Tagged: Editorials

Harry Potter and the Hero’s Journey

Last week, I found a post on Tumblr that analyzed a character from the TV show “Doctor Who” and compared that character’s journey to the pattern of Joseph Campbell’s “monomyth,” or “the hero’s journey” (the original post can be found here). Monomyth, as conveniently explained by Wikipedia, “is a basic pattern that its proponents argue is found in many narratives from around the world.” Essentially, it is the theory that many great literary heroes have all gone through the same seventeen stages of adventure (i.e., their stories all follow the same pattern). After researching this for a while, I was inspired to make my own comparisons between Harry’s journey in the “Harry Potter” series to see if it matched up with Joseph Campbell’s pattern.