Hero's Journey
Allison Salazar
4/6/13
English 363
Paper 2
Harry Potter: A Hero’s Journey Joseph Campbell’s monomyth of The Hero’s Journey is just a basic pattern about how a hero goes about their journey. There are three main categories which include: the departure, trials and victories of initiation, and return and reintegration into society. Each of these main categories includes seventeen subcategories that go more in depth about the journey. All of the Harry Potter movies could apply to Joseph Campbell’s monomyth of the hero’s journey. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has many aspects of a hero’s journey; however this particular Harry Potter deals with these stages in a somewhat different order. The call to adventure is one of the first steps in The Hero’s Journey and for Harry Potter this begins when the Triwizard Cup, a competition among other schools that practice witchcraft and wizardry, is being held at Hogwarts. Challengers must be 17 years of age to compete and barriers are put in place to prevent underage participants. Despite these measures Harry is named as a reluctant participant and must compete in the Triwizard Cup. Harry’s call to adventure comes to a surprise to him seeing as he did not know his name was entered. Also, Harry had a difficult year previously and so much had occurred; it would make sense for Harry to assume that this new school year would be less eventful and he could just focus on school without worrying about Voldemort returning. This call to adventure also caused controversy among Harry and his friend Ron because it was Ron’s dream to compete in the Triwizard Cup when he was of age. However, there is nothing Harry can do to change the outcome and must compete. While watching the movie, the audience sympathizes with Harry Potter because they understand Harry is uncomfortable with competing and did not enter his name to compete. This makes Harry a likeable character and more relatable because many people have had to deal with
4/6/13
English 363
Paper 2
Harry Potter: A Hero’s Journey Joseph Campbell’s monomyth of The Hero’s Journey is just a basic pattern about how a hero goes about their journey. There are three main categories which include: the departure, trials and victories of initiation, and return and reintegration into society. Each of these main categories includes seventeen subcategories that go more in depth about the journey. All of the Harry Potter movies could apply to Joseph Campbell’s monomyth of the hero’s journey. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has many aspects of a hero’s journey; however this particular Harry Potter deals with these stages in a somewhat different order. The call to adventure is one of the first steps in The Hero’s Journey and for Harry Potter this begins when the Triwizard Cup, a competition among other schools that practice witchcraft and wizardry, is being held at Hogwarts. Challengers must be 17 years of age to compete and barriers are put in place to prevent underage participants. Despite these measures Harry is named as a reluctant participant and must compete in the Triwizard Cup. Harry’s call to adventure comes to a surprise to him seeing as he did not know his name was entered. Also, Harry had a difficult year previously and so much had occurred; it would make sense for Harry to assume that this new school year would be less eventful and he could just focus on school without worrying about Voldemort returning. This call to adventure also caused controversy among Harry and his friend Ron because it was Ron’s dream to compete in the Triwizard Cup when he was of age. However, there is nothing Harry can do to change the outcome and must compete. While watching the movie, the audience sympathizes with Harry Potter because they understand Harry is uncomfortable with competing and did not enter his name to compete. This makes Harry a likeable character and more relatable because many people have had to deal with