The Myth of the Student Hero and the “Dreaded Lit Review”

Departure From The Real World: The Hero’s Journey Begins

A student's mythic journey is summed as follows: the hero leaves the everyday world and encounters and is engulfed by a strange new world. In the new world the hero undergoes an assortment of trials or tests and is divinely transformed by new knowledge. The hero then returns to the everyday world with some sort of gift which is given to others to benefit the tribe, culture, and world (Campbell, pp. 36-37).

Students' "journey" begins even before the start of the class and the assignment of the literature review. The students arrive at school from a different world, a world without school; this is the world of "summer vacation," an idyllic place beyond schoolwork. Maybe it is a world of the beach or mountains. Or maybe it is a world filled with hardship and difficulty. Maybe the student is the first in her family to attend college and feels pride but also intense expectations. Maybe the student has to get a job to help cover tuition. Maybe the student is returning to school after having been in military service. Perhaps the student deals with issues of physical or mental health. Here comes a student, ready to start the semester:

Madeleine Jones' comic shows her leaving one world and returning to another. School is shown in positive terms: sunshine, palm trees. For first-year students, there are new people to meet. They need to locate classrooms and offices. For returning students, there are friendships to rekindle. They may look forward to the excitement of a yet-to-be-experienced-semester. The students arrive at LMU, perched on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Los Angeles. The students know that there are classes to attend to and work to be done. Bells ring. Class begins.

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