As promised, here is the first installment of my series on The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler and all the various insights he presents, along with my thoughts and ideas about stories and writing. If I were ambitious enough to give each chapter of the book its own blog post (which one could legitimately do), I would be doing 26 posts in this series, and it would take 6 months to complete. I have decided against such a vast commitment of time and will be combining chapters here and there for a total of 13 posts (to be written over the course of about 3 months rather than 6) divided into 3 series: Archetypes, The Hero’s Journey, and Essentials for the Journey.
Archetypes – Main Characters
(series 1 of 3, post 1 of 3)
Today’s installment is the first of three in the Archetypes series: Main Characters. These are the main forces that will be present in any story. They do not necessarily have to be represented as individual characters, though 9 times out of 10 they do appear as characters. This, I think, is because of the strength of these forces. These are the forces that create the plot. Without these Archetypes, there is no tension and thus no real plot. I am making the argument here (and I think most storytellers will agree) that plot requires tension. If there is no tension there is no plot. There may be a string of events plodding along one after the other and they may together create a timeline that someone could call a story, but I don’t expect it will be a very interesting story.
Hero/Protagonist
The first of these main characters is, obviously, the Hero. Christopher Vogler makes the distinction that the Hero figure represents Freud’s Ego, which is the conscious self. As such, this character begins as part of the normal whole, and through the Journey separates from the normal whole to become a separate individual, distinct from the normal whole. Vogler goes on to say that the basic premise of the Hero’s Journey is the search for self identity and a sense of “wholeness”. This is usually the character who changes the most in the story, or who has the most to lose, or both. This character will be complex, face death, make some kind of sacrifice (possibly in relation to facing death), and will be flawed. Vogler also discusses various kinds of Heroes from willing to unwilling, loner to group, and more. Exactly which type of Hero you use will depend on your story’s needs, and your personal preferences.
The Hero is also usually the character your readers will relate to the most, which is why the Hero is the one with the biggest identity crisis or identity challenge. The best example I can think of for this is in the recent movie Rango, where the lizard doesn’t even know his own name until he ends up in this small wild west town where he has to pretend to have a reputation to avoid misfortune. He invents his entire past in just a few minutes and creates an identity that he will be challenged to live up to later in the story. We all feel out of place at least some of the time (if not most of the time) and rarely do we feel that we truly belong somewhere. We are painfully aware of our quirks and oddities and we struggle to find a group of people to call friends who are like-minded and who possibly even have similar oddities to ourselves. This is why this character is most often the protagonist. You want your protagonist to be the one your readers can relate to best, so that the entire story will remain interesting to your readers.
Shadow/Antagonist
This is the force opposite to the Hero, and Vogler immediately pegs it as an initially internal force, represented psychologically by the things we repress inside ourselves, “the dark secrets we can’t admit, even to ourselves”. These are things like guilt, envy, feelings of lack, feelings of loss, severe trauma, etc. Usually, these things are represented in an external villain or antagonist of some kind who opposes the Hero outright. This opposition becomes the main source of tension in the story. Vogler also makes the point that the Shadow doesn’t have to be evil, rather it’s more like the Shadow is working on his/her own quest or Journey and it just so happens that our Hero is in direct opposition to the Shadow’s goals. Only one of the two can achieve victory, for there is no way to reconcile their opposing desires.
In Rango, to continue the example I started using above, there are two such shadows. The external Shadow is the mayor, who is buying up all the land with plans to build a modern city that will make him a huge profit, but the internal Shadow is Rango’s own doubts about himself, his lack of belief in himself and his own certainty that he has no identity. It’s not until after he overcomes those internal Shadows and discovers his identity that he has the ability to overcome the external Shadow and foil the mayor’s plans.
Mentor/Guide
The Hero cannot become what he/she needs to be without the Mentor. Vogler calls the Mentor the psychological Self, which is the part of us that is our best, wisest, purest, etc. This is usually a character, but could also manifest as a book, the Hero’s conscience, or other non-character forces. The primary function of the Mentor is to prepare the Hero for the inevitable confrontation with the Shadow. This will include giving the Hero gifts, protection, and lessons.
This may have something to do with me being a teacher, but I find Mentor characters the most fun to write and do different things with. They can be willing or unwilling, good or evil, Shadows in disguise, or gods in disguise, and an infinite number of other possibilities. The Mentor colors and shapes the Hero’s understanding the world beyond that normal place where the Hero began and shows the Hero how to face the Shadow – if that Mentor turns out to be corrupt, what will the Hero do then? In Rango, there are two Mentor figures that spring readily to mind. One is the Armadillo that tries to cross the highway and the other is the Spirit of the West that the lizard meets while on his quest to find his identity. Each one only appears briefly, gives the advice that’s needed, and then moves on. Of course, you could also have a Mentor who stays with the Hero too long and works with the Hero too much, and explore how that would help and hinder the Hero in different ways.
What do you think?
What are some of your favorite stories and who or what takes on these roles in those stories? Can you think of any stories that lack a Hero, Shadow, or Mentor? Leave a comment with your thoughts!
