The Writer's Journey Assignment # 2

Summary
In this section Vogler studies and analyzes some of the concepts introduced earlier in his Hero's sequence. In the first section of the reading he gave us an introduction of the Archetype concept, but now he provided us with a more detailed and specific context of what he meant. Later in the reading, he focuses on the role of the hero in different kinds of situations and how can a character may acquire that heroism through certain special features. Also, he mentions the importance of certain characters in terms of the development of the trama. The next section deals explicitly with another important part of his sequence: the mentors. The mentors are introduced by him as a key part of the Hero's journey, since they provide the guidance to the hero when uncertainty shows up. He analyzes the different forms of mentors commonly used and how they contribute to the development of the sequence. He refers to mythology to set an example for this subject, more specifically the goddess Athena who guided Telemachus in his journey in The Odyssey. Another interesting part was when discussed the inner mentors and how the archetype of the mentor is involved in the character's reasonings. And the possibility of multiple mentors and how usually they contribute to the hero in an specific aspect.

Reaction
I think it was a very interesting passage, since he presents some of the subjects introduced before, in a more profound manner. I thought it was really interesting the connections I could make about stories, novels or films with the different characteristics that he presents. His theories have an enormous validity and it is amazing how he can put together in such a general form, things that can vary so much from a story to the other. And everything has relevance regardless of the kind of reading or film you are analyzing. The adentration made in the Archetype subject was extremely interesting, considering how historically the different stereotypes have been created and people still follows them. And although there is an extremely wide variety of heroes and hero stories, they all share this common structure.

Reflection
I thought the exercise that involved sequencing a personal experience into the different steps of the Hero's journey was very interesting. It showed me how this subject is so well analyzed by Joseph Campbell that even our personal "adventures" could, most of the time, follow the sequence he created. After analyzing this second passage of Vogler's text, I think I've acquired a better sense of the complexity of the subject. It is amazing how such a diverse subject can be put into such a easy going structure, considering how complex stories can get. But this has definitely given me a background for performing better analysis of the different situations of literary material and experiences of my every day life.

Questions
1. What do you think is the main heroistic feature that attracts people's attention or that makes people be identified with the hero?
2. Generally, how important is the contribution of outsiders to the Hero's personal characteristics?
3. Is there necessarily an experience of growth in every heroic journey?