Important Information about the Hero's Journey

If you’ve wondered why some movies and books touch a deep core within us, and some totally miss the mark—now you’ll learn why. To learn more about The Hero’s Journey, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth  We suggest you “google” The Hero’s Journey to get an idea of how potent this information is.  

Description of Session I:

In our first session, we will look primarily at the three general themes of the hero's journey: separation, initiation, and return.  We'll also look at character archetypes that play a role in the drama of the hero's journey

Homework:

To get the most out of these two sessions, you should do your homework. We suggest you view the following movies: The Wizard of Oz, Star Wars, The Matrix, and/or The Golden Compass.  Disney's Beauty and the Beast offers a hero's journey in broader strokes, so that might be a good one to review as well.  The musical Wicked offers a more ironic and subtle look at the hero's journey as well, in addition to being just a very clever 'anti-story' to The Wizard of Oz.

Any of the classic Greek hero stories might be reviewed as well: Oedipus, Orestes, Achilles, Jason, Perseus. Those writers who have adolescents in their lives and thus have access to adolescent literature might enjoy reading the Olympian series 

Session II will be held on March 12, 2008.

In our second session, we will focus on each theme, expanding and examining ways in which each theme is developed and ways in which transitions are made from separation, initiation, and return.

Jason Heisserer holds degrees in English and Education from Southeast Missouri State University and a Masters and Doctorate of Education from Maryville University. In addition to being a middle school assistant principal, Jason holds a post-doctoral appointment at the University of Missouri--St. Louis in Social Justice and Education. Jason has taught literature, mythology, and composition at the high school and junior college levels; at the graduate school level he has taught teacher education courses. As a public speaker, Jason has presented on topics of diversity and equity in education and to audiences of writers on topics of archetypal literary criticism, character development, and memoir and poetry. Jason is a memoirist and poet, although his current writing project is a text on Tarot based on his Tarot classes at Pathways Books and Music where he also reads tarot and teaches meditation classes.