A popular form of structure derived from Joseph Campbell's Monomyth from his book The Hero With A Thousand Faces and adapted by Christopher Vogler is the Twelve Stage Hero's Journey. This is essentially a more detailed Character Arc for your story's hero which is overlayed onto the more traditional three-act structure that many successful Hollywood movies such as Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz when analyzed appear to follow.
Another Fine Myth Myth Adventures 1 epub
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To Mackenzie this famous journey not only nullified the myth of a Northwest Passage; it also proposed a definite plan for British trade imperialism: The discovery of a passage by sea, North-East or North-West from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, has for many years excited the attention of governments, and encouraged enterprising spirit of individuals. The non-existence, however, of any such practical passage being at length determined, the practicability of a passage through the continents of Asia and America becomes an object of consideration. The Russians, who first discovered that, along the coasts of Asia no useful or regular navigation existed, opened an interior communication by rivers, &c. and through that long and wide-extended continent, to the strait that separates Asia from America, over which they passed to the adjacent islands and continent of the latter. Our situation, at length, is in some degree similar to theirs: the non-existence of a practicable passage by sea, and the existence of one through the continent, are clearly proved; and it requires only the countenance and support of the British Government, to increase in a very ample proportion this national advantage, and secure the trade of that country to its subjects.7
Gass's journal, which preceded by seven years any official account of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was the earliest first-hand description of the vast territory acquired by President Jefferson in his Purchase of 1803. The official publication, hampered by misfortunes and postponed by the violent death of Lewis in 1809, was delayed until 1814, when only one thousand four hundred seventeen copies of an intended edition of two thousand were published.14 While the two famous Captains were spending the winter of 1805 at the mouth of the Columbia River, Lieutenant Zebulon Montgomery Pike was in northern Minnesota trying to locate the source of the Mississippi River; but, unsuccessful in his attempt, he returned to St. Louis in April of 1806. Three months later Pike was sent by General James Wilkinson on another expedition, ostensibly to explore the headwaters of the Arkansas and Red Rivers. After Pike had ascended the Arkansas River to its source, he turned southward to trace the course of the Red. Instead, he mistakenly followed the Rio Grande into Spanish territory where he was captured by a company of dragoons who "escorted" him to Santa Fe, and then to Chihuahua. During his captivity Pike was forced to surrender his mathematical, astronomical, and geographical calculations pertaining to New Spain; he also was advised to refrain from maintaining any further record of his observations. However, on his return trip to the United States, Pike took many notes which were hidden in the barrels of the guns. From his salvaged notes Pike published a journal entitled An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi, and through the Western Parts of Louisiana . . . (Philadelphia, 1810).15 Even though Pike's expedition was the first to enter the Southwest and return, its success was overshadowed by his association with and defense of General James Wilkinson, who was linked with Aaron Burr in the latter's plot to liberate Mexico and to make Louisiana an independent republic. Pike's involvement in the Wilkinson-Burr conspiracy, however, has never been proved or disproved; but his reputation has been blighted by that intrigue. In addition to initiating government interest in the southwestern portion of the United States, Pike's journal was noted for another famous, though negative, contribution concerning that territory. Describing the country he had traversed, Pike commented that "these vast plains of the western hemisphere may become in time equally celebrated as the sandy desarts [sic] of Africa . . . ."16 Pike's legendary desert was further expanded by Stephen H. Long, who was sent in 1820 to explore the upper regions of the Platte, Arkansas, Red, and Canadian Rivers. His assessment of the plains area was included in Edwin James's Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains . . . (3 vols., London, 1823).17 In his description Long stated: In regard to this extensive section of the country, I do not hesitate in giving the opinion, that it is almost wholly unfit for cultivation, and of course uninhabitable by a people depending upon agriculture for their subsistence. Although tracts of fertile land considerably extensive are occasionally to be met with, yet the scarcity of wood and water, almost uniformly prevalent, will prove an insuperable obstacle in the way of settling the country. This objection rests not only against the section immediately under consideration, but applies with equal propriety to a much larger portion of the country. Agreeably to the best intelligence that can be had, concerning the country both northward and southward of the section, and especially to the inferences deducible from the account given by Lewis and Clarke [sic] of the country situated between the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains above the River Platte, the vast region commencing near the sources of the Sabine, Trinity, Brases, and Colorado, and extending northwardly to the forty-ninth degree of north latitude, by which the United States' territory is limited in that direction, is throughout of a similar character. The whole of this region seems peculiarly adapted as a range for buffaloes; wild goats, and other wild game; incalculable multitudes of which find ample pasturage and subsistence upon it.18
Thus was firmly implanted the myth of a Great American Desert -- a myth that remained popular until the Civil War -- of a desert that stretched from the Canadian border to northern Texas, and from the Mississippi River to the Front Ranges of the Rocky Mountains.19 In a sense, Long's journey marked the close of one era of exploration as it previewed the beginning of another. Following his expedition, the West was no longer an unexplored territory; and, by comprising a scientific team of botanists, geologists, zoologists, and cartographers, who were prepared to record accurately their investigation of the Plains region, Long’s expedition anticipated the Great Surveys of 1860-1900.
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