A Hero’s Journey: The Story of Saroo Brierley

 Joseph Campbell’s monomyth defines a hero as someone who is called to a journey. That journey includes separation from the world, challenges to overcome, and the return to their known world. These steps are shown in the journey of Saroo Brierley; he is separated from his family at the age of five, has to face the challenges that come with moving to a new place and adjusting to his new family, and his final return home to his biological mother.

The first step in Professor Campbell's model is the 'separation'. The 'separation' can refer to many things which include, but are not limited to, being separated from one's home, and from their every day, regular lifestyle. Saroo’s journey begins when he is separated from his biological family. One evening Saroo's older brother, Guddu, had announced that he was going to 'Berampur', Saroo decided to go with him. After they had arrived, Saroo had told his brother that he couldn’t go anywhere else without having some rest, so Guddu told him to not worry and to nap and that he would be back in a bit, but that he needed to take care of some things. Many hours later, Saroo wakes up to find himself still on the wooden bench in the station and his brother was nowhere to be seen. Saroo decided to try looking for him on different carriages in the train, and this is where is story beings. He had once again fallen asleep, but this time on the train. When he woke up, his brother was still nowhere to be found, and he was now afraid and alone on a train that was moving quickly. He didn’t know how long he spent on the train, but he knew that he was lost. He had gotten on a couple more trains before ending up in Calcutta (Kolkata). He spent many weeks on his own trying to keep himself alive and safe before. He was finally taken to an Orphanage. Saroo did not know that his journey through the 'threshold' would soon begin.

The 'threshold' is said to be the jumping off point of the hero’s journey. According to Campbell it is up to the hero as to whether he/she goes willingly or gets pushed. Saroo’s journey through the threshold begins after he, now at the age of six, is adopted by an Australian couple. He was soon taken to meet his new parents in Australia. In his book Saroo says, 'I was told that I'd be going to Australia very soon to meet my new parents' (105). After arriving in Australia, he had met his new parents, John and Sue Brierley. They spent the night at a hotel and then got on another plane to go to Saroo's new home, Hobart, Tasmania. Saroo had to get used to his new life in Tasmania, but they knew that it would take some time. This move led to the next step in Saroo’s journey: the challenges.

A 'challenge' is an objective that is set for a hero to overcome. Overcoming this 'challenge' or these 'challenges' help the hero become more mature and helps build their confidence. Saroo’s first challenge would be learning and getting used to speaking English. His parents were aware that he was not fluent in English so they had some help from their friends, Saleen and Jacob, who both spoke Hindi which was Saroo's mother tongue. 'They would speak with me in my own language, Hindi, asking simple questions and translating instructions and things Mum and Dad wanted me to know about how we’d live our life together' (Brierley 18). Not much time had gone by before Saroo had picked up the language, and fairly quickly at that. Another one of these 'challenges' happened when his parents decided to adopt a new child who was also from India. His new brother, Mantosh, did not transition as easily as Saroo did. He was loud, rebellious, and disobedient. He and his brother would fight a lot. They would fight over things like toys and this would lead to them pushing each other around. Saroo had soon realized that his parents needed to pay more attention to his brother because of his struggles in adjusting and this started their sibling rivalry. These challenges connect to Campbell’s model because Saroo's life had taken a complete turn. He was faced with not only having to change where he lived, but also the language he spoke, they way he behaved, and getting used to being around a new family that was a bit dysfunctional. After many years Saroo had decided to try and search for his biological family and he soon falls into the abyss.

The 'abyss' is when the hero reached the hardest part of their journey. The 'abyss' doesn’t have to be a physical barrier, it can also be a mental one. The hero conquering this part of their journey would help them reach the end point. Saroo’s journey ties into the 'abyss' after he starts his search for his biological family. So many years had passed since Saroo had been in his hometown and his memories were very vague. His friends had told him about a program called Google Earth, which could show you any place you wanted. Saroo had started his search, but he had quickly lost hope as he realized it would be an extremely difficult task that would take him away from his studies, so he chose to leave it. Saroo had finished his studies and moved back to Hobart, but he soon realized that he had lost interest in his career. After a hard set of changes which included his job, location, and the loss of his relationship, Saroo had found himself stuck in a dark place. He was stuck in a rut and didn’t know how to get out. His parents were worried about him and had been questioning when he would change back into a happier man. With the help of his friend, Byron, he had now moved into a spare room at Byron's place and started to pick his life back up. Saroo had again started his search for his hometown. Byron tried his hardest to keep Saroo from going back to his depressed state and made sure he was going out and not stuck at the computer for days on end. Saroo had eventually met a new girl, Lisa, and they soon started dating. Their relationship had his many bumps along the way, especially after Saroo had started obsessing over his search. He would go out with her during the day and the minute he got home, he would hunch over his computer for hours on end. This caused tension between them and had led to several break-up and make-ups. After many months of this ongoing abyss, he made his final return home.

The 'return' is the point in the journey where everything goes back to normal. The 'return' is not always welcomed with warmth and joy by the hero because of the fear that things would be forever changed and that adjusting to their new life would be hard. In the case of Saroo, this couldn’t be more opposite. After so many years he had finally found his hometown, Ganesh Talai. His only fear was being wrong and having his hard work be dismissed to nothing. This was soon proved to be an invalid fear because he had really found it. With the support of his family and his girlfriend, he traveled to India about eleven months after finding out about Ganesh Talai. Saroo had been walking about the city where he spent his first few years of life before he found a man who spoke good English. The man understood enough to give Saroo the help in making his dream come true, meeting his family. Saroo had shown the man a picture of his family and gave him the names. The man told Saroo to wait where he was, and after a couple of minutes the man had returned with a woman. This woman turned out to be Saroo's mother. 25 years had passed since Saroo had seen his mother, yet she could still recognize his face. Overwhelmed with joy his mother took him to see his, now grown, siblings. His journey was now complete.

These points help prove the thesis that Saroo Brierley is in fact a hero, but in his own way. His life had many rough patches, his separation, the challenges, and the depression that consumed him, but it proved to be worth it in the end. Sadly, his brother Guddu had passed away the same night Saroo's journey started. To bring this essay to a conclusion, every journey also has a gift. The gift that Saroo had been given and had given to the world was the gift of hope. Hope is what drove him to accomplish his dream of finding his family.

Works Cited

1. Brierley, Saroo, and Larry Buttrose. A Long Way Home: a Boy's Incredible Journey from India to Australia and Back Again: a Memoir. Center Point Large Print, 2017.
2. Carroll, Rory. “Saroo Brierley, the Inspiration for the Film Lion: 'My Mother Saw My Face after 25 Years'.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 24 Feb. 2017, www.theguardian.com/film/2017/feb/24/saroo-brierley-lion-oscars-interview.
3. Smith, Charlie. “Google Earth Helped Saroo Brierley Rediscover a Lost Family a Continent Away-and Give Birth to the Hit Movie Lion.” Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly, 25 May 2018, www.straight.com/movies/1079151/google-earth-hatched-lion.
4. Jeffrey, Scott. “How to Use the Hero's Journey for Personal Development.” ScottJeffrey.com, 11 Jan. 2019, www.scottjeffrey.com/heros-journey-steps/.