A formula that was made by a man named Joseph Campbell which he calls the hero’s journey this formula is at the heart of every story he feel it’s the structure, shape, and form of the story. He also claims that even though stories are different on the outside that they still use the three stages that I’m going to explain in my paper and how my hero I choose accomplished all three stages. The movie coach Carter is a coach who led disrespectful men to respectful men that put academic first before sports.
I believe that my hero followed the hero’s journey perfect he went through some ups and downs to accomplish the journey he accepted when he took on such a hard task that no one was trying to help within his journey. The first stage is called separation from the known. My hero’s everyday life consisted of raising his son, owning a sports shop, and loving his wife. He leaves his ordinary life to coach a basketball team that was disrespectful to themselves and him. Coach Carter left to coach this team because he was offered the job and he loved the game of basketball.
The environment he entered was disrespectful and it went from being a coach to a man that no one was getting along with. He later becomes the man that was just right for the job. The second stage is initiation and transformation which was very challenging for the coach to do. When the coach took the job he went into his job with confidents but came off to his players as a coach who was putting on a show. On the first day practice, he had one of his players disrespected him. At the end of practice, he gave them a contract no one seemed to understand. The players didn’t think that a contract was necessary in order to play basketball.
Even their parents felt that the coach was going a little over board with the standards he had set for their child to be on his team. The contract asked of the team to hold a 2. 3 grade point average, wear a suit and tie to basketball games and sit in front of all their classes that they attended. With the contract Coach Carter could keep up with his players to see if they were attending their classes. He was expecting a little help from their teachers but come to find out the teachers were also feeling that coach carter was putting too much into their “busy” schedules.
As the season went on the Coach Carter saw no change, so at that point he locked the gym and caused the team their undefeated record because his team was not following by the contract that they signed. Coach Carter was asked to explain this issue in front of the town committee and was later terminated from his job for trying to help his players put their academics first before sports. The third and final stage of a hero’s journey is the return to the known world with a gift for the world. Coach Carter got his job back after his players accepted that what he was doing was helpful for them.
He gave them hope for themselves after all they went through and help them understand that they could do more with their lives than just playing high school basketball. Even though the players, teachers, and parents gave Coach Carter such a hard time he overcame the obstacles that he was put through and got the parents and players to understand that there was more than just playing high school basketball for their kids. He wanted them to know they could attend college and have a successful life with the standards Coach Carter was holding them up to.
