The Hero's Journey and Jon Snow

[hollowcrown]

Some of you may be aware of the monomyth, or the hero's journey, popularised by Joseph Campbell. I was pretty bored so I decided to go through individual sections of it and try to apply it to Jon's story and hopefully you guys can offer opinions and see what other characters could fit the monomyth. And yes i'm aware George loves subverting tropes so this might not be applicable for anyone at all, but Jon seems the most likely character.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth#The_Hero.27s_Journey

The 16 Stages of the Monomyth
1. The Call to Adventure
The hero begins in a mundane situation of normality from which some information is received that acts as a call to head off into the unknown.

This part of the journey is clearly Jon leaving his childhood home of Winterfell to join the Night's Watch, as Benjen tells him of dark things around The Wall. 1/16

2. Refusal of the Call
Often when the call is given, the future hero first refuses to heed it. This may be from a sense of duty or obligation, fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons that work to hold the person in his or her current circumstances.

Jon never really refuses the call - he is a bastard and has always been expecting and hoping to join the Night's Watch his whole life. Although this could represent when he's going to leave the Night's Watch to fight with Robb after Ned's death. 1/16

3. Supernatural Aid
Once the hero has committed to the quest, consciously or unconsciously, his guide and magical helper appears, or becomes known. More often than not, this supernatural mentor will present the hero with one or more talismans or artifacts that will aid them later in their quest.

Jon doesn't have a supernatural figure aside from Ghost, but he has Sam at the beginning of his quest, as well as Maester Aemon, both wizardly and sage-like characters. Eventually Melisandre does become his supernatural advisor. Mormont gives him an ancient talisman/artefact, the old Valyrian steel sword Longclaw. He also has a mystical albino Direwolf as his companion. 2/16

4. Crossing The Threshold
This is the point where the person actually crosses into the field of adventure, leaving the known limits of his or her world and venturing into an unknown and dangerous realm where the rules and limits are not known.

Jon killing the Wight and going on his first ranging mission across the wall with the NW fufils this part of the journey. 3/16

5. Belly of The Whale
The belly of the whale represents the final separation from the hero's known world and self. By entering this stage, the person shows willingness to undergo a metamorphosis.

Killing Qhorin Halfhand and joining with the Wildings into a completely new society is definitely the "belly of the whale" part of Jon Snow's journey. 4/16

6. The Road of Trials
The road of trials is a series of tests, tasks, or ordeals that the person must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests, which often occur in threes.

Interesting one...Jon has had many trials. He passed the trial to stay loyal to the Night's Watch as he didn't go south to join up with Robb and fight Joffrey. He broke his vows however by sleeping with Ygritte, however remained true by fleeing the wildlings to rejoin the NW. 5/16

7. The Meeting With the Goddess
This is the point when the person experiences a love that has the power and significance of the all-powerful, all encompassing, unconditional love that a fortunate infant may experience with his or her mother. This is a very important step in the process and is often represented by the person finding the other person that he or she loves most completely.

Interesting one again! Jon hasn't had a mother figure, but he does meet up with Melisandre, which may be important as she is the representative of Rh'llor, the Lord of Light. Jon's story so far is not complete though so I don't think we can count it yet, but it could possibly fufil this step. 5/16

8. Woman as Temptress
In this step, the hero faces those temptations, often of a physical or pleasurable nature, that may lead him or her to abandon or stray from his or her quest, which does not necessarily have to be represented by a woman. Woman is a metaphor for the physical or material temptations of life, since the hero-knight was often tempted by lust from his spiritual journey.

It is clear that Ygritte represents this temptation. 6/16

9. Atonement with the Father
In this step the person must confront and be initiated by whatever holds the ultimate power in his or her life. In many myths and stories this is the father, or a father figure who has life and death power. This is the center point of the journey. All the previous steps have been moving into this place, all that follow will move out from it. Although this step is most frequently symbolized by an encounter with a male entity, it does not have to be a male; just someone or thing with incredible power.

This could have many meanings. Jon's "father", Ned, is dead and they never reconciled. His other "father", Jeor Mormont, is also dead, as is his suspected biological father, Rhaegar. I think this step may represent Jon finally finding out who his true father is, or it is represented by his trial and election to Lord Commander of the NW, as they are the ultimate power in his life. I won't score it though, 6/16

10. Apotheosis
When someone dies a physical death, or dies to the self to live in spirit, he or she moves beyond the pairs of opposites to a state of divine knowledge, love, compassion and bliss. A more mundane way of looking at this step is that it is a period of rest, peace and fulfillment before the hero begins the return.

It's pretty clear Jon is currently at this step - being dead as of the end of ADWD, therefore we can speculate and gain insight on Jon's potential journey by looking at future steps. 7/16

11. Refusal of the Return
Having found bliss and enlightenment in the other world, the hero may not want to return to the ordinary world to bestow the boon onto his fellow man.

Jon likely might spend time warging into Ghost and discovering secrets about The Others he is fighting. He might not want to return - the ADWD prologue shows this may by a challenge for Jon as skinchangers can permanently warg into their animals after death, essentially becoming lost in the animal

12. The Magic Flight
Sometimes the hero must escape with the boon, if it is something that the gods have been jealously guarding. It can be just as adventurous and dangerous returning from the journey as it was to go on it.

Jon might have to escape the fall of the Wall with the knowledge to defeat The Others following his death and resurrection?

13. Rescue from Without
Just as the hero may need guides and assistants to set out on the quest, oftentimes he or she must have powerful guides and rescuers to bring them back to everyday life, especially if the person has been wounded or weakened by the experience.

I'm going to speculate that Bran, Bloodraven or Melisandre may fufil this role for Jon.

14. The Crossing of the Return Threshold
The trick in returning is to retain the wisdom gained on the quest, to integrate that wisdom into a human life, and then maybe figure out how to share the wisdom with the rest of the world.

How is Jon going to share what he might find out? Through the King Stannis, or using his own birthright as the true Targaryen King?


15. Master of Two Worlds
This step is usually represented by a transcendental hero like Jesus or Gautama Buddha. For a human hero, it may mean achieving a balance between the material and spiritual. The person has become comfortable and competent in both the inner and outer worlds.

"His is the song of Ice and Fire" - could Jon be the one to reconcile these two elements and be the ultimate hero? "Jon was armored in black ice, but his blade burned red in his fist." - it seems like it could be likely.

16. Freedom to Live

Mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the freedom to live. This is sometimes referred to as living in the moment, neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past.

Don't really see how this applies to Jon's story as it's the ultimate end, but hey ho.

Pretty interesting to read and speculate, Jon is about 2/3rds of the way through his journey, at step 10 and he's fufilled 6 out of the 10 steps so far, maybe more.

Maybe this is the one trope George is playing straight?

It'd be pretty interesting to apply this to some other characters as well - perhaps Daenerys and Tyrion?

[Nyrhex]

This has been brought up a few times already. Here and here, for example. The problem is that it's soo vague that one can see Jon, Dany, Tyrion, Stannis, Bran, Arya, etc and countless others as the hero. That does not mean that they are the hero, only that they fit the part and can be the hero of thier own story.

[TommenFoolery]

This brings be back to 10th grade english lit. <sigh>