Written by Stephen Turner | 22 June 2009

The Call to Adventure
The next step in the Hero's Journey is the Call to Adventure. It starts in the ordinary, everyday world where our protagonist, be it hero, heroine or stalwart band of hobbits, can be found doing mundane, everyday things. He/she may be content with his/her lot or perhaps he/she is bored with the status quo but he/she is blissfully unaware of what fate (i.e. the author) has in store for him/her. The Call is the invitation for the protagonist to enter the world of the extraordinary, where adventure takes place, but it also tells us, as well as the protagonist, what is at stake.

The actual Call can take various forms. It can be when the stalwart band of hobbits learns that their family heirloom is actually the MacGuffin that it will make or break the dark lord's ambitions. In a noir detective story the call to adventure happens when the trim redhead comes through the office door to hire the private eye. In a western the long, lean stranger rides into town, with his hat, white or black, pulled low, but you know there are going to be wrongs that need righting come sundown. A friend, family member or that unrequited love interest may be kidnapped and that our protagonist must go and rescue. In a romance there is that first encounter with that person of the appropriate gender. It can also be as subtle as taking the left hand path to school instead of the usual right.

The Call establishes the stakes for the protagonist. Here the challenge is set, be it righting a wrong, seeking out a treasure, winning true love or escaping the villain, and it can be presented as as a question for the reader or viewer. Will Sam Spade find out whodunnit? Will Luke rescue the princess? Will Conan overcome the sorcerer? Will the girl join the vampire in eternal, angst ridden youth? Will Coraline escape the lures of Other Mother and save her parents?

Once the Call has been made our protagonist really has only three choices about what to do next. They can embrace the call, they can put it to the test or they can out and out refuse it. How they respond to the call can tell you something about the protagonist's character.

Embracing The Call
The protagonist welcomes the call to adventure. David does not blink going out to face Goliath. Jim Hawkins does not hesitate to join the search for Treasure Island. Ben 10 charges into trouble even before he got the MacGuffin that makes him a superhero.

It is often the younger protagonist bored with the everyday world and their heads full of such romantic notions as fame, fortune and glory that most readily embrace the call. The protagonist wants to take part in the rollicking adventures that inspired them as a child, when they heard how the knight won the fair maid and golden treasure by slaying the dragon. But the stories have often been sanitised and hardships glossed over, such as the gut wrenching terror of facing something with napalm and burnt meat on its breath. Of course, by the time the protagonist works this out it's way too late to back out.

There are also those who embrace the call firmly believing they are destined to bring change, defeat the monster or otherwise make the world a better place. In real life we tend to call such people visionaries, while fiction often delights in following their rise and fall, such as when the chosen one looses their way to become a tyrant or monster. After all, what do they say about what happens to men who fight monsters?

Testing the Call
This often happens if the protagonist discovers they are heir to a legacy or that they are the chosen one. They might well cry out 'Why me?' and receive an answer along the lines of 'Because there is no on else!' At which point the protagonist will demand some kind of validation of the call, wanting to be sure. When he was tapped on the shoulder by an angel the biblical Gideon demanded a sign that the call indeed came from God. Once the proof came, using morning dew and a fleece, he accepted that it did indeed came from God and went on to lead the liberation of Israel. When confronted by the burning bush Moses kept on looking for excuses and reasons why he could not go, but each argument was refuted or overcome and Moses went.

Once our protagonist accepts the proof they are content to accept the call, though not always with good grace. There is wide leeway for angst over the whole thing, for example, consider Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, who complained about not having an ordinary life; Anakin Skywalker, who was never content with just being the chosen one; and Moses who kept on about the wilfulness of his charges in the wilderness.

The Amish have an actual life stage called Rumspringa, or 'running around' that could be viewed as an actual testing of the call. It occurs in the teen years before they are baptised into the Amish commuinity.

Refusing the Call
Faced with the great unknown and all the attendant trials and tribulations that come with adventure, there are many who just don't want to know. When Jonah was called to do God's work he chose to run a long, long way in the opposite direction — for all the good it did him.

'It's not safe, it's nothing to do with me, it's too far away to bother me' and other things will come from the protagonist's lips. Certainly many protagonists will have good reasons not to go, such as obligations at home, like siblings to care of or chores that have to be done, like bringing in the harvest. Others will see the lack of any retirement packages or health and funeral plans for the average adventurer. Some will just not see the appeal in sleeping out under the stars in the rain and snow. A few will just not see what it's got to do with them.

This provides the opportunity to really hammer home the consequences for refusing the call, not only for the protagonist, but also for their family, friends and home. Luke came face to face with the Empire's evil when Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru were murdered. In the movie Rio Bravo Colorado is not inclined to get involved until his employer is murdered and the stakes become personal. Noir detectives often face intimidation by other parties to keep their noses out of the case before they accept it.

One process for bypassing the option to refuse is the time-honoured process of press-ganging. The protagonist meets a generous stranger in the local pub who's offering free drinks to all the likely looking lads. Of course the drink has been spiked and the protagonist wakes with a headache, on a King's ship bound for high seas adventure. Or maybe a cyclone sweeps up the house, protagonist, pets and all and drops them into the fantastical land over the rainbow where witches and fairies war.

The First Threshold
Once the protagonist has answered the Call, freely or otherwise, they come to the Threshold between what is familiar and known, and that fantastical world of adventure. In the Hero's Journey there are several thresholds the protagonist must cross but here I am just looking at the first. The others will follow in their due place.

The First Threshold may be a literal point to be crossed, such as a wall or natural obstacle. When our stalwart band of hobbits fled the Shire a few steps ahead of the Riders, they came to a fence that marked the border of the Shire. Beyond the fence stood the Old Forest where Old Man Willow lurked among the unfriendly trees. Luckily it was also home to Tom Bombadil and his wife Goldberry who helped the hobbits on their journey.

The threshold does not need to be quite so obvious in appearance. In the case of a noir detective story the threshold is crossed when the private eye decides to accept the trim red head's case. Once begun, the private eye will encounter witnesses, suspects and others who may help or hinder his investigation.

The First Threshold is when the protagonist begins to encounter threshold guardians, who may serve as allies or threats. Threshold guardians serve as a test for the protagonist to see if they are worthy. While some guardians may appear to be enemies at first, many are benign, and once the protagonist has proven himself/herself, then they are allowed to pass. The gruff sheriff in a western might be willing to accept help from others, but only if he believes they can handle themselves in the current crisis. Anybody else will be turned away or, if they prove annoyingly persistent, locked away for their own safety. Others serve purely as a deterrent, such as in the movie Stardust where a rather competent old man guards the way into the other world, as much to protect foolish young questers from themselves as anything else. For the adventurer to cross the threshold they must find a way to overcome or bypass the elderly but martial arts trained threshold guardian

Some threshold guardians serve as a warning to others that someone is coming. Such as a fox at a cave mouth who warns the bear within that a hunter is approaching. Or the toughs sent scare off the private eye.

In their various forms, the threshold guardians, allies and enemies encountered in a story will be the subject of my next foray into the hero's journey.