The Hero Myth of the Matrix Essay

The second stage in the Hero Journey is the most visible—the trials that must be

The next stage of the Hero Cycle is called Call to Adventure. This is when something disrupts the hero’s ordinary world and presents a challenge for him to undertake. This call to action throws the hero’s everyday life off balance, and initiates what will happen if the hero ignores the call. Many times, the hero must choose between two different calls.

Hero stories like The Odyssey have been around for millions of years. Joseph Campbell says, “all heroes go through basic stages.” Campbell looks at these varieties of heroes as one hero “with a thousand faces.” The heroes will go through the three stages, the departure, initiation, and the return. In The Odyssey, Odysseys starts from his departure leaving Troy to go back home, he then goes through the initiation where Odysseys’ true character emerges, and then returning home as his new self.

For example, Levinger's Relationship Stage Theory shows that there are five steps, ABCDE, to relationships as follows;

Linda Seger's hero myth from her publication "Creating the Myth" is very thorough in the steps involved in creating a hero of a story. All ten steps are very common to a typical hero story. However, there are some gaps in her theory. An example of a story that does not fit Seger's theory is the Disney version of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast. This popular cultural phenomenon has within it an atypical hero, one who pokes holes in Seger's hero myth theory. This atypical hero, simply named Beast, does not fit all ten of the steps in a typical hero story.

Millicent’s journey is figuring out whether or not she wants to be in a high school sorority. Her call of action occurs when she is nominated to participate in the process of initiation to be a part of the sorority. She refuses enrolling at first because her good friend wasn’t invited to be a part of the initiation process as well. She is persuaded by her sister’s past experience with being in that sorority which becomes the supernatural aid for her. Then, she finally decides to go through the process and abide by all of the rules that they give her which is the crossing of the first threshold. Next, she enters the belly of the whale when she completely becomes submissive and completes the first task that would be the start of many. “Tomorrow she would come to school, proudly, laughingly, without lipstick, with her brown hair straight and shoulder length and then everybody would know.” She then undergoes a long road of trials which includes not wearing makeup or doing her hair, wearing certain types of clothing, starting certain conversations, and not talking to boys. Next, she has a meeting with a goddess or in other words her “big sister” in the sorority who would end up bossing her around, but she has to learn to love and respect her. Then, she is tempted to talk to a boy that approaches her during initiation, but she knows she is being watched so she has to try her hardest to not steer off of her original journey. “I won’t say anything she thought, I’ll

Historically American film have been centered on heroes. In Ray’s “The Thematic Paradigm” he states that heroes as have two preset archetypes with certain characteristics. These two archetypes are the family orientated “official hero” and the loner “outlaw hero.” In Segar’s “Creating the Myth” she states that heroes are made by the steps or events that they go through on their way to becoming a hero. This means that to Seger the heroes do not start out as heroes, but as normal people. However, Ray and Seger suggest different ways in which Americans relate to film heroes, they both agree heroes are popular through common experience and relatability.

Phase two of the hero’s journey is “Initiation and Transformation” and this includes “The Challenges”, “The

The fourth stage is performing; this stage focuses on completing the task. Coach Boone always told the team it is about being proud of what you have accomplished, regardless of the outcome. This is where a change in the team is really being noticed. Another example in the movie of this stage is when the team creates a new pre-game ritual which helps create a close attachment to team members. This is a warm-up before

To begin, Linda Seger’s article demonstrates how the idea of a hero is universal and is defined by their journey, which is incorrect because other cultures might define a hero as something else. In her article, she tries using ten stages of how a hero is sometimes just an ordinary person. Who then takes in order

during Stage three, the process weakens and may fold in on itself, taking the client backwards and

The first phase of the hero’s journey archetype is called the “ordinary world.” according to Christopher Vogler, this is the stage in which “The hero, uneasy, uncomfortable or unaware, is introduced sympathetically so the audience can identify with the situation or dilemma.” In the beginning of the story, the author discusses how the story makes him uncomfortable:

The 1st stage is Departure. In the departure of a hero’s journey, as outlined by Joseph Campbell, a hero will question the world he or she lives in because he or she is different. Also in most journey of a hero there will be some sort of call to adventure, or a reason for leaving, which a hero will sometimes deny, and sometimes accept. The ordinary world, (there is something different about our hero in his/her world), he has massive strength. Accepting the call, (challenge accepted) Zeus sends Hercules on a mission to fulfil his god powers so he can join his

In this stage thoughtful and deliberate choice replaces the instant gratification of pleasure in the first stage. In this stage man focuses of self-reflection and chooses to create ethical values by which he will live his life. Once man has reflected to the point of realizing that ‘he is involved in something more profound, he is faced with another either/or decision to stay at this stage or take a leap of faith and live a Christian life.

The last stage is the Formal operational stage. This stage is for ages eleven and up. This is the stage when thoughts are better conserved, more logical and more thought out. More hypothetical thinking occurs in this stage.