In class this week we are learning about the Ordinary World, which is just what it sounds like. The Ordinary World is the place the Hero lives before his Journey begins--the place in which he is restless, complacent, unhappy, or the like. In the Ordinary World he is just getting by. He has no zest for life, no adventure, and a lot of need for change. His everyday life is flipped upside down when he enters the Special World (which may or may not be a different physical place).
It is important to show the Hero in his Ordinary World before the inciting incident, because it provides contrast. The scenes or chapters that take place in the Ordinary World also leave room for establishing the tone and theme of the story, as well as providing backstory, introducing important characters, and foreshadowing. The less the Ordinary World is like the Special World, the more uncomfortable the Hero will feel when crossing the threshold. And we want our Heros to feel uncomfortable. It makes them real. No one says, "An adventure that hurls me out of everything I ever knew, plunges me into an unknown abyss, presents choices to me of huge importance, and may risk my life? Count me in!" But more on that another time, as we talk about the Call to Adventure and the Refusal of the Call.
Think about the Ordinary and Special Worlds in stories you know. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe the Ordinary World is war-torn England, while the Special World is war-torn Narnia. (Notice the foreshadowing there?) In Lord of the Rings, Frodo leaves the Shire and journeys far across Middle Earth. In Anne of Green Gables, Matthew and Marilla's lives are incomplete (though they don't know it) until Ann arrives and turns things upside-down. See a pattern here?
The writer must establish the Ordinary World in which the Hero lives in order to show the true specialness of the Special World.
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