"Finding Your Roots with Julia Robert"

Student Name Professor Course Date Exploring the Hero's Journey of Julia Roberts in Finding Your Roots Introduction Julia Roberts, famous for Pretty Woman and Erin Brockovich, took a different approach to Finding Your Roots. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. helped Roberts uncover her family's secrets. This voyage resembles Joseph Campbell's Monomyth, or Hero's Voyage, which portrays the Hero's separation, initiation, and return. Each discovery about her lineage pulls Roberts closer to self-discovery, mirroring this eternal framework. This article will analyze Roberts' Journey through the Monomyth's four stages: Call to Adventure, Crossing the First Threshold, The Ultimate Boon, and Crossing the Return Threshold. Call to Adventure The Call to Adventure acts as the moment in the Hero's Journey for the Hero to be called out of the familiar and start a quest that he will never forget and will forever change him. This call comes with a visit to Julia Roberts to explore her ancestry on Finding Your Roots and a journey full of surprising revelations. This Journey is introduced to her by Gates at the start of the episode, where she says, "Welcome to Finding Your Roots. In this episode, we'll meet actors Julia Roberts and Edward Norton. Two stars who are about to be recast by their family trees" (Roberts 0:10-0:35)​. This invitation from Gates represents Roberts' initial step into the unknown, as she is presented with an opportunity to discover the depths of her lineage, a world far removed from her glamorous Hollywood life. The language used by Gates here—"recast by their family trees"—suggests that Roberts is about to uncover information that may alter her understanding of herself. Roberts' call to adventure is much like those of the heroes of ancient myths: to venture from the surface of her identity to confront her origins. It is one of transformation, as she leaves behind her ignorance about her ancestry towards a path of self-discovery. In a real sense, Roberts' "adventure" involves confronting who she truly is beyond the persona she presents to the world, echoing the universal human quest for belonging and understanding of one's roots. Crossing the First Threshold When Roberts takes her call, we see her while she 'crosses the first threshold,' a stage in which we cross from the known to the unknown, a stage which Campbell refers to as Crossing the First Threshold. This is the moment the Hero commits himself to the Journey; as he parts company with his old world and the unknown accepts him, the Hero comes to the unknown, so to speak, to deal with the challenges. When Roberts ...