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Conclusion: A Hero’s Journey in the 1960s

In his 1949’s groundbreaking book, A Hero With A Thousand Faces, which had changed the face of the study of mythology, Joseph Campbell finds the universal pattern inherent in almost all mythologies: separation—initiation—return, which he termed “the nuclear unit of monomyth” (Campbell, 2004, p.28). Dylan’s journey to explore individualism experienced frequent variations and dramatic shifts in the 1960s, but was astonishingly no exception to the monomyth model. This thesis ends in this chapter with a conclusion that locates the evolution of Dylan’s representation of individualism within  a  hero’s  journey  in  monomyth,  and  offers  a  final  evaluation  of  Dylan’s individualism in terms of its cultural implications and social impact.

According  to  Campbell,  a  hero’s  adventure  begins  by  leaving  “the  world  of common day” for a realm of new wonders (Ibid). While the dying economy and a gloomy prospect in 1950s’ Hibbing served as a direct reason for Dylan’s departure, the fundamental reason why Dylan had to leave rested in the “world of rotten smell,” the suffocating conservatism, which was deeply rooted in the blood of the Midwestern mining town. In a world where everything was conventional and stale, the room for creative expression and individualistic choice was compromised and squeezed to an unbearable level for young Dylan who was determined to set sail for “new wonders” that promised boons, materially and spiritually.

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