My paper is on the Hero's Journey of Phillip Enright, a boy from the book "The Cay" by Theodore Taylor. Phillip goes from living on a Dutch island with his family, to being stranded on a deserted island, struck blind, and with only an old black man and a cat for company. But even against all odds (not to mention a massive hurricane), he triumphs and is rescued, but at the cost of a life.
The Calling began for Phillip when he was still in Willemstad. He was only a child, playing with his friend Henrik Van Boven. But he was soon thrust into the Threshold when his parents started arranging for him to leave with his mother on a boat bound for America, because his mother has a distinct fear of flying. But the waters are not safe either, and after a few days on the open sea, the ship Phillip and his mother were travelling on was sunk by a German u-boat, a type of submarine. This was the turning point that got him stuck into the Descent, headed for nowhere, stranded on a raft.
He was struck in the head by falling timber when the boat was wrecked, causing him to go completely blind. This made him enter the Abyss phase of our Hero's Journey. It was here that he met an old black man named Timothy, and the chef of the boat's cat, aptly named Stew Cat. When they finally washed up on a cay, with Timothy acting as the now-blind Phillip's eyes and ears. Timothy then taught Phillip quite a number of survival techniques, and essentially became Phillip's Mentor on the lonely island. Eventually, a huge hurricane swept over the cay, and Timothy died, shielding Phillip from the brunt of the storm with his massive body. This moment in the Hero's Journey is best known as the Transformation.
Phillip was left alone on the island, save Stew Cat. He had to forage for food to feed himself and his companion, and do it while blind, thus bringing up a multitude of questions. How will he fish? How will he hunt? How will he survive? Luckily, he had pretty much memorized the small cay, and he was able to survive long enough to wait for the Creation to come rolling along, and a rescue boat with it.
This paper was on the Hero's Journey of Phillip Enright from "The Cay" by Theodore Taylor. Phillip went completely through the Hero's Journey, from The Calling to The Creation, and everything in between.