A Practical Guide

Summary
A practical guide introduces the idea of the "hero" and the many steps of his/her "journey". Vogler suggests that the hero's journey is something universally felt in our unconsciousness and that is why we can empathize and sympathize for any given character. He then goes on to describe the process of the journey where the hero if first introduced into the ordinary world to establish a comparison. Then the hero has a call to adventure but they at first refuse until a guiding figure intervenes and encourages the hero to go. The hero must then cross the threshold into their new world where he/she crosses paths with enemies or is tested in some way to develop character. Next, the hero must plan and approach the in most cave which is some type of dangerous place before he/she is faced with a brush of death or a critical point in the journey. After that the hero recieves some type of reward and then starts to journey back where the hero is again confronted with a "dark force". The hero then decides to return back to the ordinary world where he/she will encounter one last life or death moment until the hero can return home. The hero must return with some type of knowledge or treasure taken from the journey or else it will become meaningless. These steps aren't definite and can be rearranged/changed, which is why we have so many new stories.

Reaction
I really enjoyed the reading and particularly Vogler's style of writing. I think that it was clever to construct this book around popular movies because it is so relatable. Everything that he explained was supported by something in a movie. The only problem with this is that I havent seen Star Wars, An Officer and a Gentlemen, or Beverly Hills Cop which he heavily relied on in this section; so sometimes I couldn't really relate to what he was saying, but when I had seen the movie things became crystal clear. I agree with Vogler's ideology and the hero's journey. I think its a very good explanation for the set-up and execution of the story of any hero. As I was reading I felt that everything started to make sense as to why I react a certain way when it appears that the hero might die and I truly agree with the statement, "What happens to the hero happens to us."

Reflection
I took intro to human development at Eckerd and have read about Carl Jung and his theory about archetypes and a universal unconsciousness before. I thought it was interesting that Vogler chose to back up his theory with Jung's ideas and this leads to the fact that so many different disciplines are interrelated. I think that Vogler was pretty dead on with the statement that, "They are psychologically valid and emotionally realistic even when they portray fantatastic, impossible, or unreal events." I think that statement can be linked to why people can relate to Superman or Cinderella and it is also why people are drawn to such fantasy characters when they think of a hero. This is personally true for me and seems to be the case after the discussion that we had in class on Friday.

Questions:
1.Why do you think the repeating characters such as the young hero or the wise old man have such an appeal generation after generation?
2. Why have these characters become engrained in our dreams and fantasies in the first place and not something else?
3. What step would you add or delete to the hero's journey and why?