Summary:
The Approach to the Inmost Cave and the Ordeal are two important stages of his hero’s journey. The Approach to the Inmost Cave is when the hero enters a new zone with its own Threshold Guardians, agendas, and tests. There are a few different approaches the hero can take to the inmost cave. He can use the courtship approach or the bold approach. Vougler uses different parts of The Wizard of OZ to explain the different stages in the approach to the Inmost Cave. Before the hero can move forward he has to get a plan of action. The heroes will need to regroup and make plans. There are obstacles and threshold guardians along the way in this approach to in inmost cave. Obstacles and illusions may also stand in the heros way and temporarily prevent him from making progress. Tests, high stakes and complications may deter the hero and make it necessary for him to reorganize and ready his defenses. At the end of this approach to the inmost cave there is no turning back the hero must get ready to face the ordeal and the potential life or death situation.
The Ordeal is the main event in hero’s story. The main point of the Ordeal for the hero to die so that he can be reborn. This is when the biggest change occurs in the hero. The Ordeal often involves the hero’s innermost fears.The rebirth of the hero impowers him to continue fighting these challenges. The Ordeal is a crisis and not the climax of the story. This part of the story is the most dramatic and causes the most tension. The hero comes close to death, may appear to die, and may even witness the death of others. The next step after cheating death involves a reward.
Reaction:
Vougler talked about Demonization and how, “no matter how Alien the villains values are they are the dark reflection of the hero’s own desires, magnified and distorted, her greatest fears come to life.” This is an interesting concept. That perhaps the hero and the villain could both have the same deep dark desires. I think this explain how in some movies a character that may start out as a hero but turn into a villain. Sometimes the hero gets caught up in the power he or she accumulates and gives into the dark desires of their heart. I think we also see this in manifest in life sometimes people you think are hero’s or role models and you look up to them, but power can change people and motivate them to give in to dark desires.
Q’s: Keeping in mind Vougler’s definition of demonization, can you think of a film in which the hero becomes the villain?
Do you think if you encountered a near death experience in your own life it would be powerful enough to change you so much that in a sense you would become reborn?
What do you think about the “death of the ego” where the hero embraces the god within and find a deeper meaning and connectedness to the world around him, instead of just living for himself? Could this be considered the most important stage in the Ordeal?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I absolutely believe that a near death experience would allow me to become reborn because it would allow me to appreciate things that I once took for granted. I also think to get “reborn” doesn’t exactly entail a near death experience. Being “reborn” can occur after a life altering experience where you were then “reborn” because you viewed the world in a different light. The experience doesn’t have to be death but something significant that made you appreciate things more because we sometimes tend to get wrapped up in unimportant things.
We at least once in our lives experience things that make us more humble, compassionate, and more focused on what is truly important to us. It’s when we go on these "journeys" and experience a "new world" and experience a near “death” incident that we learn who and what we truly care about.
Post a Comment