The Karate Kid

   I have watched the movie the Karate Kid and noticed many archetypes of a hero’s journey.  The main character goes through all the stages of a hero’s journey: the departure, initiation, the road of trials, the innermost cave and the return and reintegration with society.
   In this classic movie Daniel LaRusso’s story is told. Daniel’s departure is when he reluctantly has to move to a California; he is constantly begging to go back to his old home in New Jersey. The initiation takes place at the beach party when he fist comes in contact with Johnny and his gang. Before this moment Daniel was naive and inexperienced and was not expecting to have such a difficult and violent life. Daniel is peer pressured to confront a girl he is attracted to named Ali who is Johnny's ex-girlfriend. Johny gets extremely jealous and angry because of this and him and his gang beat up Daniel. This is the start of constant harassment, making Daniels life miserable. The road of trials begins when Mr. Miyagy decided to help and mentor Daniel after witnessing Daniel getting beaten up. Mr. Miyagy is Daniel's apartment's maintenance man and is surprisingly is a karate expert. Mr. Miyagy trains Daniel by putting him through many series of test. He spends countless hours training but feels that he is accomplishing nothing, believing that all he is doing is chores for Mr. Miyagy. After a long time Mr. Miyagy decides that Daniels is ready and test his newly developed skilled. He tests his speed, strength and resourcefulness. Mr. Miyagy enters Daniel in the All Valley Karate Tournament making a deal with Johnny’s sensie to stop harassing Daniel if he beats Johnny who is the defending champion. However, if Daniel losses the harassment resume not only to Daniel but Mr. Miyagy as well. The tournament represents the innermost cave, it is a place of great trails. During the tournament Daniel is greatly wounded from Bobby's illegal attach to the knee. It seems unlikely that he would recover soon let alone finish his last match against Johnny but miraculously Daniel enters the ring balancing on one leg and defeats Daniel by using the crane stance that Mr. Miyagy had taught and defeats Johnny. Daniel grows through this experience, having more confidence in himself. Daniel’s return to society restores peace in his life, Daniel gets the girl and makes Johnny and his friends are bullying people much less.
There are many characteristics of a hero's journey within the Karate Kid such as:The hero is naive.  -Daniel does not expect his new life to be so difficult.
The hero meets monstrous men.  -Johnny and his gain at the beach. He decided that Daniels is there target because he saw Daniel with his ex-girlfriend. When Daniel goes to check out the local dojo he found Johnny and he friends in a lesson. Daniel could see where the hostility of Johnny had come from. The karate sensei was corrupt, he was teaching his class that the enemy diverse no mercy and "to strike first, strike hard, [show] no mercy".
The hero has a strange wise being as a mentor.  -Mr. Miyagi who has master the
The hero years for the beautiful lady who is sometime his inspiration. Ali
The hero was born and raised in a rural setting. -moves to a much bigger city
The hero engages in test or contest of strength and shows pride in his excellence.
The hero suffers a terrible wound. Knee injury from illegal kick in the match against Bobby.
Situation archetypes are:The Task (a superhuman feat that must be accomplished in order fulfill the ultimate goal.) -Winning the tournament which accomplish Daniels goal of putting an end to being harassed.  
Battle between Good and Evil -Daniel representing the good and Johnny representing the evil.

Character Archetypes:(Daniel) The Hero -Fulfills a necessary task and will restore justice to the community.  The initiate -Must endure training.
(Mr. Miyagy) Mentor -Serve as a teacher/counselor to the initiates.

(Johnny and his sensie) The Devil Figure -This character represents evil incarnate.
Heroic Archetypes:
The hero is a warrior. He faces physical challenges and external enemies. He also achieve almost supernatural power.

Archetypal Journey:A quest to rid the land of danger. (the danger being Johnny and his friends).



I love this movie, it is definitely one of my favorites. As you can see this movie is full of archetypes and connections to mythology. It has caused me to wounder why archetypes in Greek mythology are used in popular modern literature. Why are they so effective and common? As well as the reason for these patterns in literature. This is a classic movie and I think that the hero's journey makes it so enjoyable and memorable.


Please share your ideas!!! :)