Post #4
As I Lay Dying: Hero's Journey
In As I Lay Dying, the structure of the book often uses non-linear plotting and mobile perspective as a way to tell the story. Confusing as this may be, this story follows Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey. Decipherable stages of the hero's journey that we can see in the book include the Call to Adventure, and Road of Trials, which I would argue that we are currently on. Though some stages of the Hero's Journey are unclear and don't follow the monomyth down to a T, we can see that the story uses the monomyth as a structure of its storytelling.
Though the Call to Adventure is not at the beginning of the book, it still happens. In this case it happens after we get some context of the characters. Addie Bundren dies, which is the Call to Adventure. This sets off a journey to go to Jefferson. According to Joseph Campbell, this stage begins as "a call to head off into the unknown. According to Campbell, this region is represented by a distant land." Jefferson fills the criteria for this as the book does not say that the family of Addie has ever visited Jefferson before and that it is a far away land.
The Road of Trials in this book is much like many other stories. The Road of Trials usually takes a very large portion of the story, and As I Lay Dying is an example of this. One of the first "trials" that the characters face is the river. According to the Wikipedia page, the "the hero(es) fails one or more of these tests" which is what we see when the Bundrens barely get through, and even then, Cash has a broken leg. What is different, however, is that there doesn't seem to be a "mentor" that helps the Bundrens through their challenge.
Joseph Campbell states that "the hero is covertly aided by the advice, amulets, and secret agents of the supernatural helper" but this does not happen. One could argue that Darl could be the supernatural helper because he seems omniscient, but Darl does little to help at all and seems more like a narrator than a helper. The biggest difference that I can see about the monomyth and As I Lay Dying is that the characters never really receive much help, and though you could argue that the neighbors Armstid and Tull help, they don't exactly follow the other stories of the mentor or the goddess. In other stories such as Star Wars, the goddess helps selflessly, but Anse has to trade for the "items that will help him in the future."
Joseph Campbell states that "the hero is covertly aided by the advice, amulets, and secret agents of the supernatural helper" but this does not happen. One could argue that Darl could be the supernatural helper because he seems omniscient, but Darl does little to help at all and seems more like a narrator than a helper. The biggest difference that I can see about the monomyth and As I Lay Dying is that the characters never really receive much help, and though you could argue that the neighbors Armstid and Tull help, they don't exactly follow the other stories of the mentor or the goddess. In other stories such as Star Wars, the goddess helps selflessly, but Anse has to trade for the "items that will help him in the future."
In conclusion, though some parts of As I Lay Dying do not follow the monomyth, it uses a basic structure that sort of follows it with parts of it missing.
I really like this post, Mason! This is similar to what I am writing about in my blog, and you make some really good points. As you say, "As I Lay Dying" lacks multiple of the key stages of the Hero's Journey, which I have quite agree with. In fact, I found a lack of a hero in general.
ReplyDeleteGood post. While I agree with your overall argument, I have a few critiques. You refer to where we “currently are” in the book, but I don’t know where we were in the book when you wrote this. Also, I am pretty sure that the Bundrens have been to Jefferson before. Finally, I do not agree that the story following the first three steps of the hero’s journey is enough to classify it as a hero’s journey narrative.
ReplyDeleteNice post. I agree that while Darl seems to be a good supernatural aid on paper, his passivity and lack of actual helping holds him back. He seems to be more of a bother than anything, constantly annoying Jewel. It seems like his only positive interaction with another family member is with Vardaman, but even there he sort of fills his head with nonsense.
ReplyDeleteI like this analysis of As I Lay Dying and its connection to the Hero's Journey. It's interesting to see how the structure of the book aligns with the stages of the monomyth, despite not following it perfectly. Something like your observation about the lack of a mentor in the story is also noteworthy, and adds an additional layer of complexity to the characters' journey. Overall, it's clear that the book makes creative use of the Hero's Journey structure to tell its story, and it's fascinating to consider how the deviations from the monomyth affect the narrative.
ReplyDeleteI think it's worth asking if the novel can truly be considered Hero's Journey with so many stages missing. It seems as though a lot is missing, and while it does follow a very basic and bare-bones version of the Hero's Journey template, if we're comparing it to other Hero's Journey novels then too much is lacking. With the additional supposed lack of a hero, I feel like this would be a good discussion topic for class. Thanks for posting this!
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