Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 08:02:00 -0500 From: "the rags of time..." Subject: [WRITERS] EXERCISE: The Hero's Journey (part 2) [what? talking about the craft underlying the mythos? can't we just hunker down around a fire, gaze deep into the embers, and let ourselves -- quite bemused -- a tale tell for the ages? Oh, I see, you think that tinder and a well laid fire is more likely to make good use of the sparks of inspiration... well, get on with it then:-] based on The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and Screenwriters by Christopher Vogler ISBN 0-941188-13-2 (resuming after a lapse... if you want to see part 1, take a trip on the sticky strands of the web to The Hero's Journey (part 1) page :-) Having looked quickly at the "general plot" of the hero's journey, Vogler now looks at seven archetypes -- the characters that are met along the path of the hero's journey. (P. 33) "... in describing these common character types, symbols, and relationships the Swiss psychologist Carl G. Jung employed the term archetypes, meaning ancient patterns of personality that are the shared heritage of the human race." "The concept of archetypes is an indispensable tool for understanding the purpose or function of characters in a story. If you grasp the function of the archetype which a particular character is expressing, it can help you determining if the character is pulling her full weight in the story. The archetypes are part of the universal language of storytelling, and a command of their energy is as essential to the writer as breathing." (P. 34) "Looking at the archetypes in this way, as flexible character functions rather than as rigid character types, can liberate your storytelling. It explains how a character in a story can manifest the qualities of more than one archetype. The archetypes can be thought of as masks, worn by the characters temporarily as they are needed to advance the story...." (P. 36) The most common and useful archetypes: Hero Mentor (Wise Old Man or Woman) Threshold Guardian Herald Shapeshifter Shadow Trickster There are many other archetypes, many other human qualities that are dramatized in stories. Vogler next has sections about each of the archetypes. For this exercise, we will briefly review what he says about the hero... and save the others for later. (P. 39) "A Hero is someone who is willing to sacrifice his own needs on behalf of others, like a shepherd who will sacrifice to protect and serve his flock. At the root the idea of Hero is connected with self-sacrifice." Psychological Function "In psychological terms, the archetype of the hero represents what Freud called the ego -- that part of the personality that separates from the mother; that considers itself distinct from the rest of the human race. Ultimately, a Hero is one who is able to transcend the bounds and illusions of the ego, but at first, Heroes are all ego; the I, the one, that personal identity which thinks it is separate from the rest of the group. The journey of many Heroes is the story of that separation from the family or tribe, equivalent to a child's sense of separation from the mother." "The Hero archetype represents the ego's search for identity and wholeness...." Dramatic Functions Audience Identification (P. 40) "The dramatic purpose of the hero is to give the audience a window into the story. Each person hearing a tale or watching a play or movie is invited, in the early stages of the story, to identify with the hero, to merge with him and see the world of the story through his eyes. Storytellers do this by giving their heroes a combination of qualities, a mix of universal and unique characteristics." Growth "Another story function of the hero is learning or growth. In evaluating a script sometimes it's hard to tell who is the main character, or who should be. Often the best answer is: the one who learns or grows the most in the course of the story. Heroes overcome obstacles and achieve goals, but they also gain new knowledge and wisdom. The heart of many stories is the learning that goes on between a hero and a mentor; or a hero and a lover, or even between a hero and a villain. We are all each other's teachers." Action "Another heroic function is acting or doing. The hero is usually the most active person in the script. His will and desire is what drives most stories forward. A frequent flaw in screenplays is that the hero is fairly active throughout the story, but at the most critical moment becomes passive and is rescued by the timely arrival of some outside force. At this moment above all, a hero should be fully active, in control of his fate. The hero should perform the decisive action of the story, the action that requires taking the most risk or responsibility." Sacrifice "People commonly think of heroes as strong or brave, but these qualities are secondary to sacrifice -- the true mark of a hero. Sacrifice is the hero's willingness to give up something of value, perhaps even her own life, on behalf of an ideal or a group...." Dealing with Death "At the heart of every story is a confrontation with death. If the hero doesn't face actual death, then there is the threat of death or symbolic death..." Heroism in Other Archetypes Unheroic characters can grow to be heroic; occasional heroism can overtake anyone. Character Flaws (P. 43) "Interesting flaws humanize a character. We can recognize bits of ourselves in a hero who is challenged to overcome inner doubts, errors in thinking, guilt or trauma from the past, or fear of the future. Weaknesses, imperfections, quirks, and vices immediately make a hero or any character more real and appealing..." "Flaws also give a character somewhere to go -- the so-called 'character arc' in which a character develops from condition A to condition Z through a series of steps. Flaws are a starting point of imperfection or incompleteness from which a character can grow...." Varieties of Hero [Mayo, mustard, pickles, lettuce... have it your...:-] I will let you read the book for details, but there are willing and unwilling heroes, the antihero (an outsider, rejected by society, and yet...one of us), group oriented and loner heroes, and catalyst heroes. That's probably more than enough from the book for today. I would like to suggest a rather simple exercise based on this. Take one of the submissions from the list and look for the hero. Do a little analysis: how does this hero serve for audience identification, what growth do they achieve, how about their action, do they exemplify sacrifice, and what is the death that they deal with -- and how do they deal with it? Don't forget to look for the character flaws... So this exercise is simply to analyze the use of the hero in a submission. (and yes, this may be sent to the author or the list as a CRIT: ) Another exercise, slightly more difficult, is to consider a character that you may be working on. Could they be a hero? If they were, how would you provide for audience identification? What kind of growth would they be likely to achieve? What kind of actions would they take? What sort of situation would make them sacrifice themselves -- and for what or whom? What kind of death do they need to experience? Perhaps one more exercise? Pick a number from 1 to 6... 1. "Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy." F. Scott FitzGerald (1945) 2. "The greatest obstacle to being heroic, is the doubt whether one may not be going to prove one's self a fool; the truest heroism is to resist the doubt, and the profoundest wisdom to know when it ought to be resisted, and went to be obeyed." Nathaniel Hawthorne (1852) 3. "Life, misfortunes, isolation, abandonment, poverty, are battlefields which have their heroes; obscure heroes, sometimes greater than the illustrious heroes." Victor Hugo (1862) 4. "No hero to me is the man who, by easy shedding of his blood, purchases fame: my hero is he who, without death, can win praise." Martial, Epigrams (A.D. 86) 5. "We moderns do not believe in demigods, but our smallest hero we expect to feel and act as a demigod." Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1766) 6. "A hero is a man who does what he can." Romain Rolland (1904) [Quotations taken from The International Thesaurus of Quotations by Rhoda Thomas Tripp ISBN 0-06-091382-7] Okay, you have a quotation. Now consider what light this may shed on the hero. What does this quote say about the psychological ego of the hero, the desire for identity, the search for distinctiveness and self expression? What does it say about the dramatic functions of the hero: - audience identification - growth - action - sacrifice - dealing with death (symbolic or actual) - character flaws (Having considered this quote and a hero, you may want to put them in a situation, a scene, a boiling cauldron that will test what your hero is made of and show us the results...could be a story, a poem, or something else:-) "Billy, in one of his nice new sashes, Fell in the fire and was burnt to ashes; Now, although the room grows chilly, I haven't the heart to poke poor Billy." Ruthless Rhymes [1901]. Tender-Heartedness Harry Graham tink