Thursday, February 19, 2009

I thought I would compare the stages of the Hero Journey with Janie's journey after her marraige to Joe and after his death. I think Erin talked about this earlier so I'm sorry for repeating some parts!

As Erin said earlier, Janie's call to adventure occurs when she and Joe start flirting. He introduces a new world for her, something completely different from what Logan gives her currently. To Janie, the 2 men are completely opposite from each other. Where Logan is unrefined, Joe is sophisticated; where Logan is mean and unromantic, Joe is idealistic and flirtatious. Thus, Joe represents a call to adventure, a respite from Janie's soporific life.

The next step is Refusal of the Call, which Erin covered so I think I'll skip this one.

The Crossing of the Threshold is the point where the hero crosses into the field of adventure, leaving the known limits of the known world into an unknown world. I think this is the point where Janie has married Joe and she does not know what to expect. Joe buys her new things that are novel and wondrous to her. Janie wonders at all of Joe's ideas because they are so different from the country-bumpkin Logan's.

The next step, or rather process, is the Belly of the Whale. The belly of the whale represents the final separation from the hero's known world and self - it's also sometimes the hero's lowest point. I was not completely sure of this but I thought that Janie's self-empowered oration during Joe's death could represent the Belly of the Whale. Janie is at the point where she's transitioning between worlds and selves, so she has discovered the potential for a new self. She has realized that this new self will now be servile to a man. Janie does exactly that because after Joe dies she maintains the store by herself, and talks to any person that she wants - showing that she is in full control of her life for the first time ever.

This is not the most accurate picture out there, but it's what I thought of when I thought about Janie running away with Joe, right after taking a last look at her former home.

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