Blog 2 Prompt 2
Critical analysis of Murdock's Heroines Journey.
-Thomas S
After digging into Murdocks rendition of a heroine's journey, I found some interesting details and interpretations. I think my new understanding may help change your thoughts on the initial reading of the heroine's monomyth and even Campbell's.
However, this is the heroine's journey after all. So, how does this tie in? Well as I said the Monomyth has several strongly male-focused roles, we also have things like "Woman as the temptress" and we all understand just how misogynistic and stereotypically male this story is. Nevertheless, I feel you can't have one journey for all, they must differ in some way or another. Men aren't better than women and vice versa, and that's why they need different journeys, don't get me wrong the journeys would most likely be similar however they can't be the same. The struggles a woman undergoes are just not the same as a man's the male monomyth would probably not have some sort of rejection or acceptance of femininity. I also feel that the male monomyth is far more "blueprint" in nature there isn't much deviation from the path but the heroine's journey could pass through many different types of stories.
Sometimes when reading and looking at so many different stories and interpretations of the journey I need to remind myself that the original monomyth is based on religious texts and other very old stories. I think Campbell's monomyth is more wrong than Murdock's for this reason. Campbells tends to fall behind in terms of it not being able to be used in many contexts, especially future ones. New stories face an unavoidable truth they need to face, they can't simply ignore the modern world. The art of story-making needs every minute detail ironed out, and when in the modern world we are faced with modern struggles. It doesn't take long to see how different the times were, the countless socioeconomic but also gender, and racial inequalities, or the technological changes we have made. I could list countless real-world struggles. But where does that leave us? We are talking about the monomyths after all. Well, it's somewhat obvious as to why the original monomyth is so misogynistic and not up to our societal standards, it was written ages ago but that's not the main point it was written in the context of biblical and mythological roots. These stories themselves are respectfully ancient in terms of our moral beliefs and dilemmas. So Campbell gets to hide behind this "definition" he set, as a workaround for being a misogynist.
Surely Murdocks is much better, however? Right? Her monomyth although more inclusive to women and seemingly more updated still fails to understand the point of the monomyth. If she made this to counteract the misogyny of the original monomyth she is merely adding to it. The whole point of her monomyth is just to be less womanly and be more 'manly'. Most points are that of becoming more of a man, then later on integrating both together. To me, all I am reading is, you need to be less of a woman because that is a weakness, at least incorporate some amount of being a man to yourself. I find none of the monomyths we discussed so far to truly be a proper archetype of the hero's/heroine's journey.
I think that Campbell has his shield for his monomyth just being based on other works and it is a theme among these stories, however, inherently taking old myths and biblical stories there is an excessive amount of misogyny. However, it is a good template for stories, they are usually pretty captivating and make up a massive portion of this type of content, but I think it's not meant to be used in its raw form. I think that all monomyths in total, shouldn't fit like a glove. With Star Wars and Siddartha, other movies and books you have read don't dovetail with the monomyth. I found myself stretching to make some connections, especially in Siddartha. What I find interesting in the monomyths for women that we looked at they have a lot of flexibility making it less of a blueprint to match. I would say that's a good thing, it allows the authors to make stories that can fit but still be very original. (There can still be unoriginal ideas which are unavoidable). I think both of the monomyths we discussed are still out of touch and can be made better. I do think I have a new understanding of the monomyths after analyzing other stories and possible interpretations.
I agree with when you said “they can't be the same. The struggles a woman undergoes are just not the same as a man's.” The point of the hero’s and heroine’s journey is to reflect the stories that exist at the time. At the time that the heroine's journey was written, and still today, the reality is that women face challenges and obstacles that men don’t. For a similar reason, I like how you point out that the original Hero’s Journey is no longer very applicable. While it does match many older stories well, I think that as literature progresses, it likely strays further from these cliches and predictable storylines.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you that a big problem with Campbell's template is that it's super outdated, and representations of female heroes have improved since then. Obviously, there now are stories that center female heroes, but there are still issues with how male and female heroes are represented. I think it's completely valid to give women a personal journey in addition to a more traditional hero role since women do experience different things going through the world, and that should be reflected in stories with a female hero. However, it's still frustrating that male heroes never seem to have a similar self-discovery journey while they're doing their hero thing.
ReplyDeleteI liked your point in the last paragraph that the monomyth shouldn't fit like a glove (diversity makes things more interesting, after all). However, I do think the monomyth isn't obsolete in today's modern world, even considering the gendered and sexist aspects of Campbell's hero's journey. Despite the monomyth's inherent problems, the story arc of the hero's journey -- leaving the known world, going on an adventure, and eventual triumph and enlightenment -- is a classic storyline that still draws people in today. So yes, I agree that the monomyth (in its purest form, as created by Campbell) is sexist and all that, but that doesn't prevent the idea behind it from remaining relevant.
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