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English 207-Children’s Literature
The Hero Path in L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz
English 207-Children’s Literature
The Hero Path in L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz very closely follows the steps of a hero as laid out in The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. What follows is an overview of Campbell’s hero path, as well as an appropriate introduction to The Wizard of Oz. This lesson is supplemented by video and PowerPoint notes. It concludes with a lesson plan and activities.
Biography of Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell was a renowned author, lecturer and mythologist who, for a number of years, taught at Sarah Lawrence College. He graduated from Columbia University with a master’s degree in medieval literature. His life’s work on mythology was based on the view that stories are integral to explain social, cosmological, spiritual phenomenon to the human psyche. He is most known for his two books, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, published in 1949, and The Masks of God, published in 1959-1968. He attained great recognition in a series of television interviews called The Power of Myth with Bill Moyer in 1985- 1986. Joseph Campbell grew up as the oldest of two children in his upper class family in New York. When Joseph Campbell was a child, he was obsessed with Native Americans and read everything that he could about their myths. Years later at Columbia University, he was still studying legends and myths. He also played jazz and was a star on the track team. At graduate school, he discovered the psychological texts of Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud and James Joyce. He began to see the parallels between myth and psychological lessons. During the 1930’s, Campbell abandoned his doctorate work to pursue unstructured knowledge of the imagination. For five years, Campbell traveled spontaneously all over the country, meeting various thinkers of the time. Finally, Campbell settled down as a professor at newfound Sarah Lawrence College in New York. There he met his future wife, student Jean Erdman, a choreographer. The couple moved in high intellectual circles, with people such as Carl Jung, John Cage and Heinrich Zimmer. In 1949, Campbell’s book Hero with A Thousand Faces put him on the intellectual map as the eminent mythologist. For 38 years, he taught women at Sarah Lawrence College and traveled around the world touring, lecturing, and writing. In 1985, his Power of Myth television series secured his legend. The series was filmed at the ranch of Joseph Campbell’s friend, George Lucas. The Hero’s Journey was an important resource for Star Wars trilogy. Today, over 50 years later, Hero with A Thousand Faces is still in print and widely read. Joseph Campbell’s influence is still visible, through his former students, his archives in Santa Barbara, and his numerous as yet unreleased works. He lived his life according to his most famous quote, “Follow your bliss.”
Overview of The Hero with a Thousand Faces
The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) is a non-fiction and seminal work of
comparative mythology by Joseph Campbell. In this publication, Campbell discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero found in world mythologies.Since publication of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell's theory has been consciously applied by a wide variety of modern writers and artists. The best known is perhaps George Lucas, who has acknowledged a debt to Campbell regarding the stories of the Star Wars films. Campbell explores the theory that important myths from around the world that have survived for thousands of years all share a fundamental structure, which Campbell called the monomyth. In the monomyth, the hero starts in the ordinary world, and receives a call to enter an unusual world of strange powers and events - a call to adventure. If the hero accepts the call to enter this strange world, the hero must face tasks and trials - a road of trials - and may have to face these trials alone, or may have assistance. At its most intense, the hero must survive a severe challenge, often with help earned along the journey. If the hero survives, the hero may achieve a great gift - the goal or "boon" - which often results in important self-knowledge. The hero must then decide whether to return with this boon - the return to the ordinary world - often facing challenges on the return journey. If the hero is successful in returning, the boon or gift may be used to improve the world – the application of the boon. Campbell describes a number of stages or steps along this journey. Very few myths contain all of these stages - some myths contain many of the stages, while others contain only a few; some myths may have as a focus only one of the stages, while other myths may deal with the stages in a somewhat different order. These stages may be organized in a number of ways, including division into three sections: Departure (sometimes called Separation), Initiation and Return. "Departure" deals with the hero venturing forth on the quest; "Initiation" deals with the hero's various adventures along the way; and "Return" deals with the hero's return home with knowledge and powers acquired on the journey. The classic examples of the monomyth relied upon by Campbell and other scholars include the stories of Osiris, Prometheus, Buddha, Moses, and Christ, although Campbell cites many other classic myths from many cultures which rely upon this basic structure. While Campbell offers a discussion of the hero's journey by using the Freudian concepts popular in the 1940s and 1950s, the monomythic structure is not tied to these concepts. Similarly, Campbell uses a mixture of Jungian archetypes, unconscious forces, and Arnold van Gennep's structuring of rites of passage rituals to provide some illumination. However, this pattern of the hero's journey influences artists and intellectuals worldwide, suggesting a basic usefulness for Campbell's insights not tied to academic categories and mid-20th century analysis.
External Links for Joseph Campbell and The Hero with a Thousand Faces
A Wikipedia overview of Joseph Campbell’s life and work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell
An excellent article on The Hero with a Thousand Faces:
http://www.skepticfiles.org/atheist2/hero.htm
Map of the Hero Quest
http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~skalman/writework/herocycle.html
External Links for the Hero Quest in The Wizard of Oz
The Hero Path in Works of Popular Culture
Biography of Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell was a renowned author, lecturer and mythologist who, for a number of years, taught at Sarah Lawrence College. He graduated from Columbia University with a master’s degree in medieval literature. His life’s work on mythology was based on the view that stories are integral to explain social, cosmological, spiritual phenomenon to the human psyche. He is most known for his two books, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, published in 1949, and The Masks of God, published in 1959-1968. He attained great recognition in a series of television interviews called The Power of Myth with Bill Moyer in 1985- 1986. Joseph Campbell grew up as the oldest of two children in his upper class family in New York. When Joseph Campbell was a child, he was obsessed with Native Americans and read everything that he could about their myths. Years later at Columbia University, he was still studying legends and myths. He also played jazz and was a star on the track team. At graduate school, he discovered the psychological texts of Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud and James Joyce. He began to see the parallels between myth and psychological lessons. During the 1930’s, Campbell abandoned his doctorate work to pursue unstructured knowledge of the imagination. For five years, Campbell traveled spontaneously all over the country, meeting various thinkers of the time. Finally, Campbell settled down as a professor at newfound Sarah Lawrence College in New York. There he met his future wife, student Jean Erdman, a choreographer. The couple moved in high intellectual circles, with people such as Carl Jung, John Cage and Heinrich Zimmer. In 1949, Campbell’s book Hero with A Thousand Faces put him on the intellectual map as the eminent mythologist. For 38 years, he taught women at Sarah Lawrence College and traveled around the world touring, lecturing, and writing. In 1985, his Power of Myth television series secured his legend. The series was filmed at the ranch of Joseph Campbell’s friend, George Lucas. The Hero’s Journey was an important resource for Star Wars trilogy. Today, over 50 years later, Hero with A Thousand Faces is still in print and widely read. Joseph Campbell’s influence is still visible, through his former students, his archives in Santa Barbara, and his numerous as yet unreleased works. He lived his life according to his most famous quote, “Follow your bliss.”
Overview of The Hero with a Thousand Faces
The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) is a non-fiction and seminal work of
comparative mythology by Joseph Campbell. In this publication, Campbell discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero found in world mythologies.Since publication of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell's theory has been consciously applied by a wide variety of modern writers and artists. The best known is perhaps George Lucas, who has acknowledged a debt to Campbell regarding the stories of the Star Wars films. Campbell explores the theory that important myths from around the world that have survived for thousands of years all share a fundamental structure, which Campbell called the monomyth. In the monomyth, the hero starts in the ordinary world, and receives a call to enter an unusual world of strange powers and events - a call to adventure. If the hero accepts the call to enter this strange world, the hero must face tasks and trials - a road of trials - and may have to face these trials alone, or may have assistance. At its most intense, the hero must survive a severe challenge, often with help earned along the journey. If the hero survives, the hero may achieve a great gift - the goal or "boon" - which often results in important self-knowledge. The hero must then decide whether to return with this boon - the return to the ordinary world - often facing challenges on the return journey. If the hero is successful in returning, the boon or gift may be used to improve the world – the application of the boon. Campbell describes a number of stages or steps along this journey. Very few myths contain all of these stages - some myths contain many of the stages, while others contain only a few; some myths may have as a focus only one of the stages, while other myths may deal with the stages in a somewhat different order. These stages may be organized in a number of ways, including division into three sections: Departure (sometimes called Separation), Initiation and Return. "Departure" deals with the hero venturing forth on the quest; "Initiation" deals with the hero's various adventures along the way; and "Return" deals with the hero's return home with knowledge and powers acquired on the journey. The classic examples of the monomyth relied upon by Campbell and other scholars include the stories of Osiris, Prometheus, Buddha, Moses, and Christ, although Campbell cites many other classic myths from many cultures which rely upon this basic structure. While Campbell offers a discussion of the hero's journey by using the Freudian concepts popular in the 1940s and 1950s, the monomythic structure is not tied to these concepts. Similarly, Campbell uses a mixture of Jungian archetypes, unconscious forces, and Arnold van Gennep's structuring of rites of passage rituals to provide some illumination. However, this pattern of the hero's journey influences artists and intellectuals worldwide, suggesting a basic usefulness for Campbell's insights not tied to academic categories and mid-20th century analysis.
External Links for Joseph Campbell and The Hero with a Thousand Faces
A Wikipedia overview of Joseph Campbell’s life and work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell
An excellent article on The Hero with a Thousand Faces:
http://www.skepticfiles.org/atheist2/hero.htm
Map of the Hero Quest
http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~skalman/writework/herocycle.html
External Links for the Hero Quest in The Wizard of Oz
The Hero Path in Works of Popular Culture
“Myth and the Hero’s Journey: Big Screen Blockbusters”
http://www.folkstory.com/articles/spiderman.html
"The Hero Path in The Wizard of Oz"
“The Wizard of Oz and the Path to Enlightenment”
http://www.reversespins.com/wizardofoz.html
“Myths for Today”
http://www.freesoul.us/modernmyths.html
“The Female Hero Quest”
http://www.catherynnemvalente.com/critical/FollowTheYellowBrickRoad.doc
“Hero vs. Heroine”
http://pegasus.msmc.la.edu/english/students/casssand/Heroine%20vs%20Hero/HerovsHeroine_Journey.htm
Video Selections on Joseph Campbell and The Wizard of Oz
Video—Joseph Campbell’s Hero Quest
“A Brief Study of the Hero Quest in Modern Stories”
Video—Scenes from The Wizard of Oz
Wizard of Oz—Twister Scene
Wizard of Oz—Scene Where Dorothy Clicks Heels to Return Home
Wizard of Oz—Wicked Witch of the West and Glenda
PowerPoint Slide on the Hero Quest
Lesson Plan for the Hero Path in The Wizard of Oz
- Read L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, and discuss the plot line. The text is available free through Project Gutenberg at this link: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/55.
- Read the background information on Joseph Campbell and The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Discuss the steps of the hero path. Review the PowerPoint notes.
- Have students work in groups to develop ideas of characters using the hero path in current popular movies. Share these with the class.
- Show the selected scenes from the film version of The Wizard of Oz. Discuss their applicability to the stages of the hero path.
- Have students work in groups to outline Dorothy’s use of the hero path in The Wizard of Oz. Use this hero path planning sheet as a guideline.
Assessment
