ABSTRACT
Stories of heroes undergoing significant transformations are as old as stories themselves. The first known mythical narrative in Western literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh, tells the tale of Gilgamesh, the great demigod ruler of Uruk who revels in his invincibility. Gilgamesh terrorizes a city, kills the guardian of a forest, spurns the goddess of love, and slays the mighty bull of heaven. He is reckless, ruthless, and arrogant. Through his friendship with Enkidu and later by his recognition of his own mortality, Gilgamesh experiences loss, becomes humbled, and acquires wisdom about life and love. His personal growth as a hero establishes the precedent of transformation in hero stories, inspiring the development of hero characters in countless fictional tales for over 4,000 years. From Gilgamesh to Luke Skywalker, from Odysseus to Jane Eyre, heroes set out on a journey, transform into new and improved versions of themselves, and in the process encourage us all to follow in their footsteps. In this chapter, we provide an analysis of human transformation in heroic storytelling and in
the lives of everyday people. We describe what a transformation is, why it is important, what causes it to happen, and how it varies from hero to hero. We argue that the hero’s transformation is the most central yet most overlooked component of the monomyth of the hero as described by Joseph Campbell (1949) in his classic volume, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Our chapter discusses the ways in which the hero’s journey parallels various stages of healthy human development, during which people undergo moral, mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical transformations. We will describe the many triggers, dimensions, processes, and consequences of the hero’s transformation. Our concluding thoughts will focus on the role of the hero’s transformation in the personal development of the hero and for the well-being of society.
