Is Clary Fray a hero within the novel "City of Bones"? The hero's journey according to Christoph Vogler (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1.6, University of Bonn, language: English, abstract: The aim of this paper is to answer the question if the protagonist in "City of Bones" can be called a hero according to the concept of the Hero's Journey. In order to do that the paper is first going to give a definition of the word hero and introduce the concepts that are significant for the analysis. Then it will focus on Vogler's theory, which consists of twelve Stages, that can be organized in three acts, starting with giving an overview of the three acts.

The main part will focus on the twelve stages introduces by Vogler. After deconstructing the stages, it will refer to and analyse Clary Fairchild's journey in the City of Bones. Lastly it will answer the question, if and to what extent Clary can be considered a hero.

Heroes always fascinated humankind. They are part of myths, of fairy tales, of historical studies and of course of fiction. For most people heroes always seemed to be a part of their lives regardless of whether they were or are fictional heroes or real-life heroes. This term paper will focus on Clarissa Fairchild, also called Clary Fray.

Clary is a fictional character and the protagonist of the book series "The Mortal Instruments" (2007 - 2014). "The Mortal Instruments" is written by the American author Judith Rumelt, better known by her pen name Cassandra Clare. Clary Fairchild lives the life of an ordinary teenager, until she discovers that she is the descendant of a line of Shadowhunters; warriors, who are humans with angelic blood. Shadowhunters exist to protect humans from demons and other evil forces that are beyond the mundane word. This term paper will only deal with the first book of "The Mortal Instruments", called "City of Bones" (2007).

Joseph Campbell introduced in his book "The Hero with a Thousand Faces", the Hero's Journey, which describes a classical plot structure that appears for example in a lot of books and films. Christoph Vogler presents a theory that is based on Campbell's work. Vogler's book "The Writer's Journey" describes his version of the Hero's Journey. This paper will only focus on Christoph Vogler's version of the Hero's Journey.