Annotated Bibliography

Vogler, Christopher. "Refusal of the Call and Meeting with the Mentor." The Writer's Journey : Mythic Structure for Writers. By Christopher Vogler. Vol. 3. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions, 2007. 107-125.

Summary 

The Refusal of the Call is often more for the benefit of the audience. The dramatic pause that happens when a hero balks at the start of his journey serves to show the audience that the adventure is a risky one. However, without this dramatic pause the journey is still seen as risky. Most often heroes who refuse the call do so because of past experience and they provide a laundry list of excuses. However, persistent refusal of the call can be dangerous. It can leader to death, or something else horrible. Often the hero doesn’t refuse the call. However, the danger of the mission is still seen through other characters. Refusal of the Call can be an opportunity to redirect the focus of the adventure. 

Meeting with the mentor is a stage in which the hero gains important knowledge, supplies and the confidence to overcome the obstacle he will face during the adventure. Even if there is no specific character playing the role of the Mentor, the hero almost always encounters some source of wisdom before setting out on their journey. A good teacher or mentor is enthused about learning as well as teaching. They are also typically heros who have experience enough to teach it to others. Often time the archetype of mentor is misleading. The mentor can be bad and take advantage of their charges.

Reflection

My favorite part of the whole thing was the story about Athena and who the whole idea of the mentor archetype arose from her. I knew that she was mentor before but i didn’t know that she was the first mentor. I think it’s interesting that the first mentor was a women god. Typically when I think of a mentor I think of a wise older man - like Merlin. It was interesting to get a different perspective on the whole thing. I liked that Volger touched on the idea that mentor’s are not always good. I also liked when he talked about making sure mentor’s are not predticable. I feel like more often then not, a mentor is an old man. 

The call to adventure section was not that interesting to me. I felt like Volger had already gone over that section previously and for the most part I felt like I was just rereading an earlier section. For me the most interesting part was still the conflicting calls. You typically think of the call as clear cut, obviously it isn’t. 

3 Questions

Do you think a mentor who leads the hero in the wrong direction can still be called a mentor? Should he or she be classified under a different archetype such as shadow?

Do you think that more hero’s refuse the call then accept it? Why?

Do all stories need a mentor or are some stories better without the presence of a mentor?