Joseph Campbell was an American scholar. He was born on March 24, 1904. One of Campbell’s most memorable works was The Hero with a Thousand Faces, where he talks about the steps heroic characters go through on their adventures. In his book Campbell describes the pattern or cycle found in literature raging from dramas to myths. The Hero’s Journey consists of twelve stages, they are the following:
The Ordinary World
The Call to Adventure
Refusal of the Call
Meeting with Mentor
Crossing the Threshold
Test, Allies, and Enemies
Approach
The Ordeal
The Reward
The Road Back
The Resurrection
Return with the Elixir
I will demonstrate Campbell’s stages by using Neil Gaiman's novel Coraline. The character I will be using is Coraline. Coraline is considered to be a heroic character in the novel.
The novel is about a young girl named Coraline. Coraline moves in to her new house, which introduces us to the first stage of Campbell's idea of the Hero’s Journey. Campbell describes The Ordinary World as a stage where the heroic character is first introduced. Campbell also described this to be a stage where the heroic character faces some sort of dilemma that is introduced in the very beginning of the story. The Ordinary World in this novel is Coraline living her normal life and moving into a new house. In the novel Coraline is described as a young girl who likes to travel, but with busy parents. Their busy personal lives prevents them to not spend time with Coraline. This isolation makes Coraline explore her new house. While exploring the house, Caroline meets new people such as Miss Spink, Miss Forcible and a crazy old man. She soon encounters a drawing room that is locked and she is warned by her mom to not enter.But, Coraline’s traveler persona gets the best of her and she goes on an adventure by unlocking the drawing room.
The Call to Adventure is described as the second stage of the Hero’s Journey. In his work, Campbell describes this stage as the stage where a solution is stirred up within the character. This is the stage is also described as a period where the hero must face change, sending the main character on a adventure. The Call to Adventure in this novel is Coraline's curiosity about the drawing room’s lock. Her curiosity gets the best of her as she unlocks it, causing her to enter the other world.
Refusal of the Call is the third stage in the Hero’s Journey. This is the stage were the heroic character fears about the unknown and wants to turn away from it but only for a short time. After this internal struggle the character is warned by another character that danger is still ahead of them. This stage in the novel can be described when Coraline arrives in the other world. While there she discovers everything about this place is opposite from the her own world. Her other mother asks Coraline to stay in the other world forever. This leads Coraline to touch her pocket where the stone was locked. In the earlier chapters, Miss Spink and Miss Forcable give the stone to Coraline as a good luck charm. In this stage the stone could represent as the symbol that danger is up head for Coraline in the other world. The other mother’s offering only cause Coraline to feel creeped out and therefore she returns to the real world.
Meeting with Mentor is the fourth stage of the Hero’s Journey. In this stage the heroic character meets up with an informative character that gives them valuable advice about the hero’s adventure. In this stage Coraline meets up with the cat, who warns her about the other world and informs her about her other mother.
Campbell describes Crossing the Threshold as a stage where the character decides to leave the ordinary world to enter to the special world. Campbell explains that this is the stage where the character acknowledges that there is in an unfair advantage by going to the special world. In the novel, this can be described when Coraline discovers that her parents are missing. Coraline then figures out that the other mother must have kidnapped them to the other world. Therefore, Coraline has to go rescue them and must return to the other world.
Test, Allies, and Enemies is a stage where the character on the journey is tested through challenges. In the novel, Coraline is tested by the other mother by telling her that she didn’t capture her parents, this is shown in pg 62 “Silly, silly, Coraline, they are fine wherever they are.” She also tests Coraline by showing her a mirror where her parents are shown living a happier life without her. The other mother test doesn’t succeed as Coaline knows that it was nothing but an illusion created by her. Coraline knows that this was a trick set up by the other mother for her to stay in the other world. In this stage Coraline acknowledges the cat to be an ally of hers.
The Approach is next stage of the Hero’s Journey. This is the stage were the character prepares to challenge the special world. This can be seen in the novel when the black cat informs Coraline about challenging the other mother. In page 65, the cat tells her to“Challenge her. There’s no guarantee she’ll play fair but her kind of thing loves games and challenges.”
The Ordeal is the stage where the character faces death in the special world. In the novel, Coraline almost experiences death. This occurs when the other mother sends the other father to capture her during Coraline's challenge with her.
The Reward is the stage where the character receives an award after almost facing death. This is the stage were Coraline gets the key from the other witch, which allow her to return to the real world.
The Road Back is another stage of the Hero’s Journey. This stage is about the hero leaving the special world. This is shown when Coraline tricks the witch by getting the keys from the other mother, which causes her to return to the normal world with her parents, the three ghosts, and the cat.
The Resurrection is the eleventh stage of the Hero’s Quest. This is where the character is tested one more time. In the novel, Coraline is tricked by the other mother as she breaks her promise and returns to the real world. The other mother comes back to the real world to get the key from Coraline.
Return with the Elixir is the final stage of the Hero’s Journey where the character returns to their normal live and is ready to face the challenge they once feared. In novel this is shown by Coraline defeating the witch and accepting who she is as a person. Coraline is therfore no longer afraid of going to school like she was during the beginning.
In conclusion, I believe that Campbell’s idea of the Hero’s Quest does help us as the reader to better understand the archetypal. Therefore, the reader understands more about the characters, than just reading the book and analyzing them through characterization. You can also see the growth of the character by using the twelve stages found in the Hero’s Journey.
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