Your online assignment this week is to find a piece of popular culture that follows the key stages of The Hero’s Journey. For a refresher on those stages, check out my “Archetypes” PowerPoint slides (available under the “Lectures” link on BB). This Wikipedia entry also does a nice job summing things up.
Once you have decided on your pop culture item, write a blog entry (300-350 words) explaining how your item corresponds to the monomyth. For instance, if looking at “Star Wars,” you could note that Luke Skywalker got his call to adventure when R2D2 delivered a message from a beautiful princess in need of help. At first, he refused the call because he needed to help his aunt and uncle. Eventually, however, he accepted the call and received assistance from a wise, old man in the form of Ben Kenobi. You need to go through the entire cycle, mapping it to the pop culture item you selected. You should label key stages of the journey as you explain them. Although you can pick almost any pop culture story, I ask that you do not use the original, 1977 “Star Wars” movie since we talked extensively about it in class.
File your analysis under “Class Blog Week 11 Hero’s Journey.”
This assignment will be graded credit/no credit. As long as you take the assignment seriously and file it on time, you will get full points. It is due by midnight April 14.
