Stage Nine: Reward

You know that feeling when you finally finish something nearly impossible? When, at long last, you’ve completed a task that took forever or you’ve made it through something you were dreading? Of course you do. If you didn’t, I’d worry that you never left your couch. The real question is, what do you do afterward?

A Job Well Done Is Its Own Reward, but a Good Party Never Hurts

I can think of loads of examples myself, but the biggest one that comes to mind is FABA. That’s the Fine Arts Banquet and Auction held by the school where I taught for 11 years.  It is by far the biggest, most in-depth event of the year (think full-scale dinner theater, live music, big silent auction, and formal atmosphere, all run by a small Christian school). My (self-appointed) job was to write a full-length play during the summer and then help direct the play during the school year. Needless to say, it was a lot of work.

But like many things that are hard work, the payoff was amazing. The cast and crew always did a phenomenal job, and the audience adored the performances. Granted, it helped that half of the audience was made up of the students’ families, but still. Afterward, in celebration, I would usually sleep the peaceful slumber of someone who is floating weightless in a sea of carefree bliss.  And then we would have a cast party: food, awards, and hanging out. Last year we even celebrated by buzzing my husband’s hair into a mohawk. Now THAT was rewarding.

Rewards for the Hero

Stage nine of the Hero’s Journey is that of Reward. In the last stage, the hero faced his or her greatest fear in hopes of gaining this reward. The hero may even have died and returned, either literally or figuratively. But now the Ordeal is over, and it’s time to celebrate!

Christopher Vogler discusses several common types of Reward scenes, including a campfire where the spoils of battle are enjoyed or a love scene where the hero finally wins the lady’s heart. No matter what the Reward scene looks like, the important part is that the hero finally gains what he or she set out to find. “Treasure hunters take the gold, spies snatch the secret, pirates plunder the captured ship…. A transaction has been made—the hero has risked death or sacrificed life, and now gets something in exchange.” [184] The Reward could be pretty much anything that the hero needed in order to save himself, someone he loves, or maybe even the world, and now he has taken it.

Older and Wiser

Think back to your own Ordeal and Reward that you remembered at the beginning of this post. I’m sure you celebrated your victory with vigor and gusto at first. But when you reflected on it later, how had the ordeal changed you? For me, each play developed me as a writer and a thinker. My later plays tended to have more meaning and symbolism than some of the earlier ones. The process of directing also matured me as a person. As in, I think it took years off my life and gave me gray hairs that I will undoubtedly find if I ever stop getting highlights. And you know what? That’s ok. Those were years well-invested, not wasted. Also, that’s why God created hairstylists.

For the hero in an adventure, the Reward can come along with many other kinds of changes, Vogler says. For example, the hero experiences initiation into an elite group of survivors. She gains new perceptions or knowledge through the Ordeal. She may be able to see through deceptions that had duped her earlier, or she may experience self-realization and epiphany, seeing inside and around her like never before.

Example from The Hobbit

After surviving the Battle of Five Armies, Bilbo Baggins is a changed man too. Well, a changed Hobbit, anyway. He is well deserving of his reward, but he doubts that Thorin will have forgiven him for stealing the coveted Arkenstone and giving it to the “enemy” in hopes of keeping peace. However, Thorin has been mortally wounded in the fight, so his last conversation with Bilbo is one of forgiveness and blessing. Thorin passed through the Ordeal and was changed, too, but he did not experience the resurrection of a hero.

Thorin’s death finally frees everyone to share the treasure as it should have been in the first place. Everyone gets a portion, even Bilbo. After the experiences he’s just been through, though, he hardly wants any treasure. For one thing, how is he supposed to carry it all back to the Shire? Because, of course, that’s what he’s been longing for all along. He takes two small chest of gold and silver and starts off on his long road home.

Today’s Question: Think again of the Ordeal that you faced. How did you celebrate your Reward in the end? And (for bonus points) how did it change you?

Source: Vogler, Christopher. The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, Second Edition. Studio City: Michael Wiese Productions, 1998.