Book Review
By Brenna Garcia
For some, travel is a way to explore new places and become exposed to new ideas. For others, it may be necessary for survival. There are as many reasons for as there are places to travel, but no matter what prompts someone to step outside their home and into the great beyond, they will always return changed. Fundamental or minute, mental or physical, these changes become the inescapable outcomes of the journeys we undergo. It is the journey and its many forms and outcomes that Joseph Campbell’s seminal work The Hero with a Thousand Faces explores. By studying world mythologies and the hero archetype found therein, Campbell proposes that many of humanity’s most important myths share a fundamental structure. In exploring this “monomyth,” the traveler may come to the understanding of the mythological quest, and their own adventures, as a vessel for personal growth.
Though it may seem impossible to rationalize the depth and breadth of human mythology into a singular pattern, Campbell’s evidence is irrefutable. In creating the monomyth, Campbell draws from a stunning variety of sources; Greek and Sumerian myth, Eskimo tales, African tribal legend, classic fairy tales, the stories of King Arthur, Egyptian manuscripts and many more. “As the flavor of the ocean is contained in a droplet,” so is the substance of the monomyth contained in every singular story and legend around the world, and certainly in every work that Campbell discusses in his text. (pg. 18) The monomyth breaks down the hero’s quest into several steps; the call to action, a series of trials, achieving a goal or boon, and the return to the ordinary world. While Campbell acknowledges some story outliers that break from this pattern, he proves that those myths that have endured throughout the ages adhere to this basic template. Furthermore, he attempts to explain why this pattern has emerged and remained so common and successful in storytelling; that is, deep human fears and desires are the factors which have driven storytellers to seek emotional relief in the pages of their stories, and it is our personal connection with these emotions that draws us to them.
Campbell’s book is best fit for those seeking an intellectual challenge. Many of his proposed theories push the reader to question the nature of many things long considered sacred ground; religion, culture and even one’s identity as an individual. Campbell compares our minds to “Aladdin caves, where jewels but also dangerous jinn abide,” and his book goes to great lengths to explore the substance of our psyches (pg. 26). He explores Freudianism and the accounts of various dream therapy sessions in great detail, using these sources to model the way in which we perceive our humanity, and how that perception translates to our stories. The reader will discover in the monomyth and the numerous myths and legends cited the elements of their own life journey.
Ultimately, The Hero with a Thousand Faces paints a picture of the human journey as portrayed throughout centuries of storytelling. Campbell’s book allows the reader to reach a better understanding of their own journey, fragmented into the easily digestible pieces of the monomyth. For the modern traveler, the call to adventure may take the form of a study abroad opportunity or a family crisis. The trials and tribulations may come in the form of strained emotions, or the essential exoticness of the place the traveler finds themselves in. No matter the catalyst and substance of the modern traveler’s explorations, the ultimate end of the journey is a personal transformation. In a like manner, the ultimate end of Campbell’s book is to enhance the reader’s understanding of mankind’s continuing journey, and the way in which it transforms our individual lives.
Works Cited
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1968.
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