The Hero with a Thousand Faces Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Hero with a Thousand Faces - Essay Example As per Campbell’s Monomyth, the journey of a hero is confined to a sequence of actions that includes three main stages, namely, - Departure, Initiation and Return. From these sequences, we could get a better idea about the phases that a hero undergoes and how his life would probably get transformed with each phase. Now let’s take a stance to discuss about two real life personalities, Daniel Suelo, the protagonist of the book The Man Who Quit Money and Abdulrahman Zeitoun, the primary character of the book Zeitoun. Could they be considered as a hero, on the schema of Campbell’s Monomyth? Let’s analyze this question further ahead to sort out the possibilities of these two characters to be claimed as a hero. Dave Eggers, in his book, Zeitoun portrays the life of Abdulrahman Zeitoun as a simple and loving man who lives in New Orleans with his family. However, the arrival of Hurricane Katrina collapses the lives of the people residing in the coastal regions in New Orleans. With his small canoe, Zeitoun aids his neighbors by rescuing them and even their animals, and also make arrangements to provide food, water and other essentials to the needy. Soon after the hurricane, abrupt changes encounter his life. He was fallaciously arrested by the police officials on account of suspicion for withholding possessions. During his incarceration, the torments he faced at the hands of the police were merely intolerable. He was treated inhumanely mainly on the basis of his ethnicity. Finally, he was released after the authorities understood his innocence. When the life of Zeitoun is focused, it conforms well to the Campbell’s notion of a hero. He lives in an ordinary world, with his wife and four children, holding his own business in the New Orleans. The departure phase of his journey is started with the onset of hurricane. He set forth his way crossing the threshold to face various challenges, which included imprisonment and eventually he returned back to his community. At the start, the call for adventure arrives for him in the form of a destructive hurricane that hit the coast. The awakening call for him was the natural calamity which gave him the arousal and pushed him to aid the needy people during the hurricane. It brought out the kindness and the generosity in him, and made him to deliver to his people and help them in the times of need. As a hero, he went forth on his own volition to accomplish the adventure. (Campbell 48). In his initiation stage of journey, he is destined to face various trials that reveal the true ch aracter within him. As Campbell states, â€Å"The composite hero of the monomyth is a personage of exceptional gifts. Frequently he is honored by his society, frequently unrecognized or disdained† (Campbell 29). These quotes aptly fit to the life of Zeitoun. Being hailed as a rescuer by his community people during the hurricane, soon after, he was imprisoned wrongly by the officials of the state and made to undergo intolerable trials. It was during his incarceration that he has to withstand all his emotional as well as physical temptations in order to endure the suffering. He was detained in a Greyhound bus stand on the suspicion of him being a terrorist, which was primarily due to his ethnicity or religion. During the imprisonment, he was denied medical aids and was even prevented from informing his family about his imprisonment.