Christopher Vogler The Writers Journey
king of the cattle drive himself, leaving his foster-father with nothing but a horse and
a canteen. In stories like this, facing the greatest fear is depicted as youth standing up
to the older generation.
Y O U T H V E R S U S AGE
T h e challenging of the older generation by the younger is a timeless drama, and
the Supreme Ordeal of standing up to a forbidding parent is as old as A d a m and
Eve, Oedipus, or King Lear. T h i s ageless conflict provides much of the power of
playwriting. T h e play On Golden Pond deals with a daughter's frantic effort to please
her father, and its Ordeals are the daughter standing up to the father, and the father
experiencing his own mortality.
T h i s generational drama is sometimes played out on a world stage. T h e
Chinese dissident students who took over Tiananmen Square and blocked the tanks
with their bodies were challenging the status quo imposed by their parents and
grandparents.
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