The Hero's Journey is a basic set of steps that sets the foundation for almost every single quest that a hero goes through. It is outlined in the book The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. In the book, Joseph Campbell breaks down the journey by comparing many common patterns found in hero myths and stories from around the world, both past and present in his time. He found they all had the same structure, thus creating the Hero's Journey or also known as the Monomyth. There are three major phases of the journey; Departure, Initiation and Return. Within these phases are seventeen steps followed by each hero. Departure begins with The Call to Adventure, followed by the Refusal of the Call, Supernatural Aid, the Crossing of the First Threshold and ends in the Belly of the Whale. The next phase is Initiation which includes the Road of Trials, the Meeting With the Goddess, Woman as the Temptress, Atonement with the Father, Apothesis and the Ultimate Boon. The third and final phase is the Return which consists of the Refusal of the Return, the Magic Flight, Rescue from Without, the Crossing of the Return Threshold, Master of the Two Worlds and Freedom to Live. The Hero's Journey as it was outlined by Joseph Campbell in The Hero With a Thousand Faces is still relevant today. In fact, you can find precisely every step in many modern movies and hero's today. Luke Skywalker and Harry Potter are two modern examples that follow The Hero's Journey step by step.
The first phase of the Hero's Journey, Departure, begins in the ordinary world where the hero is introduced but is unaware of the special powers they possess. In Star Wars, Luke is just an ordinary person from Tatooine and all he knows is working on the farm. In Harry Potter, Harry is just a normal boy living with his parents. The Call to Adventure is essentially the heroes call to action. The hero is summoned to adventure by someone or something leading him to begin a quest. Lu...