A sudden strained gasp. Turning toward the noise, I was astonished to see the young man drop his briefcase and burst into tears.” This quote introduces the protagonist to his challenge; he is being initiated into the main event of the story which he must internalize, then proceed with an action. The unexpected shock of seeing the stranger cry, and being the only other person in the elevator is the start of this journey. Being confused and unaware of what to do, the protagonist opts to do nothing and thus leading him to his deep-rooted feelings of regret and guilt. “The elevator stopped on the 10th floor and, without looking back, I stepped out.
The tone of the words used in the poem reveals the father as a desperate man, struggling to please his son. The rash tone is specifically shown when the father is trying to stop his son from leaving. The father exclaims, “don’t go”, a venturesome attempt at making his son stay once his attempts at story-telling have failed. The father has failed in persuading his son to stay using normal means and had to resort to begging. The act of the father begging his son to stay show the father’s desperation and this act of rashness further shows the complex relationship that the father has with his son.
In the essay, ‘The Step Not Taken’ by Paul D’Angelo, the author depicts a story of a man caught between doing what he feels is the right thing, and doing what makes him comfortable. By analyzing the archetypal structure of the story, the reader clearly sees how the man in the elevator experiences the cycle of the monomyth. The first stage is the separation – upon seeing the other man in the elevator break down in tears, the narrator refuses to rise to the occasion and offer his help. During the struggle, or initiation, the narrator realizes that what he has done by walking away from the elevator without saying a word was the wrong thing to do. And finally, throughout the return and reintegration, the narrator realizes his mistake, and refuses to go back to being the way he was previously.
Morality in “the Step not Taken” by Paul D’Angelo Paul D’Angelo addresses an interesting subject in “The Step not Taken,” through his own personnel monomyth he presents the moral question of whether it is morally right to ignore the obvious suffering of another human being. The story begins with a man entering an elevator with a “junior executive” looking man in an office building, just a normal day with nothing unusual. Just as in the first stage of the monomyth all seems normal with no warning to the approach of a challenge; “then it happened.....I was astonished to see the young man drop his briefcase and burst into tears,” the main character, has now been faced with his quest. Has in true city tradition he ignores the crying man and leaves the elevator, which is his initial refusal. This point in the story signifies the transition from an external journey to an internal struggle of the protagonist.
This is shown by the language and actions both fathers use towards their sons, for example when Albies father comes back to his son and he immediately is worried about him, we are given this impression when he says ‘You alright? There’s blood on your face!” he then hugs him and touches his cheeks. This is also shown with Wilf Beacon when he realises that his son is hurt, instead of expressing his emotions like Albies father did, he calls him a ‘little coward’ and beats his head against the tray. This gives us the impression that some fathers don’t know how to express their emotions in what is seen as a correct way, instead they behave abusively because it may be the only way they know how. This encourages us to believe that the relationships that fathers have with their sons vary massively.
4. The notion of the “generation gap” is portrayed in the film is when Jim confronts his father by yelling and no respect then running out the house. This is because Jim feels that his father is not being fair and should stand up for himself, while he has his father thinking that he should just listen to what the wife says. Another example is when the police try to talk to Plato and calm him down to stop him from shooting anyone. This portrays the generation gap because when they are trying to talk to Plato they address everything calm.
Mitch writes this story from real-life events about a real man he met and was inspired by. Throughout the book Mitch flashes back each chapter, from a small excerpt from his college days with Morrie to a present day interaction with Morrie. He pages from the past are written in italics, which help to make the reader realize that what he is speaking about is not about a present day meeting with Morrie. Each flashback also helps to set up the current chapter and many times parallels with the next part of the story. Albom also does an incredible job as he titles each chapter, as he jumps from each Tuesday, and then outlines what was the subject to that day, as Morrie always had something new to teach him.
Many stories throughout literature follow the pattern of a monomyth, depicting the journey of a hero. ‘The Step Not Taken’ by Paul D’Angelo follows the story of a particular hero who’s quest is learning to deal and cope with others suffering. The story follows the three main stages of the monomyth, these stages include separation, struggle or initiation and finally return and reintegration. Within the first paragraph we see the protagonist of the story enter the struggle stage. He describes the process of entering the elevator with such normality as if nothing in his life is about to change; he states ‘Nothing at all to indicate what was about to take place’.
All of this shows how they might be completely different stories yet they still follow a similar storyline. Both the protagonists go through similar struggles in finding themselves throughout the hero's journey. This shows how successful this guideline still is and there are many more movies that you can use as examples to this but none are as spot on as Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings. I think that the hero's journey template will be able to last many more years and different takes on its
The Step Not Taken In the essay The Step Not Taken, the author is a hero engaged in a personal search for answers on how to respond to others’ suffering. He experiences in his search the three stages of a monomyth; separation, struggle, and return. From the beginning of his search to the end, the author changes his views significantly, resulting in an epiphany when he finally realizes he has found the answer he had been looking for. The story begins when the author is separated from his everyday life and is placed in abnormal situation in which he must make a decision. When the man in the elevator with him starts to cry, the author is faced with the decision of either helping the man or giving him his space.