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The Monomyth: The Hero's Journey

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The Monomyth According to the ORIAS formulation of Joseph Campbell's Monomyth, there are eleven steps within the Hero's Journey, which can be fit into three overarching groups: Separation, Initiation, and Return. First, the Separation of the hero consists of the Birth of the hero, the Call to Adventure, receiving aid from one or more Helpers who often present the hero with an amulet or talisman, and the Crossing of the Threshold. Then the Initiation is composed of a series of Tests which the hero must undergo, aid from yet more Helpers, and the Climax or Final Battle. Finally, the Return consists of the Flight, where preparations for leaving the world of adventure are made, the Return to the everyday world, the bringing back of the Elixir, some kind of knowledge, skill, or talisman gained during the journey through the world of adventure, which defines the hero's new role in society and aids the hero's pursuits once back home, and the reintegration of the hero into the land of their Home. In the case of Inkheart, Meggie, the lead character and primary narrator of the story, fulfills nine of the steps of the Monomyth. The novel begins with the …show more content…
The persona is a mask or series of masks worn by a person in order to be seen by others in a certain way. The anima and animus are the feminine and masculine counterparts to male and female characters, respectively, and represent the superego, or the internal representations of the expectations of society which moderate the whims of the id. The shadow represents the id, the animal part of human behavior, as well as the Other, the Not-I against which the conscious self defines itself. The self is formed from the integration of all of these components into a conscious whole, and represents the unification and ordering of the unconscious

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