Here is a link for the summary of the Hero's Journey ---> http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/smc/journey/ref/summary.html
Yuriel Espinal
The Matrix: Neo’s “Hero’s Journey”
Neo, the main character in The Matrix, goes through the “hero’s journey” or “hero’s-quest”. In Scott R. Stroud’s Technology and Mythic Narrative: The Matrix as Technological Hero-Quest, it explains how the hero-quest theory works and how it applies to the film, The Matrix. Joseph Campbell’s monomyth theory, otherwise known as the hero’s journey or hero’s quest, is the theory in which he describes the basic outline of the way the hero’s life would play out in myths. In The Matrix, Neo’s life throughout the movie can be compared to Joseph Campbell’s monomyth theory.
In the monomyth theory, there are a series of steps that the hero must go through in order to finish his or her quest. In The Matrix, the equivalent to these steps is Neo’s training and his experience in the Nebuchadnezzar. He has to go through many obstacles in order to complete or fulfill his destiny, which ties back into the theory of the hero’s journey.
According to the article, Technology and Mythic Narrative: The Matrix as Technological Hero-Quest, there are seventeen steps to complete the hero’s quest, but not all of them are displayed in the first movie. The first twelve of them are displayed throughout the movie and the first of the twelve steps is the calling. The calling is the call to the adventure, when the hero is called to accept the journey. In the film, Neo wakes up to a computer screen which is essentially “talking” to him. It gives him instructions which point him in the direction of finding the truth about the Matrix. Neo is told to “follow the white rabbit” to the club, where he finds Trinity and she tells him about Morpheus and the crew. This is an intentional allusion to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
The following step in Campbell’s monomyth theory is the refusal of the call. This is the step where the hero, in this case Neo, refuses the calling of the previous step. In his office, Thomas Anderson (Neo), receives a phone call from Morpheus and is given directions to escape the Agents. Neo is given multiple instructions to get away from these Agents and he successfully accomplishes them all except for one. He is told to climb on to the scaffold to get to the roof, but he refuses because it is too risky and is eventually apprehended by the Agents. They take him in for interrogation and “bug” Neo with a device that tracks him wherever he goes.
Step three is the supernatural aid. The supernatural aid is someone that helps him throughout the journey, mainly in the beginning to guide the chosen one to his journey. At this point in the movie, Neo accepts the quest when he does not leave the car and is taken to meet his “supernatural aid”, which is Morpheus. Morpheus knows more about Neo than he does about himself. With Morpheus’s help, Neo finally accepts that the world he is in isn’t real. It is as Morpheus says, “the Matrix is the world that has been pulled over your eyes, to blind you from the truth” (Wachowski)
The fourth step to the hero's journey is the crossing of the first threshold. In
the movie this is when Neo finally meets Morpheus and is confronted with the
decision that he has to make between the blue pill, where he stays in the matrix
or, the red pill and breaks away and goes into the real world. He
chooses the red pill and crosses the threshold between the matrix and the real
world. Here is when Neo actually enters the real world and is taken in by
Morpheus and the Nebuchadnezzar crew.
Step five, called the belly of the whale, is the time in the hero's adventure where the hero reaches one of the lowest points. Almost immediately after Neo is taken into the Nebuchadnezzar, he reaches this point and asks himself and Morpheus if his decision was a smart one. He begins to doubt that he is the one and wants to go back into the matrix, even though it isn’t possible. Another place that shows this is Neo's initial leap across the building because it shows that he is still attached to the world he lived in and the rules it had. When he lands on the floor, he is plugged out of the matrix and basically breaks down. But this can also be compared to the next step, the road of trials. The road of trials is when the hero is given a set of tasks to complete in order to complete his training. This is when Neo is tested with the jump from the roof to release all of the rules he believes is true in the matrix. He is also tested when Neo and Morpheus spar in the martial arts dojo to see if Neo can finally let go of the rules that apply to the matrix.
The seventh step is the meeting with the goddess. This step can be compared to
the part of the movie in which Neo and Morpheus go to see the oracle to see what
is to become of Neo. The eighth is the woman as the temptress. This is when Neo
and Trinity have a sort of heart to heart and one can infer that if the movie is
compared to the hero's quest, then Trinity is the temptress. She is the temptress because she is
what is keeping Neo from wanting to go back to the matrix. The ninth step is
the atonement with the father, but there doesn't seem to be any connection with
the movie.
The tenth step is apotheosis, defined as death in one's old self in
order to be deified. In Neo's case it was a literal death where the agents capture
Neo and kill him and after three minutes, he resurrects. In Neo-Christ: Jesus, The Matrix, and
Second Allegory as a Rhetorical Form, the author states that this part of the movie parallels the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Right away in the beginning of the movie, one can infer that Neo is almost like Jesus Christ. Neo’s customer Choi, who seems like a deadbeat or a junkie and seems like someone who needs assistance, says something that can confirm ones inference of Neo being like Jesus. Choi says “Hallelujah. You're my savior, man. My own personal Jesus Christ.” (Wachowski)
This is also the part where Neo finally accepts the different worlds and learns to differentiate between the two. He stops the seemingly endless amount of bullets fired at him when he resurrects and finally realizes he is the one. The eleventh step is related to this. The ultimate boon, or the reward is his discovery of the amount of power Neo at his possession and his ability to use them to his advantage.
The last step shown in the film, but not the last step of the hero's quest, is
the crossing of the return threshold. This is after Neo obtains his boon, he
returns to the matrix with his newly found abilities to find the truth. In the
following two films the steps continue and unfold gradually until his quest is complete.
In the third film, The Matrix Revolutions, Neo goes through the last two stages which are
master of the two worlds and freedom to live. Neo actually begins to fly in the real world, not the
matrix. This happens because Neo has finally become comfortable in both the matrix and in the
real world. And Neo goes through the freedom to live, the last step. In this step Neo is finally
free to live, or in other terms becomes immortal because he now has no fear of death.
Works Cited
Milford, Mike. "Neo-Christ: Jesus, The Matrix, and Secondary Allegory as a Rhetorical Form." Southern Communication Journal 75.1 (2010): 17-34. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 23 May 2011.
Stroud, Scott R. "Technology and Mythic Narrative: The Matrix as Technological Hero-Quest." Western Journal of Communication 65.4 (2001): 416. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web.
The Matrix. Dir. Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski. Writ. Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski. Perf. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss. 31 March. 1999. DVD.
The Matrix Revolutions. Dir. Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski. Writ. Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski. Perf. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss. 5 November. 2003. DVD.
