It’s noteable that the mentor’s death is rarely permanent, at least in a spiritual sense. They must be sidelined somehow.Ĭlearly mentors aren’t out for career advancement! In order for the heroic journey to work in other words, for the hero to be the one who faces down the ultimate evil the mentor cannot be there to help. Even stories like The Odyssey and The Lord of the Rings, which feature middle-aged protagonists, have Mentor characters who are much older and wiser than their heroes. Most Hero’s Journey stories are about young protagonists who come of age as they progress on their journey. Think about it: The mentor is the character with abounding knowledge and skill. He even fulfills a common role as he delivers Luke’s first symbolic archetype, a piece of magical equipment called the lightsaber. He tells satisfying stories about the “old days” and gives gentle, constructive criticism of Luke as he learns the ways of the force. Obi-Wan Kenobi is typical of mentor symbols in literature: he is old, wise, bearded, and filled with zen-inspired advice. Or take an example from science-fantasy, Star Wars. Yet after witnessing Katniss and Peta’s resolve to survive and even win the Games, Haymitch gives in and begins providing valuable leadership advice, offering invaluable tidbits of constructive feedback as Katniss trains, impresses the judges, and wins the love of the Capitol audience. After years of death and loss, he resists the mentor relationship because it hurts too much. Prickly and standoffish at first, Haymitch is resistant to his role as the potential mentor to two more District 12 children who are about to die. Take Haymitch Abernathy from The Hunger Games. These elements add incredible depth to the relationship between hero and mentor. They provide situational advice flavored with personal experience and an authentic relationship with their subject. Yet they aren’t above building an emotional relationship with the hero. They are often tough to the point of seeming villainous. Mentors are at their best when they push the hero out of their comfort zone. They usually exhibit an intriguing balance between physical skill and existential knowledge, like Morpheus in The Matrix (who fights Neo while teaching him the nature of the Matrix) or Dumbledore (who teaches Harry about the power of love while standing up to Voldemort’s most powerful magic throughout the Harry Potter books).
Mentors exist to pass on knowledge and teach skill. That’s where the Mentor shows up: Step #4, Meeting the Mentor. “I’m just like them,” the reader might think.įor the hero to rise above his common state, he’s going to need help. The next step, the Refusal of the Call, connects the reader to the protagonist. This conflict is almost always so overwhelming that the hero doesn’t want to rise to the challenge. They start with conflict either from within or without that upsets the peace they enjoy (Step 2: Call to Action). In my last article on the Hero’s Journey, we learned how heroic stories begin. The mentor is frequently an older, “wiser” character no longer able to fulfill the heroic role on their own. The Mentor then provides the hero with training (physical, mental, spiritual, or a combination thereof) and often accompanies the hero on the journey. Meeting the mentor occurs after the hero has been Called to Adventure and discovered that the task ahead will be incredibly difficult. Here’s a basic definition of this widely-used part of a heroic story: Getting that character right can be the difference between writing a story that readers love and one they put down and forget. And in practically every heroic story, there is a character that helps the hero rise from nobody to a somebody.
Who is your hero’s mentor, and how do they challenge them?Īs you may know, the Hero’s Journey is an archetypal story theorized by Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero With a Thousand Faces. In fact, the fourth step of the Hero’s Journey is Meeting the Mentor. One of the most common characters in any story is the Mentor, an essential character if you’re writing a Hero’s Journey story. Great stories are filled with great characters.