"The Hero With a Thousand Faces" Packet

Blank Campbell Packet:  Campbell article web site

Notes for Campbell Packet:  I will update the notes on the packet as we complete it in class.  Therefore, if you are absent, you may check this link for missed info.  Campbell article web site, pp 1 - 7

Vocabulary

Part I:  words/definitions:  hero vocab 1 with defs

           sentences to fill in:  vocab I sentences 

Pat II:  words/definitions:  hero vocab 2 with defs

           sentences to fill in:  vocab II sentences

The "Campbell Paper" Info Center

As the culminating activity for our unit, you will write a formal paper applying Joseph Campbell’s monomyth theory to a given media: movie or book, Thomas Cole’s artwork, or your original hero’s journey. Note: a fourth option exists -- proving that a favorite book or movie is a universal myth.

Guidelines:   Please click on the general guidelines link that follows and carefully consider which option you will choose:  monomyth paper options 2006

Rubrics:  These are the standards by which I will grade your paper.  Please refer to it carefully when fine-tuning your essay:

Rubric for art:  Cole rubric 2008

Rubric for story:  student-written monomyth rubric 2007-08

Rubric for movie/book:  Movie Book Rubric

Looking for a challenge?  Click on this link that provides an overview of the "Universal Myth" paper:  myth paper guidelines

Link to Cole Paintings:  cole pics

Looking for the Thomas Cole paintings?   You can access them on line, but for your convenience, I have included the four paintings transferred into a WORD document here. The reproductions are terrible!  Go on line for a more detailed rendering:  cole pics

Paper Samples and Graphic Organizers

PAINTINGS paper:

Sample Cole paper link:  sample paper for art

Graphic organizer link: worksheet for artwork paper

Guiding questions link:  guiding questions for art paper

STORY (as inspired by "Scheherezade" symphony)

Sample Story paper link:  student-written monomyth

Graphic Organizer link:  worksheet for writing your own monomyth

MOVIE/BOOK

Sample Movie paper link:  Lion King with AGO

Graphic Organizer link:  worksheet for movie or book paper

Challenge:  UNIVERSAL MYTH

Sample Universal Myth paper:  mulan paper  and   rudolph

Graphic Organizer link:  myth paper graphic organizer

Specific "How to's" for Paper

TOPIC SENTENCES

Topic sentences for art and movie papers:  topic sentences movie and art

Universal Myth topic sentence sheets:  topic sentences

INTRODUCTIONS

Introduction for art: sample intro art

Introduction for movie:  sample intro movie book

Introduction for story:  story intros

Introduction for universal myth:  myth intro options

CONCLUSIONS

Conclusion for art:  conclusion for paintings

Conclusion for movie:  conclusion for movie,book

Conclusion for story:  conclusions for story

Personal Connections

The personal connections are essays connecting your life to the stages of the monomyth.  These form a significant weight on your grade for the unit.  Please complete them to the best of your ability.

Guidelines: personal connection essays

Sample "separation" essay:  separation journal entry sample

Having trouble with enlightenment?  Read this:

            First, don't worry -- people go through their whole lives never really reaching a true enlightenment, and this is especially true for someone who's been on the earth only 13 or 14 years.  The purpose of the assignment is to get you thinking - deep down introspection.   Honest.  Thoughtful.  Here are some areas where kids have found the most success.  Maybe the questions will get you thinking about some times in your life when you might have shown glimmers of enlightenment without realizing it.

                 Did you ever get down on yourself for something?  Think you couldn't do something because everyone else was so much better . . . they made more baskets . . . scored more goals . . . ran faster . . . got better grades?  Most of us feel this way at least once in our lives.   Then ask yourself, did you ever rise above all that negative feeling to actually accomplish a goal?  Decide, to heck with them -- if you really want to be good at something, you will.  So you decided to "just do it" -- practiced every day -- studied (actually studied) for the test -- wouldn't stop trying until you did it.  If this has ever happened to you, you were breaking through personal limitations to do something that you -- and others -- thought you couldn't.  There's power of self there -- believing -- then working your butt off to do it. 

               Another example of power of self comes in making moral decisions.  Peer pressure encourages us to do many things -- we have drastic things like drinking, smoking, stealing, vandalism.  Then there are less serious (but still hurtful) things like joining in to bully someone, lying, or cheating.  We've all done it in our lives, but at some point you will have the guts -- the confidence -- the power of self -- to NOT do what everyone wants you to do.  Again -- you've broken through the personal limitations that you set for yourself -- or the historical limitations of what your friends "have always done."  A final example here:  telling the truth when the truth would hurt you.  It takes a great deal of power within ourselves to do this.

                  Moving away from power of self . . . .

Did you ever have a choice to make -- say, between friends and family?  Or between one friend and a group of "cool" kids?  If you have sacrificed something for another person -- done something that was not your first choice, but you didn't want to hurt another -- then that is putting society over yourself.  The example of the kid who was invited to Six Flags but went to his grandmother's 80th birthday party remains one of the best examples.  Another one last year was from a girl who promised one friend she would sleep over, but that was before a new clique of "cool" kids invited her to the movies.  She actually ended up lying to the first girl, going out with the second group, and realizing it was the wrong choice.  It took some time, but in the end, she put the other person's feelings over her own desire to fit in.  This is society over self.  Remember:  this one also refers to working for the universal good -- not the personal good.  Doing something that was better for your family -- neighborhood -- school -- instead of yourself.

                        Society over self also refers to dying as a modern man and being born eternal.  Was there ever a time when you realized you didn't have to have the most up-to-date gadget on the market?  That you could have had the coolest clothes and best sneakers, but all that means nothing without family, friends, love, loyalty, forgiveness -- concepts that are eternal -- everlasting -- that never 'go out of style.'

One perspective of Enlightenment.  This is NOT a student essay; this is the essay we read in class, which offers valuable insight to the concept.

Enlightenment

A time comes in your life when you finally get it.

When, in the midst of all your fears and insanity, you stop dead in your tracks, and somewhere the voice inside your head cries out – ENOUGH! Enough fighting and crying or struggling to hold on. And you blink back your tears and through wet lashes, you begin to look at the world through new eyes.

This is your awakening.

You realize that it’s time to stop hoping and waiting for something to change or for happiness to come galloping over the next horizon. You awaken to the fact that you’re not perfect and that not everyone will always love, appreciate or approve of what you are . . . and that’s okay.

You learn the importance of believing in yourself. You stop complaining and blaming other people for the things they did to you (or didn’t do for you) and you learn that the only one you really can blame is you. You learn that not everyone will always be there for you and that it’s not always about you.

So you learn to stand on your own and to take care of yourself. You stop judging and pointing fingers . . . and you begin to accept people as they are, as imperfect as they may be. You realize that much of the way you view yourself and the world around you is a result of all the messages and opinions that have been ingrained in you. So you begin to sift through all that you’ve been fed about how you should behave, how you should look, and how much you should weigh; what you should wear and where you should shop and what you should drive; how and where you should live, and what you should do for a living.

You begin reassessing and redefining who you are and what you really stand for. You begin to discard the beliefs and values you’ve outgrown, or should never have bought into to begin with, and, in the process, you learn to go with your own instincts.

You learn there is power and glory in creating and contributing.

You learn that you don’t know everything and it’s not your job to save the whole world . . . but you must do your part.

Finally, with courage in your heart and with spirit by your side, you take a stand; you take a deep breath, and you begin to design the life you want to live as best you can.