Reflections on the Writer’s Journey Book One Part 12

The Resurrection

The pen ultimate challenge. Known in most stories as the climax. This is the most dangerous meeting with death, the hero’s final death and rebirth that changes them, completely and irreversibly. The hero is changed forever, and upon their return to the ordinary world, they might feel out of place, strange, for they are no longer the person people knew them as in the ordinary world. 

The resurrection is the second of the great ordeals, eclipsing even the supreme ordeal in the middle of the story. It is the hero’s final test and obstacle, and most often it is an internal one, testing the hero’s choices. The final choice. Will the hero choose differently this time? Will they have learned what they needed to? Or will they still be what they were at the beginning? This challenge must be faced alone, the hero must show by themselves, to face the climax alone. 

Often there is a showdown with the villain, The climax should act as a catharsis, a purging of the emotional unconscious to the surface. The subtext is finally revealed in flesh and blood.

Leave a Reply