What makes a hero? - by RBL

What Makes a Hero?

Hello, this is RBL and welcome to my third and final action project for my class called Stories. In this unit, we learned about the theories of the hero’s journey and how different characters change throughout different stories. If you don't already know, the hero's journey is a theory made by Joseph Campbell. It is a theory based on the idea that most known heroes in common literature go through. Connected to that, we also talked about the different ways the hero's journey can be different from one another. We also got to talk about different plots for a hero's journey as well. For example, one of our field experiences was watching the movie, "The Matrix" to get a better look at the hero's journey in a really popular movie. We also got to go to Armani's Howard's art studio to see how he encapsulates the hero's journey in his art. This all led up to our action. In this action project, I'm going to take a fictional hero and compare it to a hero I know in real life.


The fictional hero that I chose was Morpheus from The Matrix movie. I chose this hero because I really liked his journey throughout the first movie and seeing the ways he grew. His mentor relationship with Neo is very entertaining to watch and see how it changes throughout the story. Morpheus taught Neo a lot of important lessons throughout the movie which led to Neo using some of those things to save Morpheus in the end of it. Morpheus in the Matrix was always a very calm and relaxed person and is able to fix a lot of problems under pressure. Now along with my fictional hero, I had to choose a nonfictional hero that I know in real life. The hero I chose for that was JS; JS is a social worker and therapist. I wanted to choose him because I get along with him really well. JS also helps me overcome a lot of my own personal challenges like Morpheus does for Neo. Like Morpheus, JS helps a lot of people overcome different hardships in their lives so they can move on for the better. In their journeys, they are not only fighting for themselves, but are fighting for others against something that is bigger than just the two of them.


The main part of my action project was to create a visual representation of the journey that my heroes went through. Here’s a link to the Prezi I created based on the hero's journey. I hope you enjoy the journey!