Heroine’s Journey Through the (Lego) Looking Glass

 In class, we have examined the Heroine’s Journey as a journey to self-discovery and the heroine understanding her place in the world. In our discussions of the Heroine’s Journey in comparison to the Hero’s Journey, stories that follow the Hero’s Journey seem to follow less of a self-discovery narrative and more of a saving-the-world narrative. However, despite the differences we’ve pinpointed between the two templates, I think the Hero’s Journey is just as much a journey through self-discovery as the Heroine’s Journey.

Let’s take a peek at the steps of the Hero’s Journey in comparison to the Heroine’s Journey. At the top of the Hero’s Journey cycle, we see “Freedom to Live '' before the real adventure starts. This stage refers to a period of peace before our hero realizes something’s amiss and starts saving the world. These parts of the Hero’s Journey resemble the “Illusion of a Perfect World,” “Betrayal or Realization,” and “Awakening” steps of Victoria Lynn Schmidt’s Heroine’s Journey. In the “Awakening” stage, the heroine is at first tempted to ignore their problems and remain in the illusion of a perfect world. Instead, they decide to face their problems, often with external guidance and tools from their perfect world. This initial temptation to not do anything about their problems mirrors the “Refusal of the Call” in the Hero’s Journey, and the help the heroine receives is a lot like the hero’s “Supernatural Aid.”  Next in Schmidt’s Heroine’s Journey is “Descent,” when the heroine must navigate their new lifestyle, face inner conflict, and overcome obstacles that lead to a better understanding of themselves. This stage of the journey can be viewed as an emotional “Road of Trials.” In the Heroine’s Journey, there is also a “Rebirth,” or awakening, similar to the Hero’s Journey “Apotheosis. In both templates, the main character gains a better understanding of the world and their place in it. Both templates also end with a return to their own world. The hero or heroine has gone through a lot of spiritual and emotional changes, and in the case of the Hero’s Journey, saved the world.

Based on the overlap between template steps, it seems like you should be able to look at a story about someone saving the world through the lens of the Heroine’s Journey instead of just the Hero’s Journey. For example, let’s investigate the Lego Movie.

We analyzed The Lego Movie as an example of Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, but it seems to fit just as well with Schmidt’s Heroine’s Journey. The movie begins by walking us through a day in Emmett’s perfect life, in which his every move is dictated by a set of instructions and “everything is awesome.” He realizes his idea of the world is an illusion when he learns about President Business’s plan to Kragle the whole universe. This moment is also when he starts to realize blindly following Pres Business and the instructions might not be a good way to live. Emmett doubts that he has the talent to be “the special,” but he decides to help Vitruvius and Wyldstyle because knows he has to do something about President Business’s evil plan. Emmett and the other master builders experience an “illusory boon of success” when their plan to steal the Kragle almost works, but they are then captured and trapped in a room with a bomb that’s about to explode. Emmett has a “rebirth” when he realizes that he can be the Special if he believes in himself and that he can save all his friends by jumping out of the building with the bomb. He then experiences a “death” when he falls to the basement floor, no longer a part of the Lego world. However, he receives support from Finn and his father and returns to help his friend save the world.

We often have an easier time viewing stories centered around a female hero as an emotional journey than we do with stories centered around a male hero. However, other stories you might view as a simple Hero’s Journey often include character development and self-discovery for male main characters, like Luke learning to use the Force and Siddhartha learning to let go of his ego and hear “Om.” So, I think it’s fair to say that both the Hero’s Journey and Heroine’s Journey can be viewed either through the self-discovery lens or world-saving lens. The steps the two journeys follow are largely the same, so it’s silly to confine one character, male or female, to just one type of  “journey”.