I thought to myself, "is there actually a connection between LOTR and BSG? Or am I making a connection out of nothing?". Obviously there is a passing connection-- Jason mentions his Middle Earth poster on his wall, along with his enjoyment of the series. However, I wanted something more concrete. Then it hit me, the connection was through Jason's name-- Jason shares a name with the protagonist of Homer's The Odyssey (as pointed out by Madame Crommlynck). Both The Odyssey and LOTR are archetypal examples of the Hero's Journey narrative. In the Hero's Journey story structure, the protagonist has a defined goal, sets off to reach said goal, goes through many ordeals to reach their goal, and return changed forever.
None of this happens to Jason. Jason has no defined goal to reach, no Cyclops to fight, no Mt. Doom to throw the ring into. Black Swan Green takes place almost entirely in Black Swan Green, and the events that Jason goes through just sort of happen to Jason. I think the passing references or comparisons to books in the Hero's Journey archetype is done to highlight just how different Jason's character arc is-- he stays in 'The Shire' for most of the book, but he still finds conflict and adventure; and at the end of the book, Jason leaves BSG changed forever.
This is an interesting post. I thought for sure you were going to squeeze out some similarity between Jason in BSG to Bilbo in The Hobbit. However the little twist at the end where you explain that Jason doesn't really have defined goals, things just sort of happen in accord to what other people want of Jason, is interesting. It's true that instead of setting his own goals, he uses others expectations of himself to drive his path/journey. And yeah, he doesn't come home changed (for obvious reasons he didn't even really leave), but it's true that he definitely leaves changed.
ReplyDeleteThis makes a lot of sense, and further shows the Hero's Journey that can be found in Black Swan Green. However, while the heroes in The Odyssey and LOTR have resolved their lives and conflict, Jason thinks that there are still many steps to over come, and "it's not the end".
ReplyDeleteWe discussed in class how the "bridle path" chapter seems like a "mini hero's journey", but in some respects Jason does stay in BSG for most of the novel. He does however go off with his dad and mother in the "parallel chapter" and instead of returning home at the end of the novel, he is about to leave home. Maybe BSG is the set up for a more "hero's journey" oriented story?
ReplyDeleteBridal path is certainly the closest Jason gets to a classic hero's journey, but even that chapter is not quite there. There is a goal (find the lost tunnel) and many obstacles along the way, but it is without conclusion. There is no climax or return home. To me, bridal path is at best the first part of a hero's journey, not the entire thing.
DeleteJason (of Argonauts fame) isn't featured in _The Odyssey_, but his story is a classic example of a Greek heroic quest, and one of Eva's sharpest moves in getting Jason to rethink his real life as a source of literary material is to compel him to see his name not as commonplace but "heroic"--and she links this heroism to "tailoring" his words, so his writing of poetry is (potentially) heroic. This fits the hero's journey idea in some ways, if we view the "hard" guys he's trying to impress as monsters and obstacles that hinder this quest. He needs to learn to "not give a toss" about them--in a somewhat different way than Pluto Noak "doesn't give a toss."
ReplyDeleteThe novel as a whole doesn't stick closely to the hero's journey paradigm, but there are elements of it throughout, as we see Jason becoming transformed by his "quest" to be more himself, chapter by chapter, moving through various tests and obstacles. But as Alyssa points out, "Bridle Path" (which begins with a reference to Middle Earth) deploys the paradigm pretty closely.
There was a bit of a mini-odyssey in Bridle Path when Jason went off on a serious of somewhat unbelievable adventures that seemed a bit too far fetched to all realistically happen in one day. This trend has been fairly prevalent throughout all of our reading this semester, the narrator's don't necessarily have long drawn out journey's but rather small adventures that help define them.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of the book, Jason's fixation on becoming one of the "hard" guys seems like a desire to become more "heroic" (at least that's how he perceives them). As the book goes on, he actually seems to let go of that idea. So, while Jason grows and matures (and actually does seem more "heroic" to the readers) he gives up on his earlier notions of becoming cool/hard/heroic.
ReplyDelete