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Introduction to the Hero's Journey

Stories are important in all cultures. People have always used stories to make their diverse experience of the world meaningful, to describe the behaviour of the physical universe and to describe human nature and society. They are the most potent means by which perceptions, values and attitudes are passed on from one generation to the next.

In Western culture, there is a story, which is told over and over again, in innumerable versions, from the earliest times. It is the story of a hero and his journey. It is our favourite story and it has been told so many times, in so many different foms, genres and cultures, that it has come to shape the way all stories are told.

The Hero's Journey is a skeletal framework that is 'fleshed' with the details and suprises of 'individual' stories. In most films or stories, the 'hero's journey' structure may not call attention to itself, nor be followed too precisely. The order of the stages given in this pathway is only one of many possible variations. Some of the stages described in the pathway can be re-sequenced, omitted, added to and/or drastically shuffled without losing any of their power.

Modern heroes may not be going into caves or labyrinths to fight mythical beasts, but they do enter a special world and an Inmost Cave by venturing into space, to the bottom of the sea, into the depths of a modern city, or into their own hearts. The patterns of myths have been used to tell the simplest comic book story or the most sophisticated modern "realist" drama.

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