Campbell`s Theory of Hero`s Adventures on the Example of Abdulrahman Zeitoun and The Hero with a Thousand Faces - Essay Example

Abdulrahman Zeitoun and the Hero with a Thousand Faces Joseph Campbell had presented to a world his book with a mysterious name “The hero with a thousand faces.” He sought to enable his readers to learn and understand the meaning of the symbols in a given story and to make logical sense of it. Having analyzed thousands of fairy-tales, myths and religious stories, Campbell has made up a theory of hero’s adventures which is comprised of several phases, including: departure, initiation and return. Campbell’s theory of the Adventure of the Hero will be presented below and laid over two different works: “Zeitoun” by Dave Eggers and “The Man who quit money” by Mark Sundeen. According to Joseph Campbell, the hero’s adventure starts with the phase of Departure and includes several stages of development. These are, the call to adventure, refusal of the call, supernatural aid, the crossing of the first threshold, and the belly of the whale. “Call to Adventure” is the first stage of the mythological journey. It signifies that destiny has called upon the hero and shifted his spiritual nature from within the pale of his society to an unknown zone (Campbell 53). The unknown zone is symbolic of a shift to a foreign and distant land. A comparative projection of Zeitoun’s story reveals conformity to the “Call to Adventure.” The series of events in Zeitoun’s life offer sufficient evidence. Foremost, Zeitoun is not a native of America. He Migrated to United States from Syria. Therefore, United States is a foreign land to Zeitoun and thus symbolic of the unknown zone described by Campbell. Second, his homeland background of Syria defined his spiritual center of gravity that shaped his virtuous and brave character. The life skills he gained while working in Syria proved vital in his ultimate fate with Hurricane Katrina. Consequently, his migration to America represents the transference of his spiritual center of gravity to serve a purpose that is only known to destiny. Finally the climax of the “Call to Adventure,” is evident when Mother Nature spews forth Hurricane Katrina. The storm is symbolic of the beginning of the mythological journey to heroism described by Campbell. At this stage, Zeitoun’s story conforms to the first phase of Campbell’s theory. On the other hand, Daniel Suelo presents a different perspective in reference to the “Call to Adventure” stage. Daniel Suelo unanimously decided to quite money and embarked on a life of solitude in the Utah canyon lands. The decision by Suelo is influenced by his disillusionment with money and choice to live differently from the contemporary society. The precincts of a hero’s “Call to Adventure” are defined by destiny. Destiny represents the unknown impending realities along the hero’s path. However, Suelo’s current status has in no way been curved by destiny rather by his own psychological decisions. His choice of quitting money and opting for a life in the wilderness is premeditated rather than defined by destiny. Moreover, the Utah Canyon lands do not represent a land unknown to him. He is well within the boundaries of his native land and his choice of wilderness is influenced by the apparent knowledge of the Utah canyon lands. At this juncture, Daniel Suelo does not conform to Campbell’s theory. The next stage is marked by ‘a failure or resistance to response to a call.’ The hero in certain circumstances often fails to respond to the call due to several reasons. In light of Zeitoun’s story, the impending hurricane symbolizes the threat that Zeitoun needs to respond to. The effects of the storm are bound to be catastrophic. Despite the legal warning and Kathy’s requests, Abdulrahman has made a decision not to leave the city. His brave character that is symbolic of heroes is evident from his decision to stay and protect their home and business ventures. However, his decision does not jeopardize the safety of his family since they all depart for Baton Rouge. Zeitoun had a strong innate feeling that God was directing him to stay. His driving motive for staying was guided by spiritual intervention from God. Consequently the spiritual intervention provided him with courage to face his destiny. This is step, further advances conformity of Zeitoun’s story to Campbell theory. Daniel Suelo’s narrative does not reveal any hint of a refusal to call. Contrary to this, his life exhibits an acceptance to the call rather than refusal. There is no one or any situation that expresses a ‘refusal to the call’ rather than his personal displeasure with the enslavement of money and global economic crisis. Consequently, this stage does not conform to Campbell’s theory. If the hero does not refuse the call, the first person he meets is a protective figure, who gives the adventurer certain piece of protection, amulets (Campbell 63). In Eggers’ narrative, there is no clearly articulated protective figure of Zeitoun or whom he was expected to meet. However, there was a call from his older brother and closest friend Ahmad who was deeply concerned about Zeitoun’s wellbeing. Later in the story, the reader is getting more acquainted with Abdulrahman’s family, especially about his brother Mohammed. Probably, here relevant amulets were pictures of his brother Mohammed and memories of his fame; it was the memory of his brother that had inspired Zeitoun not to refuse the call. Watching through Mohammed’s photos he always told himself that: “All he could do now was honor his brother’s memory; be strong, be brave, be true; endure; be as good as Mohamed was” (Eggers 69). The protective figure theory stage is evident in Daniel Suelo’s story. He confesses to a spiritual ethic founded on faith. His faith has acted as his spiritual aid and enabled him to live a simple life devoid of money. He believes that faith eliminates his fear of the unknown and fostered a character of trusting that all his needs will be met. The next stage of the hero’s adventure is approaching “a threshold guardian” at the entrance to the zone of magnified power (Campbell, 71). Zeitoun’s story represents threshold guardians in the face of a natural disaster and flooded city as a result of hurricane Katrina. Thus, he passes a threshold on his canoe. Despite the prior warnings and advice from his wife Kathy and elder brother Ahmad, Zeitoun keeps firm with his decision to stay in the city and provide his help to anybody in need. His help has no boundaries as he extends it to both human beings and animals. Applying Campbell’s model, it is possible to say that Abdulrahman performs a conscious passage on his canoe beyond the veil of the known into the unknown where anyone with competence and courage make the danger to fade (Campbell 76). In light of Daniel Suelo’s scenario, the approach to “a threshold guardian” is symbolically evident from the shedding of all his money and embracing a wilderness lifestyle. He places a complete trust in nature to provide all his basic needs. He adapts nature’s survival tactics such as scavenging for road kill and wild food. ‘The Belly of the Whale’ represents the last stage of departure phase. It is symbolic of a transit paradigm for the hero where he disappears for some time and the society around him fears that death might have conspired against him. Thus, Zeitun appears in “the belly of the federal government system and human ignorance”. His arbitrary arrest and detention without charge marks the beginning of his departure from society. He is swallowed by the federal machine employed by the state. In other words he is imprisoned! Daniel Suelo on the other hand does not exhibit conformance to the ‘Belly of the whale.’ Despite his choice of living within the caves he has not totally disappeared from the social sphere. He always maintained a close interaction with family, friend and strangers. In his twelve years life of simplicity there is no instance of him disappearing out of sight from the society. ‘The Road of Trials’ is the beginning of the second phase of hero’s adventures. It hailed the beginning of new trials and tribulations to the hero. which brings him new trials. The Road of Trials for Zeitoun starts with hurricane Katrina and helping everybody whom he can help. It ends with his imprisonment by the federal government, and all the humiliations he had suffered while in prison. Here, it is possible to mention few key trials for Zeitoun. First, the psychological trial caused by the impossibility to phone Kathy and inform her that he is alive and in prison. Second, the rude, discriminating behavior of the policemen and prison guards. These included strip checkups, animal treatment in cages; observing of violent treatment of other prisoners, etc. All these trials seriously impacted Abdulrahman and made him to persevere spiritually by seeking comfort in Allah and prayers. For Daniel Suelo, his road of trials is marked by the challenges of scavenging for food and having to adjust to the hard life in the Utah wilderness. Consequently, at this stage both characters are in conformity to Campbell’s theory. The next stage of in the initiation phase is the meeting with Goddess (who is incarnate in every woman) (109). Zeitun is already in love with his wife Kathy and during the whole story both spouses demonstrate mutual love and devotion to each other. At the early beginning of the story they are drawn apart from each other due to the hurricane and further Abdulrhaman’s imprisonment. But after three weeks trial spent in prison, Zeitoun reunites with his wife Kathy, and family. Furthermore, Campbell also alludes to the possibility of the hero being tempted by a woman or atonement with the father. This does not work in Zeitoun’s scenario because Abdulrahman’s father is dead and there is no conflict in their relationships. On reflection to Daniel Suelo, Campbell’s theory stage of meeting with the Goddess is not applicable. There is no evidence of a pending reunion with an old flame. David Suelos’s lifestyle seems to be devoted solely to the Utah canyon lands. The following stage of hero’s adventure is called apotheosis and suggests that the hero should have passed the way of reborn or reincarnation. Rendering this assumption to Zeitoun, a reader can hardly find any significant change in Abdulrahman’s behavior. He had undergone a great degree of mistreatment that had rendered him ashamed and could not recover from what he had undergone in prison. This behavior indicated that Zeitoun’s ego had not died in order to release a new personality and bring “elixir” to the society. Daniel Suelo appears to have undergone apotheosis due to his newly acquired state of happiness and contentment with his new lifestyle. The final phase of Campbell’s theory defines the scenario of the heroes return. In the return stage, Abdulrahman returns back to his home in New Orleans and attempts to reconstruct his family home and business ventures. However, his return is plagued by difficulties such as reconstructing and refurbishing of his house that was looted by vandals during his incarcerations. This stage encompasses the ‘refusal of the return by the world.’ In the end, Zeitoun has evidently become a ‘master of the two worlds.’ Foremost, he has experienced the natural disaster from the Hurricane. Second, he has proved his heroism by helping out the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Third, he has experienced the harsh treatment by villains accorded to the heros in the society. Consequently, he has survived all the trials and tribulations in his path and emerged as a true hero. Evidently, the story of Abdulrahman Zeitoun resonates with Joseph Campbell’s theory On the flip side Daniel Suelo has failed to reach the threshold parameters of Campbell’s last phase in return. Daniel Suelo’s scenario does not depict a man seeking to return to society. Moreover, his life story does not sufficiently reflect the three phases of Campbell’s theory. Consequently, Daniel Suelo does not depict the character and experiences of a true hero. Works Cited Campbell, Joseph. The hero with a thousand faces. 2nd ed. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 19681949. Print. Eggers, Dave. Zeitoun. San Francisco: McSweeney's Books, 2009. Print. Sundeen, Mark. The man who quit money. New York: Riverhead Books, 2012. Print. Read More