Vladimir Propp was a Russian folklorist and scholar. He was born in 1895 and died in 1970. While he was alive, he made a huge impact to how people view narratives. He stated that there were 31 functions that could be applied to a majority, if not all, of narrative stories. He also argued that the roles of characters are constant, never changing. Propp’s theories still fit into society today, because most of the fairy tales follows most of the 31 functions that he has laid out. From Dark Crystal, to the Labyrinth, and even to the movies like Cinderella, Propp’s theories still hold true. Propp’s theories holds accurate, because he describes two main characters, the hero and the villain. In Berger’s article, Propp, de Saussure, and the Narrative, …show more content…
He would categorize each part of the story into 31 different functions. Each function, such as abstentation, violation, mediation, and receipt of agent, is displaying a different part in the story that has to do with the hero’s journey. He says that each function has different variants of it, and it differs on how many variants depending on the function. Although the whole story may not hit all 31 of the functions, if it is a true fairytale, it will hit a majority of them. For example, for the pursuit and rescue function, in the Labyrinth, when Sarah was coming close to the castle, the Goblin King sent all his henchmen after her. Then she was rescued by Ludo, when he called all his rocks to crush the miniature goblins.(Henson, Labyrinth) Propp’s theories of heroes applies to a majority, if not all, of narrative stories, but Joseph Campbell’s theory applies just as well to this day. Paul Hiebert stated in his article, Are All Movie Heroes the Same Person?, that, “Campbell's theory of the Monomyth, which asserts that various myths, legends, and fairy tales throughout human history share a common story structure involving a hero who departs from known reality in order to confront a series of trials and tribulations before returning home as an initiated master of both realms”(Hiebert,
In movies, novels, and life, people are named as heroes. The heroes we establish and the heroes we recognize, however, may not meet the criteria for a mythic hero. A mythic hero ventures forth on his journey, and comes forth from the hero’s path to greatness. Joseph Campbell, a mythologist who studied many of the great human myths and religious tales, realized, in studying these myths and tales, that there were certain steps that every hero went through. Campbell called this “The Hero’s Journey”; it is based on Carl Jung's idea that all human beings have an archetype. After Campbell studied a lot of the great myths and realized this pattern, he published his findings in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Ever since then, authors have used “The Hero’s Journey” as an outline to tell their stories. “It is important to note that not all of these individual steps are present in every hero’s tale, nor is it important that they be in this exact order” (Vogler 20). The Hero with a Thousand Faces gives a sense of significance as it looks into the inner mind and soul. The author, Joseph Campbell, performs two extraordinary accomplishments: compelling his readers that myth and dream, those are the most effective and everlasting forces in life and a unification of mythology and psychoanalysis with a gripping narrative. One well-known example of “The Hero’s Journey” from popular culture is the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling. In the novel, Harry Potter, the main character, is the chosen one and “The Hero’s Journey” applies to his life from the moment he is attacked by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named as a baby.
Most myths have a common pattern between them. Today, this pattern is often seen in some of our most beloved motion pictures. Joseph Campbell-a respected 20th century American mythologist, lecturer, and writer- observed this and created a theory based off of the similarities he saw. He showed the world that almost every story with a hero follows the three stages in his theory he called “Monomyth” (Campbell). The monomyth, often times called “The Hero’s Journey” or “The hero with a thousand faces”, includes the departure, initiation, and return stages (Campbell). In these stages the hero leaves his normal life behind, fulfills him/herself in some activity, and returns as a hero (Campbell). These stages can be applied to a smash hit released in 2009, a science-fiction film titled Star Trek. James T. Kirk in Star Trek closely follows Campbell’s theory as he departs from his childhood home in Iowa, fights a rogue Romulan enemy, and returns to Earth as a Starfleet captain.
Joseph Campbell outlines three main themes regarding a hero’s path in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces in which they are the departure, the initiation, and the return. All three of these themes form the Monomyth, which are the steps that heroes potentially take part in ancient texts. However, popular films such as Tron directed by Steven Lisberger also have modern day heroes such as Allan who follow the Monomyth too. Tron is a story about a hacker named Flynn who lost control of his company because of intellectual property theft by Ed Dillinger. Allan and Lora collaborate with Flynn to help him regain control of his company, ENCOM. Allan is a supporting character to Flynn, but it is remarkable that Allan/Tron is still considered a hero and follows a similar path that Flynn followed regarding the Monomyth.
In “Creating the Myth,” Linda Seger outlines the essential aspects that make up the hero myth, and why movies that follow this outline are generally successful. In her analysis, she begins with the idea that every hero myth revolves around a hero who is called upon to accomplish a feat that nobody else in the story is able to do. The hero’s journey begins with an unlikely person being called upon to serve a purpose greater than themselves. Along their journey, the hero is influenced by several archetypical characters that either help the hero, or try to deter the hero from accomplishing their task. The hero’s journey ends when they have accomplished their task, and in doing so, become a greater person than what they were in the beginning. A film that found tremendous success by following this outline was “Kung Fu Panda.”
The mold of the heroic template is evident throughout various types of media. Within movies, novels, and poems the hero’s journey is present. Of course, not every piece of literature or movie follows the cycle. However, the idea of the monomyth arose from Joseph Campbell. He wrote his own book, The Hero of a Thousand Faces, within his writing he describes that heroes’ follow the same basic procedure throughout their quest(s). This is where the idea of the hero monomyth arose. In Michael Lewis’s novel, The Blind Side, he portrays “The heroic monomyth.” The Blind Side consists of the basic characters and archetypes that accurately reflect the heroic template.
In every culture, there are stories that get past down from generation to generation (Campbell 1). Tales of knights who slay dragons and princesses who kissed frogs are a part of every culture. All over the world, stories share comment characteristic. Joseph Campbell introduces a theory based on this idea called the monomyth, the idea that stories all share the same narrative pattern, in the book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Overall, this theory shows the same narrative pattern in stories throughout the world, which symbolically reveals all humans must tackle difficulties and overcome them many times throughout life (5). Specifically, Campbell’s hero’s journey is comprised of six steps, which, collectively
Human beings are fascinated by heroes. Joseph Campbell believes that throughout history heroes have followed a hero’s journey model or monomyth. This means that there are common patterns that can be found in many hero stories. Time after time, people have read about heroes leaving the ordinary world to complete the quest that will change mankind and better the hero. While many tasks and challenges may lie in the hero’s way they always return victorious. The Hero serves a dual purpose. Heroes are smart, brave and resilient. They show the world what is possible through hard work and perseverance. Heroes also reflect the fears and limitations that people are faced with. Heros inspires people to be the best versions of themselves. Chihiro the main character in Hayao Miyazaki’s film Spiri
Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings – these are all epic tellings of a hero’s story that current generations and previous generations have enjoyed; and according to Joseph Campbell, they all have something in common. Joseph Campbell is a mythological researcher who spent years studying the structures of a myriad of stories and myths. Throughout his life-long research, he discovered a common theme amongst all hero-quest stories, a structure he dubbed the “monomyth”. Joseph Campbell’s monomyth can be related to every story following a hero on his or her journey, including Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride.
This passage solidifies the theory of the Hero’s Journey that much further. Thomas Foster explains that every story is a quest, and every quest structurally consists of the same five things. There’s the quester, the destination, the reason to go, challenges on the trip there, and the real reason for the journey. He also explains there are other components to the quest that every story seems to have. There is the knight, the dangerous road, the “holy grail”, a dragon, an evil knight, and a princess. When one thinks about it, it’s a little hard to agree that every story is the same, but if each story is at it’s bare bones, they can be fairly similar. In Foster’s example story there is the knight, Kip, the dark knight, Tony, the princess, the
The monomyth, or Hero’s Journey, is an outline or pattern of events that a hero may follow in a story or movie. This so called pattern takes place in two locations: the ordinary world and the supernatural world. Joseph Campbell was the first person to notice this outline and actually research it. Osmosis Jones is just one example of a movie which follows the monomyth. This movie also serves as a great lesson of perseverance because even throughout the trials and tribulations, Jones never gives up and in the end is rewarded. As Jones goes through the stages of the monomyth, he is considered a hero and obtains perseverance.
Joseph Campbell defines a hero as “someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself ” (Moyers 1). The Hero’s Journey consists of three major parts: the separation, the initiation and the return. Throughout a character’s journey, they must complete a physical or spiritual deed. A physical deed involves performing a daunting and courageous act that preserves the well-being of another person. A spiritual deed calls for action that improves another individual’s state of mind. While fulfilling their journey, a hero must undergo a psychological change that involves experiencing a transformation from immaturity into independence and sophistication.Campbell states that these events are what ultimately guides a hero into completing
In conclusion, the extent to which a specific fairy tale meets Zipes’ definition varies dependent upon its adaptability and acceptance by society. Some fairy tales are harder to manipulate and their plot is insufficient to reflect society’s values so not all fairy tales are institutionalised. Thus, the manipulation of Little Red Riding Hood throughout its history and its adaptability to a myriad of usage passes Zipes’ definition of ‘institutionalisation’.
Vladimir Propp played an integral part in the analysis of the structure that fairy tales typically follow. Born in Russia in 1895, Propp was dedicated to studying folklore and fairy tales (“Propp, Vladimir Iakovlevich”). He studied many folklore and fairy tale stories to break them into individual sections. These individual sections defined what Propp called a “function” of the story that references a common plot device or archetypal character. In 1928, he published a book titled Morphology of the Folktale, written in Russian. It would be another 30 years until the book was finally translated into
It is this element of hope in a true fairytale that creates the support for a protagonist to overcome the opposing force that has been thrust onto them. A genuine fairytale is said to have the element of, “A innocent character [placed against] the evil character who normally loses somehow,” (Gokturk) which is seen as Cinderella is chosen by the prince over the evil step-sisters at the ball. As human beings with a developed moral system, it has been seen that the more deserving, mistreated character is favored to succeed in the story. Cinderella is seen as this “underdog” character in her quest to find love with the prince and overcome her step-sisters’ mistreatment. As Cinderella is mistreated by her new family, sympathy is built for the emerging protagonist and hope of her to conquer her situation follows. The underdog of this story grows in favorability to be picked by the prince due to the societal belief that the more deserving candidate should overcome their opposition. If there was no sense of hope thought the story of Cinderella, this story could not be categorized as a true embodiment of a
Zipes, Jack. Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.