The Hero’s Quest is defined by noted “mythologist” Joseph Campbell as the path that all heroes, both real and fictional, go on. He also states that there are two types of the hero’s quest: physical and spiritual. I disagree with Campbell as I feel that all quests are of a spiritual in the end and the physical aspects of it are nearly devices used to get the spiritual goal that the hero drives for. I’m going to prove this idea using a few comparative and contrasting ideals from the films Big Fish and The Razor’s Edge. I’m also going to use the films to explain a theory that the hero’s quest is not one of a cycle but of one of a straight path chock full of various peaks and valleys.
Both films are great example of a hero’s quest in that fact they have protagonists, Ed Bloom in Big Fish and Larry Darrell in Razor’s Edge, which yearn for some more fulfillment. One can argue that Bloom’s quest of his future wife, Sandra is more of a physical quest but it’s a spiritual quest in the fact is not enough that he found Sandra, he had to get her to marry him, which would entail a spiritual connection. I also feel that this wasn’t the actual goal of Ed Bloom because when he left his hometown of Ashton with Karl the Giant, it was, like Larry heading off to World War I to be an ambulance driver, a search for something more. The finding of Sandra, the marriage of Sandra and all the various labors he partook under the big top of the werewolf Amos Callaway were simply physical tasks that needed to be done in order to reach the bigger goal which is the fulfillment of finally no longer feeling like an empty vessel.
Not completely unlike Bloom’s journey is the one that Larry Darrell, the hero of The Razor’s Edge, partakes. However, unlike Bloom, Darrell starts on his journey unconsciously and also has a fiancée, Isabel Bradley, so love is not a one the factor in his quest. On the other side of the coin though, his quest is a lot like Bloom’s in the regard that he’s also goes on a quest for fulfillment, but not until he sees the gruff ambulance captain, Piedmont, take a fatal bullet headed towards Larry. After this experience, Larry comes to the realization that the life that he has waiting for him when he returns to America is one of upper-crust opulence but empty of any sort of spiritual meaning of any kind. Upon his return he spends his days just longing about and when he informs his less open-minded fiancé of his plan to explore the world in search of true meaning, Isabel breaks it off.
In the opening paragraph, I mentioned my theory that all hero’s quest are of the spiritual nature and that the various physical tasks that the hero endures are what makes the hero’s attainment of the spiritual goal much more sweeter. Both Edward and Larry go through various Herculean-like labors, the one similarity being experiencing war, Larry serving in World War I while Edward was in Korea. Both experienced life-altering moments, for Larry it was the true turning point with Piedmont’s sacrifice mention in the previous paragraph while Edward, being decides to stray from his original mission and play spy where while he stumbles upon the Siamese burlesque dancers, Ping and Jing, who help him get back to America where he finds out that he was declared legally dead.
Along with the similarities with both serving in a war, both Edward and Larry, like every other hero in recorded history, happens upon a mentor who helps them achieve their respective goals. For Larry he had a fellow coal miner who gives Larry a book on Buddhism which sends Larry on his way to Tibet where he gets the enlightenment that he seeks at a monastery. The person who mentors Edward is Amos Calloway, who is the ringmaster of the circus that Edward first saw Sandra at and now worked at for the promise of information about Sandra. Amos is not the best mentor as he made Edward worked for months at a time for the most mundane of info, such as “she likes music”. However, Amos became a true friend after one night when Edward discovered that Amos was a werewolf and calmed him down with a game of fetch. After that night, Amos gave Edward all of the info that he needed to win over Sandra.
Not to be forgotten, Edward Bloom’s son Will is also on a quest of his own. A quest that is much more complimentary to the quest of Larry Darrell in the fact that what they is understanding, Larry of life and Will of his father, who he feels can’t be separated from his stories. Also like Larry, he escapes his troubles by going to Paris but like his father and unlike Larry, he finds his wife Josephine. Will’s quest is also like Larry’s quest in the fact that they’re both were a search to find a way to make peace with their past albeit in different ways. Will is looking to understand it by trying to weed through all of Edward’s tall tales to find the difference between truth and fiction while Larry’s way to make peace with his past is to completely distance himself from the snotty upper-class life that is his home life.
The interesting thing about the similar quests of Will Bloom and Larry Darrell is that it’s the perfect example of my viewpoint of the hero’s quest which is that it doesn’t travel in a cycle like Joseph Campbell believes. I feel that the hero’s quest is more akin to a rollercoaster ride at Great Adventure. Campbell feels that the hero’s reaches his goal in the middle of the cycle then travels back around to acceptance. I feel that the hero doesn’t reach his true goal until the end where it all makes sense to him. For example, Larry Darrell doesn’t reach his goal on top of the Tibetan mountain but at the end of the movie when after the death of Isabel’s bourgeois uncle, he tells her that he’s going back to America to live the live that he wants to lead; one of spiritual fulfillment, not fiscal fulfillment. The author of The Razor’s Edge, W. Somerset Maugham ended the book by saying that all of the characters got what they wanted in the end: “Isabel an assured position….Larry happiness.”
Along the same lines, Will Bloom receives his enlightenment at the end of the movie where he, at the side of Edward’s deathbed, realized that just like the hero’s quest itself, and his father’s stories, it’s not the destination that’s fulfilling, it’s the journey. Will comes to this reason first when his father asks him to finish the story of Edward Bloom’s life and Will jumped right into it, spinning an Edward Bloom-like yarn like it was old hat to him. Even still, Will was a bit apprehensive after accepting the story-telling torch from his father, if you will. It truly doesn’t hit Will until at the funeral where he sees all of the wacky characters from his father’s stories arrive at his funeral , albeit not quite like how his father told him how they would be.
The hero’s quest is one of the archetypes of life that can be related to a whole smattering of things, from Star Wars and Batman to the ancient legends of Hercules and Odysseus. All of the heroes in the quests achieved their collective goals though various stages, both positive and negative. I feel that Joseph Campbell was on the right track with his idea of the hero’s quest being played out in a cycle. The hero’s quest, in my opinion, is more like an EKG reading. This is a perfect description because an EKG shows the activity of the heart while the hero’s quest is the activity of the heart.
1 comment:
A wonderful post, both very interesting and inspiring. Talking about hero quests, when does it actually end? Since we are in a constant struggle to prove something or to become someone, to achieve something, how do we really succeed in our quest? Would love to hear your thoughts on this. Thanks! :)
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