Journey of character to hero or villain. Lead in to Flannery O'Connor. Developed for Through the Lens: American Literature through Digital Art.

1. Through the Lens
11 January 2012

2. JOURNAL PROMPT
11 January 2012
What are the elements of a realistic
hero in a story?
How does a character become a
hero?
Even fantasy, when done well, has
believable heroes. How does a
writer accomplish that
believability?

3. Put in place on 20
December 2011.
Picked up again 9
January 2012.
Christmas 2011

5. The Hero’s Journey The Villain’s Journey
Departure Cataclysm
Call to Adventure Tragedy
(Inciting Incident) (Inciting Incident)
Two Journeys

6. The Hero’s Journey The Villain’s Journey
Departure Cataclysm
Call to Adventure: Tragedy:
Some life-changing event Usually a death or personal
or idea that cannot be injustice. May be an
ignored. inner conflict that arises
in response to an
external circumstance.
Two Journeys

7. The Hero’s Journey The Villain’s Journey
Departure Cataclysm
Refusal of the Call: Denial:
The character may try to Often begins with a duality
of thought: optimism v
ignore the call out of a pessimism. Most people
sense of duty, fear, (and in general,
inadequacy, or any other characters are people)
plausible reason for accept the more
maintaining the status optimistic ideals because
quo. it makes adaptation more
likely.
Two Journeys

8. The Hero’s Journey The Villain’s Journey
Departure Cataclysm
Supernatural Aid: “The Demon on the
Shoulder”:
Once the character
commits to the change The character continues to
struggle between the
(or quest) some form of expectations of society
external help arrives. In and his own reality in
fantasy this may be a dealing with the tragedy.
time travel machine. In Primal and predatory
realism it may be a instincts begin to take
spiritual awakening or a over cultural conditioning
partner. .
Two Journeys

9. The Hero’s Journey The Villain’s Journey
Departure Cataclysm
The Crossing of the First The First Offense:
Threshold:
The character takes The character (at this point
concrete steps to leave becoming the antagonist)
behind the beginning commits the first “crime.”
balance and commits to
pursuit of the unknown.
(Beginning of the Rising (Beginning of the Rising
Course of Action) Course of Action)
Two Journeys

10. The Hero’s Journey The Villain’s Journey
Departure Cataclysm
The “Belly of the Whale” The Point of No Return:
Final separation from the Whether or not the “crime”
known world of the (now) is caught or punished,
protagonist. The the antagonist feels no
transition to the new remorse. Instead, he
realm is incomplete, but feels validated and
the old self is justified by the results of
abandoned. his action.
Two Journeys

11. The Hero’s Journey The Villain’s Journey
Initiation Conquest
The Road of Trials Moratorium
The Meeting with In the Presence of the
Fate/Love/Satisfaction Demon
Temptation The Olive Branch and the
Atonement Asp
Apotheosis (Climax) Clash with the Hero
(Climax)
The Ultimate Boon
Redemption or Vilification
The Birth of an Empire
(Resolution)
Two Journeys

12. The Hero’s Journey The Villain’s Journey
Return End Game (Denouement)
Refusal of the return
The Magic Flight Beyond Metropolis
Rescue from Without Weaving the Web
Crossing of the Return The Looming Shadow
Threshold (Resolution) Doomsday
Master of Two Worlds Dominion
Freedom to Live
(Denouement)
Two Journeys

13. WHEW
That was a lot of information.
So, what villainous tale will we read next?

14. Flannery O'Connor was born in
Savannah, Georgia, in 1925. When
she died at the age of thirty-nine,
America lost one of its most gifted
writers at the height of her powers.
O’Connor wrote two novels, Wise
Blood (1952) and The Violent Bear
It Away (1960), and two story
collections, A Good Man Is Hard to
Find (1955) and Everything That
Rises Must Converge (1964). Her
Complete Stories, published
posthumously in 1972, won the
National Book Award that year, and
in a 2009 online poll it was voted
as the best book to have won the
award in the contest’s 60-year
history. Her essays were published
in Mystery and Manners (1969) and
her letters in The Habit of Being
(1979). In 1988 the Library of
America published her Collected
Works; she was the first postwar
writer to be so honored. O’Connor
Flannery
was educated at the Georgia State
O’Connor
College for Women, studied
writing at the Iowa Writers’
Workshop, and wrote much of
Wise Blood at the Yaddo artists’
colony in upstate New York. She
lived most of her adult life on her
family’s ancestral farm, Andalusia,
outside Milledgeville, Georgia.

15. HOMEWORK
Due 18 January 2012
 Read “A Good Man is Hard to Find”
 Identify the elements of the “hero” and
“villain.”
 Create an illustration for this story that
maintains the humanity and doesn’t give
away too much information.
 Prepare a brief presentation of your work.