Hero’s Journey Project

Homer’s The Odyssey and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird

Hero’s Journey:Homer’s

The Odyssey

Departure

InitiationReturn

Refusal of the Call

Refusal of the Call

• When called to Troy to fight in the Trojan war, Odysseus feigns insanity, “He had been warned by an oracle that if he went to Troy he would return home…after twenty years…he put on a cap, pretending madness, and yoked a horse and an ox to the plow [to salt the earth]. Palamedes felt he was pretending when he saw this, and taking his son Telemachus from the cradle, put him in front of the plow” (Hyginus, Fabulae 95). This is a direct refusal of the call in the purest sense – Odysseus seeks to shirk his epic responsibilities; this hero strains to dodge his fate.

Hero’s Journey:Homer’s

The Odyssey

Departure

InitiationReturn

Refusal of the Call

Road of Trials

Road of Trials• During his troubled journey in

Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus has to survive a sequence of tests, “Square in your ship’s path are Sirens, crying beauty to bewitch men…[then] the den of Scylla, where she yaps abominably…and Charybdis lurks below to swallow down the dark sea tide” (Book 12, 4-5, 43-44, 62-63). After returning from the underworld, Odysseus has to circumvent and/or survive a series of epic obstacles before reaching Ithaca.

Hero’s Journey:Homer’s

The Odyssey

Departure

InitiationReturn

Refusal of the Call

Road of Trials

Freedom to Live

Freedom to Live• Finally after returning home,

exterminating the suitors, and convincing Penelope of his true identity, Odysseus’ journey comes to an end in The Odyssey. In the final scene of the epic poem, Odysseus and Penelope cling to one another “as the sunwarmed earth is longed for by a swimmer spent in rough water where his ship went down” (Book 23, 84-85). Having survived twenty years of war and wandering, Odysseus has finally earned the right to rest and remain.

Hero’s Journey:Harper Lee’s

To Kill a Mockingbird

Departure

InitiationReturn

Call to Adventure

Call to Adventure

• When Judge Tate elects Atticus Finch to handle the Robinson case, Atticus knows this task will prove pivotal, “I’m simply defending a Negro – his name’s Tom Robinson…if I didn’t I couldn’t hold up my head in town…every lawyer gets at least one case in his lifetime that affects him personally. This one’s mine” (Lee 86). After his appointment to Robinson’s defense, Mr. Finch steps into his journey outlined in Harper Lee’s stunning novel despite the dangers to his family and to himself.

Hero’s Journey:Harper Lee’s

To Kill a Mockingbird

Departure

InitiationReturn

Call to Adventure

Road of Trials

Road of Trials

• Atticus guns down the mad dog, Tim Johnson, as he stands heroically in the street but his troubles are far from over, “Atticus pushed his glasses to his forehead; they slipped down…I heard them crack…The rifle cracked. Tim Johnson leaped, flopped over and crumpled…‘Don’t go near that dog…he’s just as dangerous dead as alive’” (Lee 110). His tribulations are actually just truly beginning and Johnson acts as a herald of doom, foreshadowing the obstacles and events quickly approaching on Atticus’ heroic horizon.

Hero’s Journey:Harper Lee’s

To Kill a Mockingbird

Departure

InitiationReturn

Call to Adventure

Road of Trials

Freedom to Live

Freedom to Live• After surviving both Tom Robinson’s

trial and its repercussions, Atticus is free to step out of his heroic role and reassume his proper place as the guiding Father, “He turned out the light and went into Jem’s room. He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning” (Lee 323). Having survived his hero’s journey, Finch has earned the privilege of returning to his private family life – to raise his two children to confront the world he has helped to improve.

Works Cited• Allen, Janet. "The Odyssey." Holt McDougal Literature: Texas Grade 9.

Texas ed. Evanston, Ill.: Holt McDougal, a division of Houghton

Mifflin Harcourt, 2010. 1185-1288. Print.

• "Classical E-Text: HYGINUS, FABULAE 50 - 99." THEOI GREEK

MYTHOLOGY, Exploring Mythology & the Greek Gods in Classical

Literature & Art. http://www.theoi.com

• Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Perennial Modern Classics,

2002. Print.