SOURCE: Stott, Jon C. “Joseph Campbell on the Second Mesa: Structure and Meaning in Arrow to the Sun.” Children's Literature Association Quarterly 11, no. 3 (fall 1986): 132-34.

In the following essay, Stott determines the influence of The Hero with a Thousand Faces on Gerald McDermott's Arrow to the Sun.

Although it may be linked to a tale type widely distributed in North America, every native tale has its own integrity. As a product of the culture in which it is told, it is part of that culture's holistic view of reality; and that view of reality is rooted in the geographical location of the specific people. As Vine Deloria, Jr. has suggested in God is Red, his study of native religions, the beliefs of native peoples were closely tied to the places in which they lived: “Holy Places were well-known in what have been classified as primitive religions. The vast...