Character Analysis: The Hero's Journey

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Pages: 8

What makes a person to become a hero? In his book The Hero’s Journey written by Joseph Campbell, he mentions that there are twelve stages for a person to become a hero. Moreover, the heroic process is like cycling. It means that even though a person changes into a hero, eventually he will return to the beginning stage, and start the same process for another story again. A hero must live in an ordinary world, and face a great deal of challenges in his daily life. Then, a hero will die as well as rebirth when he understands a new attitude toward the world, and obtain a new power which is good enough to protect people. Finally, a hero returns where he begins. Understanding this cycle, people can observe an essential concept of a book titled The Notes of a Native Son written by James Baldwin because he uses the same idea—the cycle of death …show more content…
In his book The Notes of a Native Son, Baldwin refers two significant events which influence his attitude. First, he experienced the “Jim Crow” when he went to a restaurant and tried to obtain a burger and coffee, but unfortunately, he did not get anything from the restaurant because he was a Negro. Baldwin mentions that “Negroes were not served there, I was told, and they had been waiting for me to realize that I was always the only Negro present.” Obviously, the prejudice and unfairness happen, but he does not know how to deal with it. Baldwin has never experienced “Jim Crow” because his father always protects him from the danger. In this case, this scenario matches the heroic stage—“call to adventure” because this is the first time that he confronts a problem after his father’s death. Most importantly, Baldwin starts understanding the reason why his father has a negative attitude toward white