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Campbell Goes to Hollywood
by Reg Harris
Preface: The Writer’s Journey is not Campbell’s Monomyth
During the 150 years of so that scholars have studied the Hero’s Journey, perhaps a dozen journey models have been developed. The most detailed and thorough of these models is Joseph Campbell’s monomyth. The monomyth, which contains 17 elements spread across 7 stages, is a philosophical and psychological study of a process that Campbell called the hero’s “transformation of consciousness.” It is rich in meaning and symbolism, and–until 1998–it was the acknowledged model for the Hero’s Journey.
In 1998, the monomyth was superseded by screenwriting consultant Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey (story below). The Writer’s Journey is a simplified adaptation of the monomyth designed primarily as a template for writing and editing screenplays and fiction. Because of its simplicity and Vogler’s work with Disney movies, The Writer’s Journey has become so popular that it has essentially replaced the monomyth as the de facto standard for the journey. Unfortunately, that simplicity came at a cost: the symbolism and psychological and philosophical depth of the monomyth had to be eliminated. This is not a criticism of Vogler. His model works well for its intended purpose. However, we need to remember that The Writer’s Journey is neither Campbell’s monomyth nor is it the most comprehensive or representative interpretation of the Hero’s Journey.
Evolution of the Writer’s Journey
Christopher Vogler discovered Joseph Campbell’s work while studying cinema at the University of Southern California. As a student, he wrote a paper exploring the mythological patterns that made the original Star Wars film (Star Wars IV: A New Hope) such a great success. After graduation, Vogler shared his ideas on myth and the hero’s journey while working for various film studios.
In 1985, as a story analyst for Disney, he organized his research into a seven-page memo called “A Practical Guide to Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” In the memo’s introduction, Vogler calls Campbell’s ideas “an excellent set of analytical tools” with which writers and editors can “almost always determine what’s wrong with a story that’s floundering.” For his analytical model, Vogler modified the graphic summary of the hero’s journey Campbell presents in Chapter IV of Hero (image right). As Vogler explains,
I’ve taken the liberty of amending the outline slightly, trying to reflect some of the common themes in movies…I’m re-telling the hero myth in my own way, and you should feel free to do the same. Every storyteller bends the myth to his or her own purpose. That’s why the hero has a thousand faces (Vogler, 1985).
In his memo, Vogler condensed Campbell’s complex model into 12-stages to create a practical guide for using the hero’s journey to evaluate and edit scripts submitted to Disney. He distributed his memo to Disney executives. Interest grew and the memo became, as Vogler describes it, “the ‘I have to have it’ document of the season.” Eventually, he moved to Disney’s Feature Animation division, where he helped develop The Lion King and other animation projects.
Later, while using the memo for the classes he taught at UCLA, Vogler developed his approach to storytelling and editing. He added material on archetypes and eventually expanded the seven-page memo into The Writer’s Journey: A Mythic Structure for Writers, a 315-page guide to using the hero’s journey for screenplays and other fiction.
Vogler’s Interpretation of the Hero’s Journey
The graphic (below right) illustrates in circular form Vogler’s interpretation of Campbell’s monomyth (1998, p. 194). Like Campbell, Vogler divides the journey into three “acts.” Campbell described the Hero’s Journey using the same three steps as the traditional Rite of Passage: Separation, Initiation (Transformation) and Return. Vogler, however, breaks Campbell’s “Initiation” into two separate steps, “Descent” and “Initiation.” Essentially, Campbell’s “Road of Trials” becomes Vogler’s “Descent” (Act II-A) and Campbell’s “Abyss” disappears into Vogler’s “Initiation (Act II-B).
Act I: Separation,
Act II: A. Descent, B. Initiation,
Act III: Return.
While this seems a minor change, it means that The Writer’s Journey must disregard or minimize several of the most important archetypal stages in the monomyth: Meeting with the Goddess, Atonement with the Father and the Apotheosis. These three stages are the very heart of the transformation of consciousness Campbell describes in the monomyth.
This is not a criticism of Vogler. The Writer’s Journey and the monomyth were created for different purposes and at different levels of complexity and meaning. Vogler focused on creating an analytical tool and template for writing screenplays and fiction. Campbell, on the other hand, described the transformation of consciousness we all experience as we navigate life’s challenges. In other words, the Writer’s Journey is structured for storytelling, while the momomyth explores the transformative process of human existence.
A second important difference between Campbell and Vogler is the “Refusal of the Call.” Vogler includes refusal as a fundamental stage, one that all heroes experience before they pass into the journey. In the monomyth, however, refusal is not a fundamental stage. While it is one of the most important elements in the Hero’s Journey, refusal does not occur in every journey. Campbell, himself, wrote “Often in actual life, and not infrequently in the myths and popular tales, we encounter the dull case of the call unanswered” (1949, p. 59).
This is an important distinction. “Often” does not mean “always,” and not all heroes refuse the Call. In the monomyth, refusal is an abandonment of the journey. What Vogler (and others) refer to as “Refusal” is actually the natural resistance the hero feels when preparing to leave the security of the known for the dangers of the unknown. This resistance is a major part of the story, but it is temporary and is better symbolized by the Threshold Guardian.
Refusal of the Call turns the whole journey inside out. As Campbell writes in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, “Refusal of the summons converts the adventure into its negative. Walled in boredom, hard work, or ‘culture,’ the subject loses the power of significant affirmative action and becomes a victim to be saved” (p. 59). (See “The Call Refused: Evoking the Shadow Journey.”)
Is the Writer’s Journey a formula?
Vogler’s work and the hero’s journey have been criticized as being “formulaic” and “predictable.” This criticism is partially true. In far too many cases “the map has become the territory.” Instead of being a guide to evaluate and correct stories, The Writer’s Journey has became the formula for writing the stories. Many writers and producers, looking for a quick, salable story, have abused the hero’s journey by using it as a standardized story formula. (This might explain why so many Disney animated films follow the same basic plot.) However, it is equally true that writers can use the journey’s basic pattern as a guide or gauge rather than a template. The journey’s natural dynamics can help them develop their characters and stories into rich explorations of the human experience.
Because of its association with popular films such as The Lion King and Finding Nemo, Vogler’s model has become the best known model of the hero’s journey. It is often represented as Campbell’s monomyth, itself, rather than as an adaptation of the monomyth. For its intended purpose (i.e., writing, editing and evaluating stories), Vogler’s model works well, but it is not a replacement for the rich, nuanced dynamics of Campbell’s monomyth. Readers interested in the hero’s journey should explore both models: Campbell’s for its profound exploration of the journey’s psychology and philosophy, and Vogler’s as an example of how the hero’s journey can be adapted to fit specific needs.
Vogler on the Hero’s Journey
The Writer’s Journey is, as Vogler himself says, a “re-telling” of the monomyth, not the monomyth itself. He designed it as an “analytical tool” to “determine what’s wrong with a story that’s floundering.” However, like Campbell, he discovered that the stories often transcend their narrative confines to give us insights into the challenges and journeys we all face in life. The hero’s journey, Vogler writes, becomes “a guide to the life lessons that have been carefully built into the stories of all times” (1998).
NOTE: Christopher Vogler offers some interesting stories and insights on his “Writer’s Journey” blog.
References
Campbell, J. (1949/1968). The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Campbell, J. (1988). The Power of Myth. (with B. Moyers). New York: Doubleday.
Vogler, C. (1998). The Writer’s Journey. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions.
