The authors trace the local origin of this ubiquitous myth to a collection of early American writings known as “Indian captivity narratives,” a genre developed during the Puritan era, in which settlers who had been abducted by Native tribes recounted their harrowing journeys and rescues. In these stories, the violent means by which captives are saved also redeems the larger community and cleanses the wilderness. The monomyth as we know it today, however, really took shape in the 1920s and 1930s, with an explosion of cowboy Westerns and the development of superheroes. But all of those were just
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