The Hero Journey

I began this post, in part, with a comment on Krissy's post in class today. She analyzed Tea Cake's hero journey, which was very intriguing to me. She allotted the usual archetypes (the mentor, when the ordeal takes place etc.) but Krissy ended his hero journey with his death, after the ordeal. I believe if you look more closely at Tea Cake's journey you can make the argument that he completes the hero journey.
Krissy said that "Tea Cake is the Hero, which is defined as a character who is meant “to serve and sacrifice”. He serves Janie, protects her, and sacrifices his life for her during the hurricane. As he lives life with Janie, he grows more and learns what true love really is." Therefore the truth that Tea Cake left his ordinary world to discover, and must return with at the end of his journey- is the beauty of true love. In this way, Tea Cake and Janie are twin protagonists, both working towards the same end goal in their hero journeys.
Keeping in mind that Tea Cake's truth is love, one can see that even after death, he is reborn in Janie's memories to bring back the elixir (love) to the ordinary world. He also heals Janie in the ordinary world when he returns, as Heroes do when they return. When Janie goes back to her house in Eatonville, or her and Tea Cake's ordinary world, Tea Cake, and therefore, the knowledge of love is with her.
"Of course he wasn't dead. He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking. The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace."
In the last moments of the novel we can see that Tea Cake completes his hero journey, returning with the truth about love to the ordinary world, even in death, and healing Janie's turmoil to peace.