Clay is an absolute archetypal hero from the book Wings of Fire. I can prove clay is an archetypal hero by relating him to the 12 steps of a hero’s journey. The following are the steps of the hero's journey include: the Ordinary World, Call to Adventure, Refusal of Call, Meeting the Mentor, Crossing the Threshold, Tests/Allies/Enemies, Approach to the Innermost Cave, Ordeal, Reward, Road Back, Resurrection, Return with the Elixir. He experiences almost every single one of them through the book.
When the story first begins, Clay starts to show he is an archetypal hero already. This is showing through the first three steps. Although Clay does not like his home,his ordinary world for him is living in a under ground…show more content… Clay meets more than one mentor along the way. Meeting the Mentor shows us who helps and guides them along the way. He has the four other dragonets who helped and guide him along the way. Their names are: Tsunami, Starflight, Glorry, and Sunny. These four dragons help and comfort him along the way. He has yet another mentor named Peril who has fire hot skin. Peril sneaks him tasty snacks and also secret information. On page 173 “Peril brought him three rabbits and two more cauldrons of mud” which smooths Clays pain.Crossing the Threshold is an important step to the hero’s journey. It is where they move from the ordinary world to the new or other world. He is forced to Cross the Threshold when the Sky Wing Queen captures them from their cave. Now they have gone form being kept away to being held prisoner. He crosses the Threshold on page 116 “Life under the mountain had felt like prison… but he knew it was nothing compared to being trapped in the claws of the Skywing…show more content… He first encounters Reward. Reward is where the hero revives something for going on their journey. In Clay’s case he gets to finally meeet his families after wanting it since the beginning of the story. His family is not what he expected but it made him feel better about himself. Clay always wondered why he “attacked” the other dragonets eggs; in the book it says “ The first born is always the biggest, and his or her first task was to help the other dragonets out of their eggs by cracking their shells from the outside” clay learned on page 291. He experiences two rewards though, he gets to be back with the other four dragonets after finally getting free. He next experiences the Road Back. The Road Back is when they get to get back to either there original families or they go back to the Ordinary World. Clay doesn’t return to the Ordinary World, but he gets to unite with the other four dragonets and feel like a big family. They enjoyed themselves when they where together and you could clearly tell on page 300 when the author wrote “Glory, Tsunami and Clay all tackeled him at once. Sunny tried to come to his rescue, and the five of them ended up scuffling in the grass, laughing.” The 11th step of the journey is Ressurection. Ressurection is where the hero is reborn with there original characteristics. Clay and the other dragonets act like they are a mud wing family and Clay is the big wings. The
