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7 pages/≈1925 words
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MLA
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Literature & Language
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Essay
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English (U.S.)
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Topic:

Applying Campbell's Hero's Journey to the Spider-Man

Essay Instructions:

Write a detailed six-page essay examining one of your favorite books or films as an example of the hero’s journey theme. You may write about any film or book except Star Wars or The Wizard of Oz which we already discussed in class.
Include and define all of the stages of the journey and the archetypes – and identify which characters fulfill the various archetypes - as listed on The Hero's Journey page:
***(attached file)***
If you’re writing about a film, view it again with the journey theme and archetypes in mind. If you’re writing about a book, review it again with these elements in mind.
If you write about a film or a book that's part of a series, focus on the first one, where the story and characters are first established.
You may assume that your reader is familiar with the work that you’re analyzing, but doesn’t know anything about the hero’s journey stages, terms or archetypes.
Your job is to define and teach your reader all of the stages, terms and archetypes.
Make sure that your essay analyzes (but doesn’t summarize) the work. To make sure that you’re analyzing vs. summarizing, begin each paragraph with a statement from you that defines one of the stages or archetypes, and then support it with a scene or a moment from the work to support your point.
The first time you mention a journey stage or archetype, use quotation marks - but not capital letters – (“ordinary world”) to indicate that the term was created by Campbell. After that, you don’t need to use quotation marks.
Begin with a clear, specific thesis paragraph -- that mentions Joseph Campbell, The Hero With 1000 Faces, plus the title and author and/or director of the work you’re analyzing.
Support your points with specific, detailed examples from the film or book and wrap it up with a meaningful conclusion.

Essay Sample Content Preview:
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Applying Campbell Campbell's Hero's Journey to the Spider-Man
Hero's journey is the pivotal theme of the book titled Hero with a Thousand Faces by Campbell Campbell, in which Campbell illustrates how a fictional hero goes through different stages and meets different characters along their path. Each stage and character is assigned a name respective to its nature and function. The film Spiderman, directed by Sam Raimi in 2002, is a prominent example of the Hero's Journey. Peter's character, portrayed as Spiderman, goes through several stages and interacts with several characters or archetypes identified in Campbell's book.
The story begins with the protagonist, Peter, placed in the "ordinary world." According to Campbell, the ordinary world represents the starting place in a story where the protagonist finds himself a misfit (Campbell 35). It happens with Peter's character since he is shown living a miserable life at the movie's beginning. He is naturally cowardly and awkward, devoid of self-esteem. His classmates bully him, and his shaky willpower keeps him from expressing his love for her childhood crush in his neighbor. As a result of being treated as an outcast, he continuously suffers from an inferiority complex and a lack of self-confidence.
Peter's life takes the most significant turn during a field school trip when he gets bitten by a genetically altered spider. According to Campbell, an important stage in the hero's journey is the "call to adventure" when he is encouraged to step out of the ordinary world and take on a challenge or a series of challenges (Campbell 45). The same thing happens to Peter after the spider's bite as he realizes of getting developed superhuman-like instincts and energies. He can shoot the webs off his wrists and cling to the wall. His vision improves, and his agility rises to another level.
Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1: Parker Testing his Newly-Found Energy
Peter is initially thrilled by a sense of getting extraordinary power. However, his behavior shows the "refusal to the call" for adventure. According to Campbell, such refusal is rooted in the protagonist's uncertainty about his ability to harness the newly found energy (Campbell 45). Peter is not confident in using the energy to his advantage. As mentioned earlier, he is a coward and shy and lacks the courage to transform his ways of living. He mostly remains irresponsive to his bullies and lives a life of resignation.
An example of Peter's refusal is when he denies chasing the robber who shortchanges him in the wrestling competition. Peter took on a tough challenge knowing his health and life were at stake. However, after winning, he was not rewarded per the contract. Still, he lets the robber go and accepts his misery as always. At that stage, Peter has the power to take the robber down. Still, his cowardice makes him surrender and causes him to refuse the call to let him expose his strength.
The upholder of the wrestling can also be regarded as the "trickster." According to Campbell's definition of the trickster, it keeps playing tricks to defraud or ditch the hero (Campbell 41). In the present example, the organizer underpays Peter, the hero in the movie. In this way, he qualifies as ...
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