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Understanding the Hero’s Journey archetype
aCTIvITy 1.5
Learning Targets
• Analyze how a film uses the Hero’s Journey to structure its plot.
• Apply the Hero’s Journey archetype to a new text.
The Archetype of the Hero’s Journey
In literature, an archetype is a character, symbol, story pattern, or other element that is common to human experience across cultures. It refers to a common plot pattern or to a character type such as the Innocent, the Mother Figure, or the Hero, or to images that occur in the literature of all cultures.
The archetype of the Hero’s Journey describes a plot pattern that shows the development of a hero. The information below describes the structure of a Hero’s Journey.
Joseph Campbell, an American anthropologist, writer, and lecturer, studied the myths and stories of multiple cultures and began to notice common plot patterns. In The Hero With a Thousand Faces, Campbell defines common elements of the Hero’s Journey. Campbell found that most journey myths had three parts:
• Departure: The hero leaves home to venture into the unknown on some sort of quest.
• Initiation: The hero faces a series of problems.
• Return: With the help of a friend, the hero returns home successfully.
While these elements may be referred to as the stages of the Hero’s Journey, these stages may not always be presented in the exact same order, and some stories do not contain every element of the journey.
Preview
In this activity, you will read a poem and think about how it fits into the archetype of the Hero’s Journey.
Setting a Purpose for Reading
• Read the poem sentence by sentence. Remember that the lines of poems are often only parts of a sentence. Read until you come to punctuation that notates the end of a sentence.
• Underline any phrases you do not understand.
• Circle unknown words and phrases. Try to determine the meaning of the words by using context clues, word parts, or a dictionary.
Word CoNNeCTIoNS
Etymology
Etymology is the study of
the origin of words. Many English words come from other languages, including Latin, German, and Greek. Knowing
a word’s etymology can help you determine the meaning of unfamiliar words. The Greek prefix arch- in archetype means “first,” and the root -type- means “model.” When first used in the 14th century, it meant “original pattern
from which copies are made.” Today it is used to denote
a story element common to many people or a perfect example of something.
my Notes
About the Author
Gary Soto was born in 1952 and raised in Fresno, California. Being of Mexican-American heritage, many of his works present life growing up in the barrio, a Spanish-speaking neighborhood. He has also worked extensively with groups that help improve the lives of others with Hispanic heritage. Soto’s perspective has been shared with the world through award-winning poems, novels, short stories, and film. Fresno is now home to the Gary Soto Literary Museum.
Unit 1
• The Challenge of Heroism 15
LearNING STraTeGIeS:
Metacognitive Markers, Rereading, Close Reading, Graphic Organizer, Note- taking, Collaborative Discussion
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