Invisible Man Hero’s Journey Essay Question In what way is Invisible Man a Hero’s Journey? Discuss the three main aspects of the Hero’s Journey–Separation, Initiation, and Return—and explain how they relate to the narrator’s coming-of-age experience, and how the meaning of the work is reflected in his journey. In your analysis incorporate a discussion of how the narrator’s journey to self, or his Bildungsroman, fulfills or subverts Joseph Campbell’s ideas about the Hero’s Journey quoted below. We have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world. –Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces Next Level Consideration: In your discussion of the Hero’s journey see if you can include references to any of the philosophical or critical theory that we’ve discussed in class, such as Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Dubois’s theory of Double Consciousness, and/or Emerson’s idea of self-reliance.
