Drawing on Joseph Capmbell´s The Hero with the Thousand Faces, Marta Ancarani analices Herzog´s quest in terms of the separationinitiation-return pattern proposed by the eminent scholar. The answers Herzog finds through his painful quest help him come to terms with himself so that he can try to change a society "that was no community and devalued the person. Owing to the multiplied power of numbers which made the self negligible. Which spent military billions against foreign enemies but would not pay for order at home. Which permitted savagery and barbarism in its own great cities. At the same time, the preassure of human millions who have discovered what cencerted efforts and thoughts can do."