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Linh Nguyen

ENG 102

Professor John Zubizarreta

February 2, 2017

The Symbol of the Heros Adventure with Theirand Destiny

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural

wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero

comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow

man. (23)

Given above is Joseph Campbells concept of the monomyth. Thus, we can observe that

there are a lot of similar stories of heroes which hashave already existed for a long time. One of

the reasons for that similarity is coming from the common desire of humans. The hero is built on

the humans wish to discovering the secret of their destiny, and the courage to follow it until the

end of the journey. Paulo Coelhos and his book, The Alchemist, is a typical example of this

idea.[use quotation marks for titles of short works, italics for titles of long works, but never both]

In Campbells book, Hero with a tThousand fFaces, he mentions his cycle of the

monomyth thatand how the journey of a heroes usually begins with a normal life. Then, they are

called to the adventure through signs or symbols, which is given to them in a certain time of

their lifves.[Notice that pronouns and their antecedent should agree: in this case all should be

plural] Each person in this world is born with a hidden destiny and fate that is waiting to be

discovered in theirhis or her later life[here the pronoun agreement should be singular]. However,
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sometimes, people have not discovered their path yet, and it might take them a long time or

maybe forever. Thus, heroes are created to represent and do it for humans. We tell this story to

express the hope that everyone can also be given signs which lead them to their destiny. In a

Paulo Coelho book, The Alchemist, Santiago is a shepherd wanting to have a big adventure in

his life. However, he is not willing to begin his journey until he has a dream of a kid telling him

to go searching for the treasure in Egypt, an old Gypsy woman telling him to go for it, and an old

king of Salem telling him to take the risk for once in his life. As we can see, finding a destiny

and having enough courage to pursue it isare a very difficult process. In the real life, very few

people have enough luck to meet all the signs like Santiago., From that, human shows

theirsuggesting a hope that everyone will be guided and encouraged to start their destiny.

Finding a destiny is just the beginning, [Be careful with comma splice error when you

use a comma to join independent or main clauses; remember that a semi-colon properly joins

main clauses.]having enough courage to follow it is the next challenge. Looking at Santiagos

journey to finding the hidden treasure in The Alchemist, we can see that he has to go through a

lot of challenges, loss, and pain. According to Campbell, those are what everyall heroes hashave

to face when they cross the threshold, into the darkness. Challenges madke them cross their safe

border, and push them further[again, watch for pronoun agreement]. When Santiago goes to

Egypt, the local people deceived him. He loses all his money in a strange country. Santiago loses

the money but what he gets back is much more precious. He has a chance to work at a crystal

shop, learns the language without words, and understand that he has to listen and identify the

omens around him. Still, it is not yet The whales belly, [if this is a direct quotation, give the

page number in a parenthetical note]which Campbell presents as the darkness and most difficult

task in a heros life. The temptation of a wealthy livfe with the stocker and a happy livfe with his
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lover are the most difficult task that Santiago has to defeat. Are we brave enough to quit a

wealthy and happy life to pursue an uncertain dream? Do we accept to let go everything and

follow what our heart says? Santiago does. He chooses to get out of the stable life and goes back

to his unfinished journey. He has learnt to listen to the signs and understand that he has to

continue. Every day, humans faces with many distractions in life and works. This the time when

humans creates stories and builds a perfect hero icon, who is willing to take the risk and step into

the darkness. Therefore, through a hero, we can understand the dream and wishes of our

ancestors are to have enough courage and talent to follow theirour dream to the end.

Campbell wrote in his book that everyall heroes must finally go back fromto the

beginning point, and end the cycle of the monomyth. In the end of every hero journey, an

unexpected treasure is always there to amaze them[again, watch pronoun agreement]. After

traveling through the desert, Santiago realizes that the treasure is not far away but right at his

daily stop for the sheep, the beginning place of his journey. However, the ultimate treasure is not

the trunk full of gold, buried in his hometown. The real treasure is that Santiago finally finds his

destiny and goes through an adventure as he has always wished to. The journey is the treasure

itself. Moreover, the stories, heroes, and fantasy world are where they satisfy humans desire or

showing their hope that these stories could be a sign for the next generation to realize and pursue

their destiny. The next generation can read these stories and know that their dream can be true if

they are willing to step into the threshold and face the challenges. The hero life is our humans

creation of dream and hope for a better future.

All in all, Campbell has introduced the concept of monomyth as a pattern which is

applied to many heroes stories. Every hero has to go through 3 main stages: departure, initiation,

return. Humans uses some of those stories to show their desire offor an ideal person, who is
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willing to step into the threshold, go through the journey, and head to theirhis or her destiny.

Santiago in Coelhos book, The Alchemist is a clear illustration of Campbells concept and our

universal humans desire. He goes through every stage of the monomyth and helps the readers

learn the most important lesson: the physical treasures are just in front of us,; [again, semi-colons

can properly join independent clauses]the spiritual journey is all about finding ourselves.

WordWorks Cited

Campbell, Joseph. Hero with A Thousand Faces. Princeton University Press, November, 1971.

Coelho, Paulo. The Alchemist. Harper Torch, 1993.

Linh, your brief study of how Santiago in The Alchemist follows the universal pattern of the
heros journey as described by Campbells theory of the monomyth helps us to see how the hero
archetype is present in a variety of texts across many story traditions. Santiagos quest offers
many parallels to other stories of the heros journey of self-discovery.

The writing here is pretty good, too, especially given your second-language challenges, but I
hope you will be able to review the detailed corrections and suggestions in the feedback to see
how you can improve with more careful editing of your work. One issue that seems to recur is
pronoun agreement. Except for a comma splice error, the rest are relatively minor, and I think
you demonstrate enough skills to be able to locate them and know how to respond and improve.
Im happy to answer any questions you have about the feedback. Overall, I appreciate your
apparent good sense of organization and development, always very important components of
effective writing. Keep it up. Grade: B+.