The Protagonist’s Journey: “We are not prisoners of that room”

A reflection on Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Letters to a Young Poet”

If we imagine our being as a room of any size, it seems that most of us know only a single corner of that room, a spot by the window, a narrow strip on which we keep walking back and forth. That gives a kind of security. But isn’t insecurity with all its dangers so much more human?

We are not prisoners of that room.

In their life leading up to Fade In, the Protagonist has cobbled together a semblance of a life. They are — in the words of Joseph Campbell — “just making do.” Metaphorically, they find themselves in a room. What they know of the room is so little. A corner. A spot by the window. A narrow strip they frequent as they walk through their life… back and forth… back and forth.

They need to change, even if they do not know it. This is not an authentic life. This is not their authentic life.

The beliefs they have stitched together… the behaviors they have adopted… the coping skills and defense mechanisms they have generated to create some sense of security…

No matter how safe they feel… it is a false reality. The walls which provide a feeling of comfort against the uncertainties of The Beyond have created a kind of jail cell restraining the Protagonist from their authentic way of being.

The first movement in the Protagonist’s journey is to realize the room is not their prison. That movement begins when…

Something happens.

The Call To Adventure. Inciting Incident.

This event, this Herald casts a flicker of light across the walls, floor, and ceiling of this room. The Protagonist is shocked to realize…

This room is bigger than I knew.

This fact may frighten the Protagonist. This moment upends what is Normal and provides a glimpse of what appears to be the Super-Normal.

It feels dangerous.

The Protagonist knows the Normal, knows their inauthentic life. And yet…

Something from within reaches up… reaches out… and calls to them.