Christopher Vogler The Writers Journey
T H E ELIXIR OF RESPONSIBILITY
A common and powerful Elixir is for heroes to take wider responsibility at the
Return, giving up their loner status for a place of leadership or service within a
group. Families and relationships get started, cities are founded. T h e hero's center
has moved from the ego to the Self, and sometimes expands to include the group.
M a d M a x , the loner hero of George Miller's Road Warrior and Mad Max: Beyond the
Thunderdotne, forsakes his solitude to become M e n t o r and foster-father to a race of
orphaned children. T h e Elixir is his skill at survival and his recollection of the old
world before the apocalypse, which he passes on to the orphans.
T H E ELIXIR OF TRAGEDY
In the tragic mode, heroes die or are defeated, brought down by their tragic flaws. Yet
there is learning and an Elixir brought back from the experience. W h o learns? T h e
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