Blog Entry 10: Reflection

Over the last few weeks, I studied the Monomyth and learned how it can be applied to most stories or tales of heroes. Although the term itself was unfamiliar to me at first, its content seemed to be something that I had known before. I think it is because I have seen and heard many heroic stories that had a similar pattern of the hero’s journey. Watching Spirited Away in class and writing an essay on a film of my choice were great activities to study the Monomyth. Also, by watching Joseph Campbell’s interview, I was amazed by how he identified and organized those stages of the Monomyth which are founded in many narratives from different cultures around the world. This is something that I was not conscious of when I watched films or read books about heroes; however after studying about it, I easily acknowledged the main stages of the hero’s journey while I was watching a movie. Moreover, the Monomyth helps me to understand the lessons from the narratives of heroes because it reveals how an ordinary person becomes a hero and what makes him or her to achieve such a great task. I will keep this in mind from now on whenever I observe lives of heroes.