Deceit and Horses

As I Lay Dying is ridden with a multitude of repeating motifs and imagery. Some of these can include spoken phrases, auditory noises, or physical elements. Each of the Bundren family members have their own thing that is consistently attributed to them: Vardaman is connected to the fish, Anse desires to get a new pair of teeth, and Jewel is always seen with his horse. Throughout what we’ve read, Jewel has been notably possessive towards the horse: refusing to let anyone else ride it and taking it with him on the journey. However, does the horse represent something greater? How does the horse depict the Bundren family dynamics?

Jewel’s horse has been introduced from the start; he’s almost never shown without it. Later on, the readers discover the origins of the horse in a Darl chapter. Unknowingly to the rest, Jewel would sneak out at night and return too exhausted to work. Five months after this started, Addie and the rest of the family were confronted with the results of his labor. The reactions varied among the members: pa was upset and concerned about the finances of the horse, while Addie was struck by Jewel misleading her.

This moment of the narrative foreshadows something crucial about Addie: it was noted that after this incident, she cried alone about Jewel’s deceit. Darl recounts it: “she cried hard…maybe because she felt the same way about tears she did about deceit, hating herself for doing it, hating him because she had to. And then I knew that I knew. I knew that as plain on that day as I knew about Dewey Dell on that day” (136). It’s made clear that Addie feels some sort of guilt when it comes to deceit, but what is it that Darl knew about her? Why is it that she felt so personally affronted when it came to Jewel and the horse?

Later on in an Addie chapter, the readers find out that Jewel is an illegitimate child, something that the rest of the family and especially Pa are unaware of. She carries this sin with her to her deathbed, which could be ascribed to her deep aversion towards lying and deceit; Addie has been deceiving her family this entire time. When Jewel reveals the horse after going behind all their backs, it’s possible that the incident incited Addie's repressed feelings and reminded her of what she’s been hiding. This would explain her strong, averse reaction to the situation and how she felt the need to hide her tears afterward.

Faulkner has been foreshadowing this connection throughout the novel. Jewel consistently attributes his mother to a horse, especially in contrast to Vardaman and his fish. When Addie passes away, Darl remarks that he “cannot love his mother because [he has] no mother. Jewel’s mother is a horse” (95). Later when Darl is trying to explain to Vardaman how their mother can be multiple different things, readers can only later understand the depth of his words. He states how Jewel’s mother is a horse, to which Vardaman replies in confusion that his mother is a fish and Jewel is his brother. Darl then says “‘if pa is your pa, why does your ma have to be a horse just because Jewel’s is?’” (101). Highlighting the discrepancies in the depiction of Addie emphasizes the difference between Jewel and the rest of his family. The horse acts as a visual representation to establish his independence and separation from the family.

Comparing Murdock and Schmidt's Heroine's Journey

In comparing the two models of the Heroine’s Journey, it’s notable that Maureen Murdock’s version was created to help with her female patients as a psychotherapist. However, with Victoria Schmidt’s, it seems as if it follows Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey much more closely. Although both of these follow a female protagonist, Murdock’s model makes explicit connections between healing the feminine and reconciling with the masculine. In contrast, Schmidt merely sets up the stages similar to Campbell, but female identity is explored implicitly through them.

Looking at the first steps, Murdock begins her template with “separation from the feminine.” In this act, the heroine rejects her feminine identity in favor of the masculine. This could arise from imposed patriarchal beliefs or a dissonance with the female figures in one’s life, such as the heroine’s mother. We see this in Quicksand, where Helga’s biracial identity is ascribed to her mother and father, and her feminine and masculine side by proxy. Due to her resentment towards the prejudiced system while at Naxos, she wishes to escape the white image of how black people are expected to act. In her action to migrate north, she is embracing her black identity and, in turn, rejecting her mother’s side. Murdock explicitly ties in femininity into the development of the heroine.

In contrast, Schmidt starts off with “the illusion of the perfect world.” With this step, the heroine goes through her life, often with naivety and her own coping mechanisms. She has yet to be disappointed by the world around her in which she feels driven to change something about her lifestyle. If we look at Legally Blonde, the introduction sequence depicts Elle’s perfect life to the song “Perfect Day.” We see her content with her sisters and her relationship with her boyfriend. Things have worked out for Elle, giving her less motivation to embark on her own journey. However, it’s not until her boyfriend breaks up with her that this illusion is shattered. Her naivety and femininity don’t necessarily have to go hand-in-hand, but it’s through the rejection of the male that compels her to exit from her perfect world. 

While Schmidt has elements that make the Heroine’s Journey female specific, I feel as if the model takes a more generalized approach to the female experience. The steps can be as closely intertwined with female identity as the reader wishes to interpret it, but Murdock’s model makes clear connections between these steps and being a female. The readers can easily find implications of the differences between the hero and heroine in both models, but Murdock compels the reader to confront the gendered aspect directly through the way her model is set up and the naming of her steps.

While both of these first steps are different, both can be applied to the beginning of the same texts—the models just focus on different aspects. In my eyes, one model makes the heroine’s journey explicitly centered around female identity, while the other is about the hero’s journey and ties in elements of the female experience. As stated, this distinction between Murdock and Schmidt’s models makes sense, given that one was created for therapeutic reasons and the other is much more commonly used in writing.

Elle Woods' Heroine's Journey in Legally Blonde

 

Legally Blonde closely follows Victoria Schmidt’s model of the Heroine’s Journey. The story centers itself around Elle Woods, a blonde sorority girl who sets out to prove her intelligence after being broken up with her boyfriend. To prove her competence and to win him back, she sets out to apply to the same law school as him. The whole movie revolves around Elle’s identity as a woman, her abilities often underestimated due to that fact. Despite her setbacks, Elle uses her knowledge and wit to work her way closer to becoming a successful lawyer.

In a pivotal scene of the movie, Elle is hit on by her professor, admitting that he only favored her in chances of pursuing her. This scene is indicative of the “death - all is lost” stage, as Elle believes that she’s incapable of proving herself and she’s nothing more than a “dumb blonde.” In this fit of defeat, she gives up on her dreams and decides to move back to the west coast. At this moment, it seems as if all hope has been lost, especially with her losing her bond with Vivian. 

Skimming over the “support” stage of the Heroine’s Journey (which we can see through her getting support from Emmett and the other women in her life), the “rebirth - the moment of truth” is when she returns to the trial. However, there’s a difference in the way Elle presents herself: the more Elle worked at becoming a lawyer, she began losing pieces of her identity, showcased through her increasingly duller clothes. When she returns to represent her client, she’s decked out in hyper-feminine clothes. Her all-pink wardrobe indicates her finding power in her own identity, just as the rebirth stage indicates that the heroine “has found her strength and resolve.” Instead of letting go of her past self, she uses it to empower and express herself in this new world.

Additionally, she is able to win the trial through her own knowledge of beauty products, something viewed as more feminine. Through embracing her feminine identity and rejecting the masculine, she is able to achieve her end goal. We also see this in a parallel between her and her ex-boyfriend: when he tries to take her back, she refuses his offer and states how she needs a more serious partner. 

When we compare this to the beginning of the movie, Elle’s goal was to win her boyfriend back by enrolling in law school. By the end of the movie, Elle has made it through her journey as a lawyer, but her motives stopped being about her boyfriend. Her reasons to pursue her goal have shifted from being centered around male validation to finding strength within herself.

"Samsara": The Continuous Cycle of Temptation

TEMPTATION: This step is about those material temptations that may lead the hero to abandon or stray away from his or her quest.

Siddhartha’s goal has been prevalent throughout the entire book: “to become empty of thirst, desire, dreams, pleasure and sorrow…no longer to be Self, to experience the peace of an emptied heart, to experience pure thought—that was his goal” (Hesse 14). With that, he embarks on a series of adventures to tap into his true self and to find Atman. Through this, he undergoes trials such as taking on the life of a Samana, separating from Govinda, and recentering himself and his goal along the way.

Although in the chapter “Awakening,” it seems as if Siddhartha has found a new goal in the way his perspective on the world changes, I interpreted it as a new means to still achieve his same objective established in the beginning of the book. He states how he will “no longer try to escape from Siddhartha” and will instead “learn from [him]self the secret of Siddhartha.” In doing this, he tries to gain experience himself, eventually meeting a woman named Kamala. Here, Siddhartha falls explicitly into the temptation stage of the Hero’s Journey. He begins to indulge in the life of materialism with Kamala, straying away from his original goal. 

“Samsara” depicts his new life as he loses himself in overconsumption: “property, possessions, and riches had also finally trapped him. They were no longer a game and a toy; they had become a chain and a burden” (79). As the temptation stage suggests, these material possessions of riches have fueled his desires, constantly seeking more until he grows miserable of the cycle. Here, Siddhartha has found himself in the opposite position of his goal to find his inner self. He has strayed from his path, even if this new approach was a means to reach his end. While this chapter talks about material temptations—and therefore aligning with the corresponding stage in the Hero’s Journey—he is able to get lured into this new life because of his desire to find himself. The temptation to experience new things himself has distracted him, shackled by the burden of material desire. The readers see the impact of the temptation in further effect in the next chapter, when Siddhartha feels as if he’s deviated so much from his path that he believes his life is now meaningless. 

This stage in the book deals with both internal desires as Siddhartha strives towards his goal and its overlap with material temptation. Desire comes both in the form of helping him achieve his objective and straying him away at the same time. However later in the book, Siddhartha comes to the conclusion that this experience was needed for him to learn from, and thus this step was essential to his journey. But—whether you agree this was Siddhartha being led astray from his path or further progressing on it—with the inclusion of “material temptations,” it is undeniable that these chapters overlap nearly perfectly with Joseph Campbell’s definition of the temptation stage in the Hero’s Journey.