Is Sheila Heti’s novel, How Should A Person Be?, a work of modern myth that features a modern hero? For
your second essay, you will embark on a mythopoeic reading of Heti’s novel by applying the Hero’s
Journey structure. You will look at the ways in which the novel meets the criteria of the Hero’s Journey and
present a reading of the novel that shows the novel is or has characteristics of a classical myth.
- Assume that the audience for your essay has not read Heti’s novel or is familiar with Campbell’s mythic
structure, which means you’ll have to explain certain things to your readers. - When applying the hero’s journey to the novel, look at the 12 stages of the hero and find connections to
the novel that fit. One difficulty you may face is you may find a number of different examples from the book
that fit with a certain stage in the hero’s joumey. In that situation, you have to choose which one to focus
on.
Sample Solution
