The Hero's Journey and Lost

[skatertsol]

So I found this website http://library.thinkquest.org/19300/data/Odyssey/odysseus2.htm talking about the Hero's Journey as in the Odyssey by Homer. So many books have allusions back to this poem, it's probably right up there with the Bible in that regard. In another thread I posted something about the similarity and thinking about Odysseus' wife being named Penelope, he left to sail around the world, etc. etc. I don't know how many of you have read the book, or HAD to read the book in school and didn't really care for it, but look at this website and tell me there's not some definite similarities, if not just for Desmond, but all the characters in the show....Jack and his father issues comes to mind for me. We already know Greek mythology has an influence on the show, and I think it's safe to say that in some part it's an allusion to this in many ways. Would help explain the smoke monster and polar bears on an island at least ;) I know that we will get more scientific explanations, but just thought I'd share this.

[mahalo_dude]

Yes, the writers give nods to several classic writings. I love how they make these references very seamless and smooth, such as the case with Penny and Desmond.

[skatertsol]

i've been looking and can't find it, but I know there is also some mythological reference to vincent the dog I just can't remember what it is....someone help me out plz!!

[Rain13]

It's taking every ounce of my will to not write a ten page post about the "journey of the hero" since this concept is something that I've studied pretty extensively and find really fascinating, so I'm going to try to keep this brief! (I wrote a pretty long post about it in the 'Theories' forum in the thread called "I know the answer..." if you want to get into more detail).

Basically, a scholar named Joseph Campbell wrote a lot about the idea that there is a common "archetype" for the journey of a hero that exists in all people from every culture. This is the reason why we can find so many similarities in myths across different cultures and time periods. The reason for this, Campbell says, is that all of us have engrained in our unconscious something called the "monomyth", which is a pattern that can be found in nearly any story. The Psychologist Carl Jung referred to something called the "Collective Unconscious", which was the common experience and consciousness that all humans share. While not taking this idea 100% literally, the concept of the "monomyth" states that the reason we all end up writing essentially the same "hero epic" again and again except with different details and in different settings is because there is something about it that we can all relate to, no matter what culture we are from.

Campbell literally wrote an outline for this "monomyth", (which you can read about here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth) and remarkably you can find exact matches to it in many stories, particularly the Oddyssey, but also the Bible and many, many other famous stories. One interesting thing that has happened is that since Campbell has formulated this theory, many authors and screenwriters have realized that writing a story to match this "monomyth" outline generally produces a very good story! For example, George Lucas has come right out and said that he was an avid fan of Campbell's work and crafted the original Star Wars trilogy to fit with the idea of the "monomyth" (go try to match up Star Wars to it, it's very fun). So the similarities in Lost are likely a combination of two things: 1. the stories we as humans write typically end up including these common elements just because of our human nature, and 2. just like you pointed out in another thread, the writers of Lost definately like to use all their acquired knowledge from college to work on their stories, and they likely learned about the "monomyth" and are incorporating its elements into their plotlines.

It's funny, I took a class devoted solely to this idea in college thinking that it would just be something fun and interesting with no particular use, but I'm constantly finding myself talking about this idea and it seems to have so many real-world applications. If you ever get a chance, read Campbell's book "The Hero With a Thousand Faces".

[skatertsol]

It's taking every ounce of my will to not write a ten page post about the "journey of the hero" since this concept is something that I've studied pretty extensively and find really fascinating, so I'm going to try to keep this brief! (I wrote a pretty long post about it in the 'Theories' forum in the thread called "I know the answer..." if you want to get into more detail).

Basically, a scholar named Joseph Campbell wrote a lot about the idea that there is a common "archetype" for the journey of a hero that exists in all people from every culture. This is the reason why we can find so many similarities in myths across different cultures and time periods. The reason for this, Campbell says, is that all of us have engrained in our unconscious something called the "monomyth", which is a pattern that can be found in nearly any story. The Psychologist Carl Jung referred to something called the "Collective Unconscious", which was the common experience and consciousness that all humans share. While not taking this idea 100% literally, the concept of the "monomyth" states that the reason we all end up writing essentially the same "hero epic" again and again except with different details and in different settings is because there is something about it that we can all relate to, no matter what culture we are from.

Campbell literally wrote an outline for this "monomyth", (which you can read about here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth) and remarkably you can find exact matches to it in many stories, particularly the Oddyssey, but also the Bible and many, many other famous stories. One interesting thing that has happened is that since Campbell has formulated this theory, many authors and screenwriters have realized that writing a story to match this "monomyth" outline generally produces a very good story! For example, George Lucas has come right out and said that he was an avid fan of Campbell's work and crafted the original Star Wars trilogy to fit with the idea of the "monomyth" (go try to match up Star Wars to it, it's very fun). So the similarities in Lost are likely a combination of two things: 1. the stories we as humans write typically end up including these common elements just because of our human nature, and 2. just like you pointed out in another thread, the writers of Lost definately like to use all their acquired knowledge from college to work on their stories, and they likely learned about the "monomyth" and are incorporating its elements into their plotlines.

It's funny, I took a class devoted solely to this idea in college thinking that it would just be something fun and interesting with no particular use, but I'm constantly finding myself talking about this idea and it seems to have so many real-world applications. If you ever get a chance, read Campbell's book "The Hero With a Thousand Faces".
Thank you thank you thank you....I knew there was something more conclusive that we studied in Humanities relating to the Hero's Journey-It was Campbell. I didn't read the book (will now, for sure) but we went over his outline of the journey....I think there was something to do with the father in it as well....we went over several and it was 6 or 7 years ago (wow I'm getting old) but I definetly remember Campbell. Thanks for all the information and glad I wasn't the only one drawing the connection ;)