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As I Lay... Without a Hero's Journey?

  William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying , while having fragments of a Hero’s Journey I do not believe it follows this model coherently enough to tie it to that narrative. The key feature of the book is that the story constantly switches between characters and their perspectives, all with different views of reality and all with pieces of a Hero’s Journey. While this structure for a story is very compelling, I think this quality is also its weakest point because the story progresses so slowly since it goes through all these different characters. Thus, saying that the story follows the Hero’s Journey because it shows subtle characteristics is a huge reach. Hero’s Journey is modeled after one main character or hero figure, that's not to say it can’t be about multiple people, however, I’d like to argue that As I Lay Dying is too separated between characters to characterize them as one person going on the journey. It's very clear in the “Separation” phase of Joseph Campbell's Hero’s ...
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Detroit Become Human: A Robot's Heroine's Journey

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In a world set in 2038, Detroit Become Human is a story about a society that has adapted to intelligent service robots, taking on a vast spectrum of roles, spanning from construction workers to serving as a replacement for children. The game starts at a police investigation, where you play as an intelligent robot (named “Connor”) who is tasked with negotiating with a rogue android who has broken through their program and has taken a human child hostage. After this initial interaction, you, the robot, are assigned to a human detective partner to solve why there is a sudden uprise in “deviant” robots. The game's premise is entirely a choose-your-own-adventure, but unless you deliberately try to change the story, it follows a similar path. Through different experiences, the robot you play as, Connor, becomes increasingly unstable until he becomes a rogue android.  Detroit Become Human is very representative of Victoria Schdmidt’s Heroine’s Journey of finding self-identity in all three...
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Barbie's Heroine's Journey

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     When I was first introduced to Victoria Schmidt’s The Heroine’s Journey one particular film came to mind that perfectly fits this set of parameters, “Barbie” directed by Greta Gerwig. This movie follows one of the versions of Barbie as she encounters strange changes to herself, after consulting with “Weird Barbie” she is told she must leave her home, “Barbieland” to embark on a journey to try and fix the strange human things that are happening to her. The film “Barbie” aligns with The Heroine’s Journey, especially through the film’s adaptation of Victoria Schmidt’s “Awakening and Preparing for the Journey” and “Death - All is Lost” sections of her model.      “Awakening and Preparing for the Journey” as described by Victoria Schmidt states, “Hopelessness is tempting but she decides to do something about it.” which aligns with parts towards the beginning of the Barbie movie. This section is where Barbie is meeting with Weird Barbie about the unexplainab...
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Godzilla -0.1 Unconventional Hero's Journey

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Godzilla Minus One (ゴジラ-1.0) is a Japanese action movie that follows the template of the hero’s journey through its distinct aspects of the movie that align with the “Meeting with the Goddess” and “Temptation” phases of the journey. The movie takes place just after World War II, and the story follows a Kamikaze pilot, Koichi, who abandoned the war due to a “faulty” airplane. He lands on a repair base on an island where a large monstrous creature attacks, leaving Koichi as the only survivor. Upon returning home Koichi finds his family to have died in the war and his close neighbor shaming him for not carrying out his honor as a Kamikaze pilot. Throughout the movie this monstrous creature, Godzilla, haunts Koichi both in his dreams and in real life, destroying the city as it is recovering from war. In the end, Koichi redeems his honor and puts the nightmare to rest by getting together a squadron and dealing the finishing move on Godzilla. The movie itself can be a bit all over the place ...
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