The Hero's Journey Theme in Literature Essay Example

The hero’s journey is the basic idea that all story plots follow. The idea where characters from all different books and movies will go through this same process starting at the world of common day, then to the supreme ordeal then ending at the return with elixir “Freedom to Live”. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Huck Finn fakes his death and runs away, he escapes down the river with a slave named Jim. Meeting different allies to help Jim to freedom, facing many problems along the way. A parallel movie that follows the Hero’s Journey is The Peanut Butter Falcon written by Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz. Tyler is a struggling man who sets a competitor's fishing equipment on fire and escapes on a boat. When he is leaving in the boat there is a young man who has down syndrome. Tyler finds out Zak wants to go to a wrestling school. Tyler takes on the challenge to help Zak get there. They face many challenges trying to get there. They get to the wrestling match and Zak wrestles. The men that are trying to hunt down Tyler get info that he is at the wrestling match and they come up behind him and hit him over the head with a tier iron, sending him to the hospital. Tyler is okay and they make it to Florida.  The hero's journey is seen in many stories with different storylines and plots, this is shown during Tyler’s journey in The Peanut Butter Falcon and Huck’s journey throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, proving these characters are the same person from parallel universes. 

Meeting a mentor is a significant part of starting a hero’s journey. This person can help lead, follow or persuade the hero to fully commit to their mission. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Huck escapes to the island running away because he faked his own death. He meets Jim on the island and has an interaction with him “‘Hello, Jim!’ and skipped out. He bounced up and stared at me wild. Then he drops down on his knees, and puts his hands together and says: ‘Doan’ hurt me—don’t! I hain’t ever done no harm to a ghos’. I alwuz liked dead people, en done all I could for ’em. You go en git in de river agin, whah you b’longs, en doan’ do nuffn to Ole Jim, ’at ’uz awluz yo’ fren’” (Twain Chapter VIII). Jim meets Huck on the Island but he thinks that Huck is dead. Jim believes that he is seeing a ghost. This is really when Huck meets his mentor Jim and he learns what his goals are. This is when Huck takes on the idea to help Jim to freedom. Similarly, in The Peanut Butter Falcon Tyler takes on this same goal when he meets Zak on his boat. “Zak, seasick from the chaos of the boat ride, starts to grumble. Tyler, startled by the sound, tears the tarp off of the stowaway just as Zak starts to dry heave and then vomit, loudly” (Nilson and Schwartz 17). Tyler meets Zak for the first time and realizes who he is and what he is for. At first, Tyler wants Zak to be quiet so he does not get found but after the men pass he talks to Zak. Zak is Tyler’s mentor because Zak is driving Tyler to complete this goal. Tyler is going through the same events as Huck did when he met Jim. Tyler took on his goal to help Zak just how Huck took on his goal to help Jim. These characters in their life’s changed what they were doing and what they will do for the rest of their life. 

Huck and Tyler both go through a similar event which is their first true challenge. It is when they cross the first threshold to fully commit to this life altering mission. Huck and Jim are floating down the river when they hear a steamboat in the heavy fog. They cannot see the steamboat and the steamboat cannot see them. The steamboat comes down the river and “There was a yell at us, and a jingling of bells to stop the engines, a powwow of cussing, and whistling of steam—and as Jim went overboard on one side and I on the other, she come smashing straight through the raft. I dived—and I aimed to find the bottom, too, for a thirty-foot wheel had got to go over me, and I wanted it to have plenty of room” (Twain XVI). Huck and Jim are caught in a wreck with a steamboat and they are forced to go overboard. There are many things happening at once when they go overboard. Tyler and Zak similarly got caught up with a fishing boat. Tyler was pulling Zak across the river when a shrimp boat came along. Tyler was swimming and he “clears the path of the barge but it continues to bear down toward Zak. TYLER (CONT’D) ‘USE YOUR LEGS ZAK!! USE YOUR LEGS!!’ Zak begins to kick a bit harder but still moves slowly” (Nilson and Schwartz 42). Tyler and Zak were caught up and it could have caused death to either one of them, luckily Zak and Tyler were able to escape alive. These two examples show how Huck and Tyler are the same characters in different parallel universes because they are having the same experiences. Huck got into a wreck from a steamboat almost killing him and Jim but were able to escape. Tyler and Zak almost got into a wreck with a shrimp boat but were both able to survive untouched. 

Huck and Tyler are both able to complete their mission different but similar missions claiming a reward at the end. They were able to feel accomplished because they had done what they were trying to do. For Huck, he was able to complete his journey of setting Jim free and allowing him to go back to his family. “And his Aunt Polly she said Tom was right about old Miss Watson setting Jim free in her will; and so, sure enough, Tom Sawyer had gone and took all that trouble and bother to set a free nigger free! and I couldn’t ever understand before, until that minute and that talk, how he  help a body set a nigger free with his bringing-up” (Twain Chapter XLII). Huck and Tom were able to set Jim free, allow him to be on his own in a good way and not have to worry about being enslaved anymore. And for Tyler, he was able to get Zak to the wrestling school and have him wrestle, sadly the men had beaten Tyler over the head with a tire iron first. Tyler was able to survive and become a family with Elanor, Zak and himself. They set off on a road trip south and “The car passes a ‘Welcome to Florida’ sign. ZAK Florida! We are in Florida…Zak smiles at Tyler, he reaches back and gently does their secret handshake to Tyler’s limp hands” (Nilson and Schwartz 98). Tyler was finally down in Florida and he would be able to start his own business and maybe make it into a family business with his new family. Tyler and Huck both completed their original mission and were able to complete what they wanted to do by either setting Jim free or making it down to Florida. 

Through meeting with a mentor, going through their first threshold or returning with elixir, Tyler and Huck are almost identical characters just in different universes. The Peanut Butter Falcon or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn both have similar characters that share common actions and steps they follow to reach an end goal or mission. Also in many other books and movies such as Harry Potter or The Hunger Games they also have characters that follow a common path called the hero’s Journey.