Through his 17-step mono-mythic structure [1], Joseph Campbell sets out what is now considered the archetypal hero’s journey, from the initial call to adventure, through a variety of trials, to their triumphant return home. I have a number of issues with the hero’s journey, but this article is not directly a critique of Cambell’s structure. Rather, I want to talk about a specific way in which fiction, specifically fantasy and science-fiction, often diverges from our lived experience. Heroic fictional characters are often struggling with destiny, whereas regular human beings struggle with purpose.
The second step of the Hero’s Journey, right after the call to adventure, is ‘refusal of the call’. Think Bilbo Baggins assuring Gandalf that he is quite content living in Bag End, or Spiderman despondently ignoring the mugger that would later kill his uncle. Many soon-to-be heroes resist their call to adventure: they are comfortable in their lives, or they have responsibilities, or they do not consider themselves worthy of the call. The heroic struggle is in accepting one’s destiny, in doing what they are supposed to do. From a writer’s perspective, this helps highlight that the hero is taking the challenges they are faced with seriously.
Real human beings, on the other hand, struggle with purpose. We certainly struggle in working towards our goals, but even more so we are faced with the challenge of defining our goals. Many people long for a call to adventure: consider how many children hoped to receive their invitation to Hogwarts, or even just the popularity of the ‘travel to another world’ genre.
Heroes on the heroic journey may struggle with living up to their purpose, but they are not usually in doubt that they have one. Their goals and objectives are externally defined. If they exercise any autonomy in the story, it is usually in determining method rather than purpose. Even more so than their awesome magic powers or adventures, I think what we envy in literary heroes is that they know their place and purpose.
There is a great deal of fantasy and sci-fi that does not align with what I have described above, of course. One book that I’ll give a shout-out to is ‘The Painted Man’, by Peter Brett. Though the book is in many ways a traditional hero’s journey, it distinguishes itself in that the protagonist’s journey is entirely self-chosen. He is not chosen by anyone, nor was he born with any special powers. He instead sees a problem in the world and sets out to solve it.
It is one of my literary ambitions to capture struggling with purpose in my stories. My characters will not get a letter from Hogwarts.
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