Boredom in the Hero's Journey

 


The Hero’s Journey is something that we have all probably heard before, and something that may even seem instinctual when we see it in practice. Though, some parts of it are just really boring. For instance, in my book club group, we are reading Purple Hibiscus, and to be fair, there are some fascinating ideas – the effects of being very religious, devotion to parents, stepping into a different realm and seeing new perspectives – but ultimately, the interest sort of fades away with all the details of, what I would consider to be, unnecessary dialogue and events.

There’s one other place that I’ve seen this type of occurrence regarding the Hero’s Journey: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. There is a film critic who explains it very well (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeP42zUIF-c), but to quickly summarize, the Hero’s Journey is cut into half, and that first half is the first of the two Deathly Hallows movies. We see the literal journey of Harry, but we don’t see any retribution, transformation, or what that journey culminates to in the same movie. We are basically left thinking, ‘so what?’

But, even though we sometimes have to put up with the boredom, I can see one upside to spending so much time in the first half of the Hero’s Journey, whether it be in Purple Hibiscus or Deathly Hallows Part 1: it’s realistic. Realistic in the sense that I don’t really have to question a character’s line of reasoning or how they are progressing, even if the progression is slow. Like in Purple Hibiscus, when Kambili takes two steps forward, but one step back to her roots, yes, the story will automatically progress slower, but I can understand the reasoning for what happens.

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