My Heroes and their Journey

     Hey all! Welcome to one of my final APs for this term! It’s been a long way coming, but here’s one that I’m personally proud of. 

In this unit, we’ve been going over the Hero’s Journey. The Hero's Journey is a monomyth coined by Joseph Campbell. He found that most stories, even dating back to ancient civilizations, had some form of the Journey within them; starting from the normal world, passing the threshold, the abyss, and the return. We’ve gone through a book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, a book that highlights that journey through a long flashback that goes over a character’s whole adventure. We’ve also been to an artist’s studio, where we found how the Hero’s Journey isn’t just in things like stories; it can be found in multiple pieces of media and works of art. Throughout this class in general, the Hero’s Journey has always seemed to faintly appear, being a somewhat integral part of stories. This unit really honed in on it, though, giving us a proper look at it.

For this AP, we were tasked with analyzing two people, one fictional hero and one real one. We could either do an interview (if we could get into contact with that real hero), or we could just look up interviews of that person. We were to compare them and show how they’re similar in some way. We then had to visualize what we found, whether through video or slides. These are my heroes and my presentation! Enjoy!

    The two heroes I decided to analyze are Nobara Kugisaki and Lil Nas X. Nobara comes from a series known as Jujutsu Kaisen, or shortened to JJK for short. She is the third protagonist in the group, following pretty common trends in shonen manga. Though, unlike a lot of shonen manga, even at this time, Nobara can hold her own, not only in fights, but as a character as well. She is tough and strong while still enjoying plenty of things people would expect teenage girls would like. She isn’t some damsel in distress; she’s someone who can fight and combat her opponents on equal or even higher footing. 

Lil Nas X doesn’t really need an introduction. He’s an influential rising star, being one of the most prominent for his strength when it comes to being himself. He doesn’t let people bend him; in fact he bends people. He’s been called things like satanic and a devil worshipper, yet he moves on because this is who he is. He had to hide his true self, even hoping that it was a phase. But, in time, he came to accept himself and start his path to who he is now. 

Both of these people are, in simple terms, strong and unwavering. They have the mental strength to keep on pushing, even if the world is against them. Both of them don’t care for what people think; as long as they are themselves, that’s what matters. I decided to analyze and compare them for this reason: because both have a strength many wish for. 

    This whole AP, and this class, was challenging. It was hard, yet it was really fun, and I'm glad I had it. This class sort of reignited my passion for stories and telling them, ad it made me pretty happy when I was able to create stories. Going through the Hero's Journey, meeting different types of storytellers, and just experiencing unique stories made me happy. I didn't mind the research or work because it was always about something I chose.

Works Cited

Curto, Justin. “Nicki Minaj Congratulates Lil Nas X on Coming out as a Barb.” Vulture, 17 June 2020, www.vulture.com/amp/2020/06/nicki-minaj-lil-nas-x-stan-tweets.html.

Fandom. “Nobara Kugisaki/Image Gallery.” Jujutsu Kaisen Wiki, 2019, jujutsu-kaisen.fandom.com/wiki/Nobara_Kugisaki/Image_Gallery. Accessed 9 Nov. 2021.

---. “Nobara Kugisaki/Synopsis.” Jujutsu Kaisen Wiki, 2019, jujutsu-kaisen.fandom.com/wiki/Nobara_Kugisaki/Synopsis. Accessed 9 Nov. 2021.

Hughes, Jazmine. “The Subversive Joy of Lil Nas X’s Gay Pop Stardom.” The New York Times, 7 July 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/07/07/magazine/lil-nas-x.html. Accessed 9 Nov. 2021.

Mix. “One Cryptic Storyteller Is Using Twitter to Craft Thrilling Interactive Fiction.” TNW | Twitter, 10 July 2017, thenextweb.com/news/twitter-storyteller-interactive-fiction. Accessed 9 Nov. 2021.

N/A, DiFronzo. “Lil Nas X in the Studio,” WikiMedia Commons, 22 Apr. 2019.

Shearer, John. “Lil Nas X Attends the 2021 Met Gala Celebrating in America,” WireImage, 21 Sept. 2021.

Strauss, Jordan. “Lil Nas X Arrives at the American Music Awards,” Invision, 24 Nov. 2019.

Zanni, Sean, and Patrick McMullan. “Lil Nas X at the Met Gala,” Getty Images, 2019.