For our third and final AP we were asked to blog about the hero's journey. We picked a hero we knew in real life and a hero from a fictional story, with these two heroes. I compared and contrasted them using Campbell's wheel of the hero’s journey. In this I learned a lot about parallels between fictional writing and real life. Something that people think is almost impossible. In our studies of Campbell’s wheel of the hero’s journey we were able to see how these basic steps that all heroes go through can fit in and be reworked depending on the person or hero you're referring to, whether they be fictional or realistic. The two heroes I chose were my mother Ann Marie Ryan, and Sophie Elder from The Alchemyst series by Michael Scott that I read when I was much younger.
The reason I chose my mom and Sophie Elder from the book is because they're very different yet have some good similarities. Sophie Elder’s journey has a lot of supernatural activity and her physically fighting evil brought back from the dead. My mom on the other hand is not fighting evil brought back from history, she is fighting for grants, resources and equality in all educational departments in the college she works at which can sometimes feel just as hard. I was also very inspired to dive in more into my mom's rich academic history because I had heard stories before but never fully understood. The academic world has a lot of politics that I didn't under stand until interviewing my mom.
The reason I chose my mom and Sophie Elder from the book is because they're very different yet have some good similarities. Sophie Elder’s journey has a lot of supernatural activity and her physically fighting evil brought back from the dead. My mom on the other hand is not fighting evil brought back from history, she is fighting for grants, resources and equality in all educational departments in the college she works at which can sometimes feel just as hard. I was also very inspired to dive in more into my mom's rich academic history because I had heard stories before but never fully understood. The academic world has a lot of politics that I didn't under stand until interviewing my mom.
Within the hero’s journey there are many stages. The first stage that really stuck out to me in my mom's adventure was the beginning, her call to adventure. She knew that going to college was something that she wanted to do and she went after it fiercely. In Sophie Elder’s case, my fictional hero, there was some refusal of call she did not want to be supernatural and defeat evil but is what she was asked to do. The second step is the separation phase of the hero’s journey that applies to Sophie is supernatural aid, where an alchemist known as Nicholas Lemieux helps her and guides her to meet someone who will give her her power. The second step that my mom went through in the separation process was crossing the first threshold she drove into her journey headfirst making her different then Sophie Elder. In crossing the first threshold my mom completed high school and had her first college experience with a full scholarship to Northern Illinois University. This leads to the next step that actually applies to both heroes, this step is called belly of the whale, this is a beginning step. This is when the hero is in initiation, when the hero is fully submerged in the New World that it is not comfortable. Entering the unknown world for these two heroes was a long road of trials. With little tasks popping up for them to complete helping move the hero into who they become.
The next step that applies to both heroes is meeting with the goddess. For Sophie Elder meeting with the goddess, is actually meeting a goddess who lives in a giant elder tree. The goddess living in this elder tree helps maintain nature. She is also immortal and grants Sophie her magical powers. In my mom’s case my real life hero, meeting the goddess was actually meeting a professor named Dr. Bonnie Oh. Who you will hear more about in their interview below. This next step is hard for all heroes because it is the one time they feel like really stopping their mission and giving up, temptation. In my mom's case it was tempting to just get a full time job because money was so tight being in college full-time and trying to work. For Sophie getting her magical powers was such a shock to her system she felt ill for a while and wanted to get rid of her powers and did not want to keep going to fight evil. But Sophie Elder had her supernatural aid on her side helping her stay motivated and completing her mission, for my mom this was Dr. Bonnie Oh.
Link to Interview:
https://drive.google.com/a/gcechicago.com/file/d/0BymI0tk-Y4iXTUI0N1E4ZktGRG8/view?usp=sharing
The last two steps in the hero’s journey in the return section, our freedom to live in master of two worlds. These two phases that fit my heroes the best. My mom felt that after being able to go through college and work a full-time job that she could master two different kinds of worlds even if she felt the trials and tribulations got really hard. Her education freed her mind allowing her to live and look at the world in a brand-new life. For Sophie Elder she was now a master of alchemy magic and being a normal girl with a family and a twin brother. She also felt now that she was used to being awakened and having her new powers that she was free to live a more interesting and deeply understood life.
Ryan, Ann Marie. Personal Interview. 31 May 2017.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "The Alchemyst Summary." Shmoop. Shmoop University, 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 04 June 2017.
