The Hero's Journey Demonstrated By Leigh Anne Touhy

A Campbellian Hero is a simple archetype discovered by Joseph Campbell has become widely popular with the help of Christopher Vogler. The Hero must go through a series of challenges, and meet a wide array of archetypes along the way. The Blind Side, directed by James Lee Hancock, shows that Leigh Anne Touhy goes through obstacles, and meets people along the way that makes her the ideal Hero. Leigh Anne Touhy is a Campbellian Hero due to the obstacles she faces, and the archetypes she comes in contact with.

Leigh Anne leaves her Ordinary World by Crossing the Threshold into the Special World, where she must overcome a series of challenges. Leigh Anne’s journey begins when she helps out a juvenile in need. As a wife and a mom of two Mrs. Touhy seems to live a normal life in her Memphis, Tennessee home. Ole Miss graduate Leigh Anne Touhy and husband Sean Touhy run a fast- paced and hardworking household in their quaint Tennessee home. A Campbellian Hero must have an Ordinary World that she is able to leave in order to get to the Special World. Heroes do not always look the same, or even appear as a Hero, “Heroes wear many faces because of their responses to the numerous needs of individuals” (Brown). Young Michael Oher is trying to find a place where he fits in and is accepted, when the Touhy family welcomes him with open arms. She soon realizes that Michael in is need of help and she says herself, “I just think Michael needed somebody, and it was so evident that there was nobody in his life. And it just broke my heart” (Touhy). Leigh Anne reacts to her call to adventure briskly and almost without second thought. Leigh Anne Touhy is the matriarch of the Touhy family, and she is the one that runs things. She does not have a mentor, no...

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... of characters she meets. She not only demonstrates being a strong willed woman, and the matriarch of the Touhy family, but also the ideal hero. She makes allies’ through-out her journey, but also makes enemies. Leigh Anne Touhy is the optimal hero.

Works Cited

Brown, Ray B. and Marshall W. Fishwick. "Hero with 2,000 Faces." The Hero in Transition

(1983): 91-106.

Fitch, John. Archetypes on Screen: Odysseus, St. Paul, Christ and the American Cinematic Hero and Anti Hero. Vol. 9. No. 1. Apr 2005.

Holmes, Thomas. "The Hero's Journey: An Inquiry Research Model." Teacher Liberian. 5th ed.

Vol. 34. Jun 2007. p19-22, p4. Print.

The Blind Side. Dir. John Lee Hancock. Perf. Sandra Bullock. Warner Brothers. 2009. DVD.

Tuohy, Leigh Anne., Sean Tuohy, and Sally Jenkins. In a Heartbeat: Sharing the Power of

Cheerful Giving. Detroit: Gale, Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.