4. Crossing the Threshold

The stage of the journey that represents the hero's commitment to the journey is the CROSSING THE THRESHOLD. It is at this moment in the hero's story where the hero is compelled to physically, emotionally or spiritually leave the comfort of their ordinary world and start their journey.

To open your response, find an image or symbol that you believe represents the hero's commitment to the call to adventure. (You may also want to put an image of the cover of the novel you wish to use for this post as well.)

LATER: Your response this week can go right into your summative essay, if you are choosing this stage on which to focus. More information to come on this next week.

YOUR TASK:

Which positive qualities were necessary for your character (or their mentor) to have in order to accept the call to adventure and cross the threshold into a new and special world successfully?

Be sure that you use at least one direct quotation in your response. Follow each direct quotation with an in text citation (Author, Novel Title page) that tells your reader WHERE it came from.

Choose a direct quotation that helps to show your reader that the character has crossed a threshold into a new world, or a quotation that helps to reveal the lesson you have learned about human characteristics, human nature or behaviour from the character successfully or unsuccessfully navigating the stage.

HERE IS A STUDENT SAMPLE:

            I will be writing about the threshold that Seraphina crosses in the white pine novel Seraphina by Rachel Hartman.  The moment that I believe Seraphina crossed the threshold happened even before the book started. I believe that Seraphina crossed the threshold when she accepted he job of Assistant Music Mistress and entered the castle on her first day of work. She left behind her ordinary world and took a risk to enter a new world.  The following quotation was said by Seraphina’s father to Seraphina, “Under no circumstances are you to draw attention to yourself. If you won’t think of your own safety, at least remember all I have to lose“ (Hartman, Seraphina 8).  It shows both components of her ordinary world and her new world. Her ordinary world was too confining to stay in but these reasons for being confined still exist, she still can’t totally be free to do as she wishes. 

             This shows the lesson that if someone feels to confined and like they aren’t as free as they want to be, they will take chances to change that. Seraphina was unhappy with her ordinary world and decided that it was time to cross the threshold, despite the risks she knew that she would face everyday. This proves the theory that if someone is unhappy somewhere, they are often willing to take the risks necessary to gain the world they want to live in.  The character realizes that living in the world that they want to live in is worth the risk. - A. McP. 2016