The hero's journey is this - it has 17 stages : This isn't a ROUTE in a physical sense or even traveling from one place to another.
It is a journey of discovery ... Even stories that map closely to the journey don't go through all the stages. However, if one looks at the stages you can see how large chunks in this wheel apply to most literature. As an example, lets use the first Star Wars movie as a walk-through. Luke goes through several of the stages in the Journey.
- He is called by Obi-wan to join the rebels - the call to action.
- Luke declines - refusal
- Then the empire kills his aunt and uncle - their death invokes his desire to get revenge.
- Obi-wan convinces him to fight the empire - supernatural aid (he's a jedi)
- Thus Luke goes to the starport - Threshold
- Goes to the bar and has an encounter - Belly of the whale
- Gets on the Millenium falcon and starts the excitement - The road of trials
- He technically skips the next 3 stages unless you count destroying the deathstar. He sees Ben die which is a shock and revelation.
- He does get the force - The boon
- He skips refusal to return. In this narrative he stays in the outer world to fight the empire... but becomes the "new hope" due to his possession and potential to become a jedi. This makes him the "Master of two worlds". So, essentially the monomyth just breaks down the different elements common to our oldest universal stories... and allows us to compare to contemporary narratives - and hopefully understand why some are more relatable than others.