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You’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat For The Hero’s Journey
A while back I was participating in a Friday night con panel discussing the differences between a fairy tale and folklore and defining the classical Hero’s Journey. The next day someone thanked me for my explanation of the Hero’s Journey, noting how simply I broke it down. Cooler yet, over the next day and half about a dozen more folks flagged me down to say the same. Humbly inspired by such praise, I decided to blog it up and share it with you here.
There are only so many archetypes out there, and depending on who you reference the number varies, but the most commonly stated number is seven. We humans like archetypes, our brains are hard wired to seek them out, recognize them, and upon discovery, we tend to like them. It’s a genetic human trait, like having a natural born respect for fire or the physical strength to rip off our own thumb but the natural inhibitors not to. I know there are some folks who are born different but I am addressing the 99.999999999999999% who are not (yes, that is 15 nines in a row).
One of the archetypes we humans love to love is called the Hero’s Journey. Joseph Campbell, the lecturer, mythologist and writer defines it as such:
“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”
A better definition, there is not, but I can simplify it: “A local guy sees a problem and deals with it in a way not of his choosing; ultimately he gets the job done thereby making life better for everyone.” A textbook example of the Hero’s Journey is the 1975 motion picture entitled Jaws.
I know what you’re thinking “She’s crazy! This is too modern a story, how can it be a Hero’s Journey?” Well, Jaws is a valid example. I’ll ‘splain.
Our Hero is Chief Martin Brody, married man, father of two. A NYC police officer relocated to the innocent island town of Amity (which as you know, Amity means “friendship”), he deals with the everyday problems a small town faces, such as the local karate class kids karate-chopping the fence slats up on Main Street. The only blemish in Brody’s life is that he has aquaphobia and lives on an island; although to be fair, “it’s only an island if you look at it from the water.” All heroes have an Achilles’ heel that they must overcome at some point in addition to completing the daunting task at hand. Terrible, I know, but I don’t make the rules, I just point them out.
One day the mangled body of party girl Chrissie washes up on the beach. Mayor Larry Vaughn is concerned. Corpses are bad for business and Amity survives off of its summer dollars. The coroner, under Vaughn’s influence, writes the death off as a boating accident. Vaughn is able to convince everyone-including himself-that he was only acting with the town’s best interest at heart.
Before the beaches officially open on the Fourth of July the early-bird tourist are served up for lunch. The rogue and territorial great white, still unopposed, eats up Pippin the dog and the little Kintner kid. Now everyone knows about the shark; a town meeting is called.
Widow Kintner puts a $3,000 bounty on the shark that killed her son. The obvious best man for the job is Sam Quint, the False Hero who presents himself as an expert sharker. He ransoms his services to the town demanding $10,000 but he promises for that price “you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing.”
Chief Brody calls an expert from the oceanographic institute. When Dr. Matt Hooper arrives and confirms a Carcharodon carcharias is in the area he advises on how to deal with it - kill it or cut off its food supply. Mayor Vaughn is disinclined to close the beaches and is unwilling to pay Quint. A local group of men catch a tiger shark and the Mayor announces that it was the shark that has been terrorizing them. Brody and Hooper know this not to be true and try to bring the truth to light but the Mayor officially declares the beaches open!
On the Fourth of July, another attack occurs; this time Chief Brody’s own son was nearly one of the victims. Brody strong arms Vaughn into signing the papers that will hire Quint and allow the Chief to hunt down the shark. The Hero needs his King’s permission to go out on the quest.
Finally our hero Chief Brody is setting out to slay his dragon, the great white shark. He leaves his family safe at home. He is afraid but willing to undergo this task, he is the Chief, the town’s champion or knight if you will, the protector of the good citizens of Amity.
Usually when the hero sets out on a quest he does so with companions. Brody takes Hooper (“for ballast”). Although it is the Chief’s charter Quint is captain and uses every opportunity to wield his authority, singling out Hooper who is smaller and physically weaker than himself. Quint the False Hero is a bully and mercenary, motivated by money, fame and a bit of revenge.
The trio sets out. Although Quint and Hooper are familiar with the ocean, Brody is not; to him this is all new, a strange, mysterious and frightening world. He is literally surrounded by water everywhere and, as if his fear of drowning is not bad enough, somewhere in the water he fears is a twenty-five foot long three-ton great white shark that must be confronted.
Usually what happens next in the Hero’s Journey is some sort of severe challenge the hero must face alone or with his companions. For the next forty-five minutes the classical sound of fear - the Jaws theme music - is played on and off signifying the shark’s movements. By day the men do well, they get along, tag the shark and even get three barrels into it.
When night falls things turn for the worse, Brody and Hooper learn that Quint is not just a False Hero, but also a Fallen Hero as he tells his tale of the USS Indianapolis. This scene is important because it is symbolic of their traveling through the Underworld together, one of the necessary steps in the completion of the Hero’s Journey. Suddenly, the shark attacks the ship causing severe damage. By sunrise the men are losing, the ship is sinking and they now need to do what must be done more quickly than ever. If they go down with the ship and into the shark’s territory they will surly die, symbolically showing that the hero cannot abandon his quest nor can he return to the Underworld. The hero must press on and he must defeat the monster once and for all if he is ever to return home, see his family and be received as a hero.
In a grand effort the men collaborate to make a final push to kill the shark using Hooper’s anti-shark cage and poison dart. The cage goes in the water, Hooper goes in the water, and the plan fails as it must. Hooper is not the hero but the Companion of the Hero. Only the hero gets to kill the big bad, save the day and marry the princesses-so to speak. Besides, Hooper wanted to use 100 cc of some sort of poison and a hero NEVER EVER wins by use of poison. EVER!
So now it’s down to just the Hero and the False Hero as the boat continues to sink. The music rises up and the men face down the beast. Quint, who refuses to wear a life jacket, dies as he becomes the shark’s last meal; not that the life jacket would have saved him.
Alone, Brody must face his demon, literally. The shark attacks and Brody uses every weapon in his arsenal to attack it, a common motif in the classic tale, the Hero depleting his supply of weapons in the final battle. Among the items he hit the shark with was a canister of highly compressed air. The shark does not swallow it, as the canister has become lodged in its shot-glass sized teeth. The boat is completely submerged except for the top of its mast where the Chief is perched; if he can somehow survive the shark, he’ll likely drown. Sometimes the Hero dies in completing his Journey, just like Beowulf and Moses did on their journey.
As the last bit of mast is submerging with Chief Brody clinging to it the shark’s music announces its arrival. Brody has one weapon left at his disposal-his police rifle. Again, this is another common motif, the hero using his best, favorite, or family weapon in the slaying of the beast. The shark and he clash one final time. Brody employs another of the hero’s traditions, a magical incantation and says “Smile you son of a-”
KABOOM! Brody has fired his rifle and the bullet has found its mark, the compressed air canister lodged in the jaws of the beast. The shark’s head explodes up and out and all over the place, chumming up the water for miles in every direction. Victory!
Brody is happy; the shark is dead and Brody’s lone companion Hooper was not eaten after all, just hiding from the shark. The return of a believed to be deceased companion is not all that new, this happens from time to time in classical tales.
Like many good myths, the trip home is short, uneventful and by an unconventional means of travel. Together Brody and Hooper find a sizable bit of flotsam and boogie board style, swim home.
At the end of the journey, the hero collects his reward. Brody has overcome his fear of drowning! Hooper can write his research paper! The town’s summer dollars are saved! Amity will prosper thanks to Chief Brody having undergone the Hero’s Journey.
So there you have it, Jaws explained and exposed as the classical archetype of the Hero’s Journey. If you think about it, there are many movies that will follow this pattern, some more than others with different parts of the quest played up. As for the difference between folklore and a fairy tale, well dear reader, that’s a blog for another time.
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QtR - Theresa Bane - Buzzy Mag Blogger & Vampirologist
