero has overcome adversity, grown, found peace and confidence. Odysseus is now a great adventurer and master of his kingdom and home. An individual overcoming a psychological fear now lives a more confident, freer life, and Taliesen sings of the enlightened poet who not only lives in the world but who perceives the world with greater understanding.

So what about Star Wars?

If you've not seen the series (especially the first-released trilogy--episodes IV, V, VI), rent them and watch them.

The series is filled with heroes. Luke Skywalker is the classic hero, but there are also Han Solo and Chewbacca (rogue heroes like Robin Hood), R2-D2 and C3-PO (picaresque or comic heroes), Princess Leia (the warrior goddess as hero), Obi-Wan Kenobe (the mystical hero), and others.

At the center of the trilogy, though, is Luke Skywalker (does that name sound symbolic or what?) who leaves his backwater planet, is tutored in the ways of the Jedi knight, experiences The Force (at which point Obi-Wan Kenobe, his teacher, says, "You have taken your first step into a wider world"). He fights monsters and men and the temptation of the dark side of power, and he eventually is reunited with (and helps spiritually heal) his father. He starts out working on a small water farm; he ends up saving a galaxy.

Copyright © John Corbally