Since time immemorial, the question of whether people are defined by destiny or fate has lingered in many people’s minds.

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Since time immemorial, the question of whether people are defined by destiny or fate has lingered in many people’s minds. It is a philosophical question with no definitive answer, and many people have attempted to answer it with little success. Joseph Campbell is one of the numerous people who have tried giving logical explanations to the question through their writings. Campbell tried to address the problem in ‘The Self as Hero,’ which is part of his well-acclaimed work ‘Pathways to Bliss. In the excerpt, Campbell utilizes characters and their struggles, myths, and fairy tales to explore their daunting journeys, the challenges they faced, and how they overcame them to achieve great success and enhance their destiny. According to Campbell, success results from hard work, and a person’s future is not predetermined. For him, success is guaranteed if anybody has the self-belief, courage, and will to pursue their dreams (Thigpen, 13).

As part of Campbell’s quest to explain and prove that people’s success is dependent on hard work, he uses several sources. One of the stories that Campbell utilizes is ‘The Goodfellas’ by Martin Scorsese. Campbell spent his entire life learning about the world’s greatest stories, religions, and myths. His study was not limited to certain timeframes, countries, languages, or religions. He explored everything that came his way and examined their elements, and he finally made a common denominator in all the stories he learned about (Bronzite, 10). The myth ‘The Goodfellas’ narrates the story of a sect of gangsters who dedicated their time and energy to earn influence and reach the summit of their gangster society. Although it is evident that the sect was antagonistic and each member had their objectives, the group undergoes a crisis that helps them achieve their objectives hence fits what can be called ‘a hero journey.’ The Goodfellas is an adaptation of Nicholas Pileggi’s book ‘Wiseguy: Life in a mafia family.’ Although Campbell’s movie is based on the book, it does not adopt all of the material, distorting the story (Williams, 530).

The ‘Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family’ is based on the life of Henry Hill. He started his criminal tendencies at age 11 in 1955. Hill was first employed as a ‘go-fer’ before being promoted to a seller of stolen cigars for his boss Paul Vario. He was arrested for attempting to steal credit cards. Still, he refused to cooperate with law enforcement officers, which made him daring to Vario and his associate Jimmy Burke. At the age of 17, he joined the US Army, which surprised many of his friends. However, he later acknowledged that he took the step to make his father proud after previously associating himself with the mafia (Vogler, 19). He did not stop his criminal tendencies even after joining the US Army; he was later dismissed. After being discharged from the army, Hill rejoined the mafia, and Vario and Burke welcomed him. He later eloped Karen Friedman and was blessed with two kids: Gregg and Gina. Hill had an extramarital affair with Linda Coppociano and was later involved in the murder of William ‘Billy Batts’ Devino. Burke was the mastermind of a robbery at John F. Kennedy’s Lufthansa cargo terminal.

Campbell chose the overall plot of the ‘Wiseguy’ and excluded a lot of information to ensure that the story created a certain narrative about a ‘hero.’ For instance, the book provides an in-depth analysis of Hill’s association with Vario and how this shaped him. The movie utilizes visuals and dramatization to bring the character and attitude with which the mafia family operated. By including some information, Campbell ensures that the movie reflects the book’s plot and viewers would relate to it. In the book, Pileggi went an extra mile to interview Hill and people who were close to him, like his wife, federal authorities, and mistress, to offer incredible insights into the operations of the mafia group. The exclusion of some aspects of the plot allowed Campbell to twist and make the movie more entertaining. Campbell does a good job of ensuring that he turns the three main villains in the book into heroes in the movie, which largely contributed to the movie’s success.

Work Cited

Bronzite, Dan. “The hero’s journey–Mythic structure of Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth.” Retrieved on February 1 (2018).

Thigpen, Andrew Ford. Batman as Monomyth: Joseph Campbell, Robert Jewett, John Shelton Lawrence, Frank Miller, Grant Morrison, Scott Snyder, and the Hero’s Journey to Gotham. Liberty University, 2017.

Vogler, Christopher. “Joseph Campbell goes to the movies: The influence of the hero’s journey in film narrative.” Journal of Genius and Eminence 2.2 (2017): 9-23.

Williams, Clive. “The hero’s journey: A mudmap for change.” Journal of Humanistic Psychology 59.4 (2019): 522-539.