Monomyth or Hero’s Journey
Introduction
A monomyth or a hero’s journey is a typical story which basically involves a hero who goes on an adventure, and ends up coming back victorious. In a bid to understand the meaning of a monomyth, this paper will explain the meaning of monomyth in depth, before analysing Lauren’s story of the parable of the sower, thus being able to understand if it perfectly fits in this category.
According to John Campbell, a hero’s journey is a specific arrangement of narrative, which either appears in a myth, religious, storytelling, and psychological development. It consequently describes the natural adventure of the hero, thus distinguishing him or her from the rest of the people in the story (Craig, n.p). The hero becomes superior from the rest, thus being able to achieve great endeavours on behalf of the whole group or the community. It consequently follows 12 stages, which are responsible for explaining the course of events in the story. However, this paper will only dwell on the first six steps of a hero’s journey (Joshy n.p).
- The normal world. In this world, the hero feels uneasy, and is basically introduced compassionately, for the audience to identify with the dilemma in the situation. The hero is consequently shown against an environment which makes his or her life unbearable.
- Adventure call. Somethings change, thus preparing the hero for new or hard situations to come.
- Refusal of the call. Due to the feeling of fear, the hero may want to turn away from the adventure, but a different character may explain the significant of the adventure (Joshy n.p).
- Meeting the mentor. The hero either meets the mentor, or reads about the mentor in a story, thus enabling him or her to be able to gain an understanding of how to deal with the situation.
- Crossing the inception. The hero then changes his or her way of life, in order to do things according to the dictates of the mentor.
- Tests, friends and enemies. The hero passes through a lot of persecution, which is significant for testing him or her, a factor which makes the hero to understand who he or she is supposed to stand with (Craig, n.p).
The parable of the sower is indeed a hero’s journey, and this is evident through the way the story progresses. In Lauren’s story, Lauren is the hero, and everything which she does tends to affect the wellbeing of the community. Raised up in California Robledo and as a daughter of a reverend, she does not believe on her father’s religious God (Butler, 21). This consequently explains why she believes things should be done differently, since she believes her father does not want people to open their eyes and see the impending danger. The constant belief of hope does not seem to be what she believes, something which makes it hard for her to follow the dictates of her father’s religion and God (Gale, 36).
The feeling of change, and not believing in the teachings of her dad, makes Lauren who is also the hero to fall under the normal world. In the normal world, Lauren feels uneasy, due to the way things are handled by both the community and the people in general (Butler, 24). This is a factor which makes her to opt for a different life, in what she believes is being fruitful and doing things differently in order to achieve more in a world where people believe that things will change with time. The feeling of uncertainty makes her to long for change, since she totally disagrees with what her dad says, because she believes that God is a God of change, and people should constantly change, in order to live a life which God wants them to.
Adventure call comes in after his father disappears from the community, a factor which makes Lauren to look for ways of locating his father (Butler, 30). This situation consequently characterizes adventure call, in the sense that something which requires the attention of Lauren comes in, making her to look for ways through which she can be able to locate her father. In addition, it is not easy for Lauren to live a life whereby she does not understand the whereabouts of her father. This situation prepares her for the adventure which she is supposed to undertake after her hometown is destroyed. At this point, she is forced to form a community, in order to continue with her life without any problems at all. This leads to hooking up with Bankole who was an old man, and they ended up becoming lovers. The hard situation in this sense is whether to keep on looking for her father, or to focus on the community. She later realizes that the community is much more important, since it is responsible for her survival (Gale, 39).
In chapter 2, despite not believing in her dad’s God and teachings, Lauren goes ahead to and gets baptised. In this chapter, she does not offer any form of resistance to the religion, due to the fear which she has concerning what she is supposed to do (Butler, 35). She does not therefore show any signs of wanting to move out of the town, because of the fear within her. This chapter consequently symbolizes the refusal of the call, since it reaches a point where it is clearly evident that Lauren does not want to undertake the adventure. It seems she has accepted her life the way it is, and she is not in any way going to do undertake the adventure, due to the fear which she has, a factor which makes it hard for her to be able to make a move at this point in the story (Gale, 41).
In chapter 11, she sets her mind to do what she actually wants to do, and this is to undertake the adventure through heading north. The destruction of Robledo acts as a wakeup call, making her to move north, in such of a good life and change. Bankole acts as Lauren’s mentor, since she decides to instead stay with him, rather than looking for his father (Butler, 42). Bankole makes Lauren to understand how to deal with the situation, through making her to handle the hard situation of forgetting about her long-lost dad, in order to focus on the community which she believed was more important for survival, after meeting with Bankole, who turned out to be her lover (Gale, 41). Similarly, Bankole seems to advise her, due to the age difference, a factor which made Lauren to fall for the person, bearing in mind that the person was older than she actually was. In addition, she seems to have made the best decision, which was actually staying with the community, and not looking for her dad.
Lauren crosses the inception immediately after she decides to change her way of life, in order live peacefully with other people (Butler, 50). While on her journey to the north, Lauren is joined by other people, she mistreats strangers, but later, due to her condition of hyper empathy, she decides to change the way she treats them, hence accommodating strangers into her group, as they move north to seek refuge. In the same way, Lauren tests friends and enemies, by not allowing strangers to join her while she moves north. She later on realizes that the strangers are not actually enemies, hence she later on changes her attitude towards them, thus accommodating them, hence moving together to the north to seek refuge (Gale, 67).
Conclusion
A hero’s journey is a story which explains the adventure undertaken by a hero in a given story. In this case, the parable of the sower is a typical hero’s journey, due to the way its main character Lauren is portrayed. Lauren bares the main characters and characteristics of a hero, a factor which characterizes her story as a hero’s journey. Moreover, the story follows the actual steps which are undertaken in a hero’s journey, thus enabling Lauren to finally undertake her journey to the north to seek refuge. Finally, the story consequently flows according to the structure of a monomyth, hence making Lauren’s story a typical monomyth.
Work Cited
Craig Chalquist. Why I Seldom Teach the hero’s Journey Anymore – and what I Teach Instead: Huffpost. 2015, Print. Retrieved from: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-chalquist-phd/why-i-seldom-teach-the-he_b_6739046.html
Butler, Octavia E. Parable of the Sower. , 2014. Print.
Gale, Cengage L. Study Guide for Octavia Butler's "parable of the Sower.". Detroit: Gale, Cengage Learning, n.d.. Print.
Joshy Washington. A Traveller’s Guide to the Hero’s Journey: Matador Network. 2015. Retrieved from: https://matadornetwork.com/network/travelers-guide-heros-journey/
