Three Phases of Life

What is a hero? A hero is a man or woman that has undergone three stages of experiences in life. Life is comprised of many subsections. It comes in all forms, and for every individual, it is a different process. In Joseph Conrad’s classic novel, Heart of Darkness, the main character, Marlow, partakes in a quest into the deepest part of the jungle, losing much of what he holds dear while gaining a glimpse of the deeper recesses of his own conscious. With an overly simple, yet deeply philosophical plot line, Conrad gives Marlow’s journey, what seems to be many of the basic attributes of what Joseph Campbell calls the “Hero’s Journey” in his The Hero With A Thousand Faces. Campbell’s masterpiece parallels Marlow, while outlining the basic aspects of the archetypal “Hero Journey,” which describes the journey as consisting of three major sections: Departure, Initiation, and Return.
According to Campbell, there are five subsections to the first stage of the hero’s jo...