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Parable of the Sower as an Illustration of a Hero’s Journey

A Hero’s Journey is a summary of the events that are recurrent in Hero narratives. The summary was put together by Joseph Campbell after studying many Hero stories in literature and the events and experiences of the Heroes were common in a majority of the narratives. The first step of a Hero’s Journey is usually the basis of their future experiences. The places where they are born and brought up shape their approach once they set out on the journey. The society develops a problem that serves as trigger for the Hero. It pushes the Hero to think about how they can solve the problem. They struggle within themselves to strategize ways to change the problematic situation. At some point they find that the problem may be greater than they can deal with and give up on finding its solution (Ray). During the period where they face the dilemma on whether or not to try and solve the problem, they meet an individual or individuals who renew their energy towards finding solutions for the problems. After a period of preparation, the Heroes find a way to jump start their journey either by choice or by circumstances. Some circumstances could mean the Hero has to find a way to apply their skills in dealing with the problem. Usually, their knowledge is good but never adequate enough to smoothly handle the challenges along the way. They usually have to make enemies along the way as well as friends who help them overcome tests in their quests to solve the problem at hand. They usually have to change their methods of coming up with solutions after several failures of the original plan. There is usually a life threatening challenge just before the Hero triumphs. Right after the Hero overcomes the greatest challenge, they get results from their efforts and the problem is solved. The Hero then re-integrates with the community of origin and people start recognizing their heroism. The community expects the Hero to have acquired new and unique knowledge through the experience. This summarizes the Hero’s journey as explained by Campbell. (Campbell)

The similarities between Campbell explanation of a Hero’s Journey and the Parable of the sower are extensive and more than the differences. The Parable of the Sower can be categorized as a slight variation a Hero’s Journey. Lauren is the Hero character in the novel. Her first step in the Hero’s journey is not quite a normal world. Their society has been destroyed to a point where people live in walled neighborhoods in order to survive. The people who live outside the walled areas survive in poverty, insecurity and the death rates are very high (Butler). This scenario in Lauren’s story is not common among the Hero’s Journey narratives. In other narratives, the community is usually faced by a threat that is new unlike in Lauren’s story the burning of their neighborhood was a possibility.

The second step in hero’s journey draws a similarity to Lauren’s story. The trigger to start out on an adventure. For Lauren, she had thoughts of escaping her endangered neighborhood (Novel Guide). She had the fantasy of survival outside the neighborhood and this can be likened to a Hero’s challenge to handle the problem at hand (Ray).

The third step is a difference in Lauren’s story from a Hero’s Journey. Lauren was not reluctant to start on her journey as suggested by the steps of a Hero’s Journey. She only delayed the beginning of her journey in order to help out her step mother after the disappearance of her father (Butler). She was ready to move once she was sure her family was well placed to carry on in the absence of her father. Lauren was always open to the idea of travelling up north in order to secure a future that she felt was impossible in her community in its state. She knew life there was not going to be easy but she found it better than her neighborhood which was in constant attack.

The fourth step is where the Hero of the narrative goes through a period of preparation for the journey (Campbell). Lauren was prepared in many ways, for instance; her father trained her on how to handle a gun and how to target expertly (Butler). She also engaged herself in a lot of reading books that detailed survival methods in preparation for her journey to freedom. In a Hero’s Journey, the Hero goes through preparation from a knowledgeable individual. In Lauren’s case, her father was the knowledgeable individual grooming the Hero for the journey.

The fifth step of the Hero’s Journey marks a slight difference in Lauren’s story in comparison to the Hero’s journey as described by Campbell. Lauren’s push to begin her journey was not voluntary or an occurrence that she had control over, it was circumstantial. Her neighborhood was torched and she had to move to save herself. She began her journey in solitude and much more like she had previously planned.

The sixth step of a hero’s journey is marked by the Hero making enemies as well as friends who assist them to overcome the hardships of the journey (Campbell). This stage is illustrated by Lauren’s journey. After having to leave the neighborhood in a rush after it was attacked, she met two survivors outside the neighborhood, Zahra and Harry. Being the only one with few supplies from her emergency pack, she took agreed to travel along with Harry and Zahra. They became her first allies and helped each other survive through the hostile streets. In this stage of a Hero’s Journey, there are tests that they must overcome (Butler). For instance, in the case of Lauren, she had to overcome her fear of letting her new allies about her hyper empathy problem. She also had to overcome the fact that she had lost all her family during the attack which came soon after her father’s disappearance. Their constant enemies were other travelers who just like them survived on robbing the dead and any weak travelers for money, clothes and food.

The seventh step of a Hero’s Journey is the where they find inadequacies of their initial plan for survival (Ray). In comparison to Lauren’s story, she had to adjust her plans of travelling alone once she found Zahra and Harry stranded. She also had to disguise herself as a man in order to attract less attention to the trio as they travelled. She also had to change her destination of choice along the way once she heard over the radio that there was danger on the road that they had intended to travel (Butler). There were constant attacks on traveler along the way and the group went on growing bigger and they had to keep watch while others slept in turns for safety.

The eighth step of a Hero’s Journey is characterized by a challenge that is life threatening to the Hero. The similarity between a Hero’s Journey and Lauren’s narrative was the near death experience. Lauren’s camp was attacked by the bald men who torched everything for fun and in the process, Lauren got shot and one member of her camp was killed. They had previously come close to danger but the attack directly on the camp was not safe for any of them especially the children.

The ninth step of a Hero’s Journey is getting rewarded (Ray). Lauren’s reward was meeting Bankole. He offered her his land to set up her little Earth-seed community and accommodate those they had travelled with. According to Lauren, Bankole’s land, though not entirely safe, offered a more secure future compared to further travelling or the situation they all had run away from (Butler). This can be marked as her triumph over the challenge she had taken on.

The tenth step is a difference between Lauren’s narrative and a Hero’s journey. She had no place to go back to while normal Hero stories usually allow the heroic character to go back home (Campbell). He home had been burned down and all her family was dead. This left her with only the present to live and the future to look forward to. The final two stages of a hero’s journey also contrast to Lauren’s story. She does not re-emerge with a renewed strength once the whole ordeal is over (Butler). She strengthens her previous ideologies and fits them into the present situation. By the virtue of lacking a place to return to, she has no place to take back her newly acquired knowledge, other than put it to use together with her new community.

Lauren is in many ways a hero because for one, at her young age of eighteen, she was able to take charge of all her travel companions and led them to safety. She was able to overcome her hyper-empathy in order to protect her travel companions (Novel Guide). Throughout the journey, she expressed impeccable leadership qualities. Lauren was a natural leader from the beginning of the narrative and intelligent too. Her idea of an emergency pack was brilliant and in more ways than one, can be credited for helping them survive at the very beginning of the journey where Harry was hurt. Lauren’s narrative can be categorized as a mono-myth while at the same time, it is not a typical mono-myth.

Works Cited

Butler, Octavia. Parable of the Sower. Four Walls Eight Windows, 1993.

Campbell, Joesph. “The Hero’s Journey.” Campbell, Joseph. The Hero’s Journey. 1990. Amazon.

Novel Guide. n.d. http://www.novelguide.com/parable-of-the-sower/novel-summary. 4 October 2016.

Ray, Rebecca. The Hero’s Journey. n.d. www.storyboardthat.com/articles/e/heroic-journey. 2 October 2016.