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An out of order Monomyth, or a singular occurrence?
While looking over the document, I noticed a common theme that seems to hold up throughout a substantial number of movies people analyzed. It seems that the “Belly of the Whale” section often details a part of the movie that seems out of order from the rest of the slots. For example, in “The Lego Movie”, the Belly of the Whale section states: Emmet breaks into President Business’ tower. After this, the “Road of Trials” box says: Cops chase Emmet and Wyldstyle as they escape from Bricksburg. The issue with them being in this order is that Cops chase Emmet and Wyldstyle as they escape from Bricksburg way earlier in the film then when Emmet breaks into President Business’ tower.
This may just sound like one fluke with a singular film, but it actually seems to be a common theme with multiple movies. For example, and just concerning the films I have seen, this happens with “The Interview”, “Get Him to the Greek”, and the movie my group analyzed, “Whiplash”.
This common theme presents the idea that the Monomyth could have larger and more common issues than we previously realized. Although this is just a theory that needs further testing, it coaxes in the question: Is the “Belly of the Whale” section an outlier in this sense? Or are there more examples of the Monomyth being out of order that I have simply failed to recognize?
I struggled a lot with the 'belly of the whale' section, due to it's meaning being literal or not. Some characters were physically trapped in the 'belly' of something, whether it was a boiler room in Spirited Away, or a prison in Guardians of the Galaxy.Some posts were very literal that their hero was stuck in the belly of something. Some took a not so literal approach such as stuck in his 'mental' state in Memento, and almost portrayed as another threshold. This theory is very interesting, as we try to define how literal does 'the belly of the whale' actually mean.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is clear that it is easier to fit some movies to the monomyth than others. For instance, Memento is a movie that goes through time backwards. This meant that it was actually easier to fill in the chart backwards. I am curious because I am not sure if the monomyth is supposed to work "both ways." If we were to fill in the chart in line with the movie, I think that different aspects of it could have been outliers like you said the "belly of the whale" is for some movies. I would like to think that the monomyth has some leeway for the order in which things happen, but at the same time if there is more flexibility is there any monomyth at all?
ReplyDeleteWhile I am sure we could stretch the monomyth to a point that it could fit most any story, than it would serve no real purpose in analyzing and comparing stories. Because of this we should be careful not to stretch the monomyth to far when analyzing stories, including these films.
ReplyDelete"The belly of the whale represents the final separation from the hero’s known world and self. It is sometimes described as the person’s lowest point, but it is actually the point when the person is between or transitioning between worlds and selves. The separation has been made, or is being made, or being fully recognized between the old world and old self and the potential for a new world/self. The experiences that will shape the new world and self will begin shortly, or may be beginning with this experience which is often symbolized by something dark, unknown and frightening. By entering this stage, the person shows their willingness to undergo a metamorphosis, to die to him or herself." This was a definition I found when researching what the belly of the whale was, and while I feel as though many people believe the belly of the whale is some big fight scene I see it as a change in the person themselves. Also, it is in the first stage and I believe that the first two stages should be closer to the chart.
ReplyDeleteThe way I liked to view the "Belly of the Whale" is the place and/or time that the hero experienced his/her road of trials and really developed into the hero they are at the end of the film. In The Last Samurai, I chose the samurai village as the belly of the whale, contrary to the decision the rest of my group made. Because "Belly of the Whale" comes before "Road of Trials," I think Campbell's monomyth is fundamentally out of order. So yes, I agree with what you are saying.
ReplyDelete