In the hero’s journey Campbell presents three main steps, departure, initiation, and the return. The departure step is when the hero gets the call to adventure and begins his journey by being taken away from what is normal to them. During initiation the hero crosses over into the unknown world and meets mentors and some supernatural power that will guide them in the journey. The final step in the journey is the return step. This is when the hero returns to the familiar world with new knowledge and wisdom.
In the book A Good Man Is Hard To Find, the grandmother in the story is taken to a spiritual world when she is witness to the Misfit killing her grandchildren. She departs the known world and begins to pray to god as she enters the spiritual world. The Misfit in a way was like her guide to the spiritual world as he threatened to take her life. When she returns she has a new outlook on life and a new opinion about the Misfit.
Another story that explores the steps of a journey is The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka. When Gregor wakes up one morning to realize that he had been transformed into a roach he had departed his normal day-to-day life as a traveling salesman. His family didn’t know what to do, as he was the one that was paying all of the bills. All Gregor wanted to do was to support the family. As he is locked up in his room he begins to realize that the rest of the family begins working, and that he is becoming a burden, as the family must keep him hidden from guests. Gregor realizes that it would be best if he wasn’t around anymore and the eventually dies. Gregor gains the wisdom he needed as a roach to realize that the family would be better off without him.
The steps that Campbell uses to describe a hero’s journey do not have to be followed exactly, in order for someone to be considered a hero. Gregor learns from his journey that the family would be better off without him so instead of returning he dies. In both stories the main characters see a better world due to where their journey takes them.