When using the archetypal pattern of the hero’s journey to structure a story, writers can carefully look through the elements and design their characters and story around those elements. This article is the 3rd in a series that explains how to use the hero’s journey pattern in writing a story. Each article explains one or more elements of the journey, starting with the first two, Call to Adventure and the Refusal of that call.
Since a story doesn’t exist without conflict, the first task of writing a story must involve the character and the conflict, which is what the first two elements of the journey are all about.
How the Hero Hears the Call
Before a character can begin the adventure in the story, he or she first hears a call. This call can come in a number of ways:
1. An adventure can begin through a blunder or chance, and the person is drawn into an adventure for reasons that are unclear at the time. This is the pattern used in many novels, such as Fahrenheit 451, when the protagonist Guy Montag begins his journey simply because of a chance encounter with a young girl.
2. The hero may go forth of his or her own volition to accomplish the adventure. This is the pattern typical of the male adventure stories and movies, Odysseus to Luke Skywalker to Indiana Jones. Max, in Where the Wild Things Are, also follows this pattern.
3. The adventure may begin because the hero is carried or sent away by someone or something else. This is the pattern in the Greek myth of Psyche and Eros. Psyche is taken to the mountaintop, where her journey begins, because the oracle has told her parents to bring here there for sacrifice.
4. The hero could also be called to adventure by some mere passing thing or distraction that leads the hero away from where he or she was going. In the famous Arthurian story of the Questing Beast, Pellinore is led away on his life’s adventure by the beast’s appearance across his path.
The Need for the Call to Adventure
Whatever the specific call is for the character, it announces a change in that person’s life. Old patterns and things that are familiar are now cast aside, forgotten, outgrown, or found to be of little use anymore.
For example, in Where the Wild Things Are , Max creates a forest in his room in his imagination because he wants to cast aside the homey image of his bedroom to which he has just been relegated. Montag gains new friends and discards the old ones as he becomes more self-aware. Psyche has to deal with the abandonment by her parents and being thrust into a totally new world that she must make sense of in order to survive and be happy.
Refusal of the Call
Sometimes, the call to adventure is immediately followed by a refusal to heed the call. Odysseus refuses to go fight in the Trojan War at first because Penelope has just had his son. Psyche doubts the decision her parents have made.
More often than not, the hero does not have a definitive object in mind when starting out on the quest. Max wants to feel some control over his own life, though of course, being a child, that’s not what is overtly expressed. Montag has only a vague idea of freedom that he is trying to achieve.
Writers should take a look at the four patterns of the Call mentioned above and ask, “Which one feels right for my character?” And then, in what way should the hero initially refuse the call?
For the two preceding articles in this series, see:
Journey in Words: The Hero Pattern as Writing Guide
Journey in Words: The Writing Year with the Hero’s Journey
For the next article, see:
Journey in Words: Supernatural Aid and Crossing the 1st Threshold
References:
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New World Library, 2008.
Sendak, Maurice. Where the Wild Things Are. HarperCollins, 1963.
Shaun Perkins - Shaun Perkins, teacher, poet, storyteller, porch-sitter, beekeeper, gardener, writer, has been a high school and university teacher for ...
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