The hero's journey 17-step model

    The hero's journey is a type of structure that many stories tend to follow. A 17-step model describing various parts of the hero's journey structure, created by Joseph Campbell, is used to identify key parts of a story that would make the story a heros journey narrative. It is split into 3 parts: the separation, the initiation, and the return. In this post, I will critically reflect on the model by explaining the steps and saying what I think of them. 

     The seperation is the stage in which the main character is in the "normal world" and is going to enter the "other world". It includes 4 of the 17 steps: Call to Adventure, Refusal of the Call, Supernatural Aid, and Crossing the First Threshold. The Call to Adventure is a motivation for the character to start the adventure by entering the other world. The Refusal of the Call is self-explanitory. Supernatural Aid and Crossing the First Threshold represent some supernatural force allowing the main character to enter the other world. For the most part, I don't have any complaints about this stage. I think the steps represent the beginning of The Hero's Journey well, as the names aren't too specific to not be able to apply to many examples of things they're describing (Although Supernatural Aid doesn't have to be supernatural, I think there is usually some element of supernaturalness since the other world typically isn't portrayed as somewhere that normal people can go normally). The Refusal of the Call step is the only one I feel like isn't necessary for a hero's journey story, since it doesn't really affect the story in a way that allows the other steps to happen. 

     The Initiation is the stage in which the main character is in the other world, and this is where the main part of the story often takes place. It includes 8 steps: Belly of the Whale, Road of Trials, Meeting with the Goddess, Temptation, Atonement with the Father, Apostasis, The Ultimate Boon, and Refusal of the Return. It would take very long to describe all the steps, but in general, the first two steps represent the path the hero goes to enter the climactic event, steps 3 and 4 represent meeting an all powerful being and being tempted to stray away from the path, steps 5, 6, and 7 represent the climax, and the last step is self-explanatory (the refusal of the return) I think that this part has many steps that feel too specific, like meeting with a goddess and atonement with the father. meeting with a goddess doesn't have to be with a goddess, atonement with the father doesn't have to be with a father, and belly of the whale doesn't have to be about being inside the belly of the whale. I think belly of the whale can be renamed as The final seperation, meeting with a goddess can be renamed as supernatural love, and atonement with the father can be renamed as reconcilliation. Temptation also doesn't seem like it is required for a story to be a hero's journey narrative, as it seems more like an extra detail of the story rather than a part of the structure of the story that connects to the other parts. 

     The Return is a stage in which the main character returns to the normal world after being in the other world, usually after having been changed in some way after being in the other world. It includes 5 steps: Magic Flight, Rescue from Without, Crossing the Return Threshold, Master of Two Worlds, and Freedom to live. Magic Flight represents escaping to the return threshold, Rescue from without is another figure bringing the main character back to normal life, and Crossing the return threshold is actually entering the normal world. I think these three steps are too similar to eachother, and can be grouped together under the name of Crossing the Return Threshold. This would also allow the crossing the return threshold step to actually be in between the initiation and return phase. Master of Two Worlds represents the character having a balance between two worlds, and Freedom to Live represents the character being able to live happily. I don't have a problem with either of these, even though Master of Two worlds seems specific, I don't think it actually is. Overall, I think the return stage simly has too many steps, as the first 3 are very similar. 

     In conclusion, the 17-step model for the heros journey is mostly good, but there were a few things that I thought were strange, usually due to steps being too specific to represent parts of a broad narrative style.