Story structure, Joseph Campbell, and chocolate disasters
I like to learn by doing rather than by taking classes. I made an exception, though, for Brian McDonald’s story structure class at the Richard Hugo House. In our last class, Brian pointed out that all stories have the same seven parts: “Once upon a time… and every day… until one day… Because of this… and because of this… until finally… and ever since…” Even with the blanks empty - thus creating a story about nothing at all - it’s still a satisfying story. After class, I wandered over to a local Tully’s after class to catch up on some reading and happened across Pop Occulture’s summary of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. Campbell’s archetype follows Brian’s structure exactly. From Pop Occulture: [my bits in brackets]
That at the beginning of the journey, [once upon a time] the hero’s world is stable, if incomplete. [and every day] Their existing life is their story-system. [until one day] Some new content presents itself which cannot be successfully integrated into the existing story-system. ie, it is seen as an enemy or as a threat. In order to combat this threat [because of this], the individual is taken outside the realm of his story-system. That is, he goes on the hero’s journey. In so doing, he leaves his normal realm, and [because of this] encounters various psychic trials and aids which serve to transform his thinking-emotional processes enough so that he may integrate the new content. At the conclusion of his quest, when [until finally] he “vanquishes the monster” it means that he releases it from its form. By releasing it from its form, that of an enemy, it then becomes absorbed into his system of knowledge as a whole. The boon which he then gains is a transformed version of the monster itself. It has been transformed from a monster, which has only a destructive role in his story-system to that of a treasure, which has beneficial results for the world he exists in. He can then return to his story-system, but [and ever since] it will have been changed by his individual experiences, and his final integration with the outside content.
I snorted my hot chocolate when I read how perfectly the two story systems match. As I cleaned my drink off the table, I began to ponder: Joseph Campbell asserted that the hero’s journey is the one true story - all the other stories you’ve heard are just riffs on this theme. There’s a whole lot of debate about this, some agreeing with Campbell, some saying that there are several other archetypes. Though I haven’t researched it, I suspect the heroine’s journey is different. Still, maybe there is a little truth in Campbell’s assertion, but it’s not the story that is universal, it’s the structure of the story that’s universal. Perhaps we’re all just hard-wired to respond to that form as English speakers are hard-wired for iambs and Japanese really works in 5s & 7s. It’s the pattern not the content. Stick any characters, heroic journey or no, on top of that same structure, and we’ll enjoy it just the same.
