I believe that this is due to the overused but still wildly popular "Damsel in Distress" motif. The story of the knight saving the princess is so engrained in our mind that it just seems natural at this point. When writers need something to give our hero the strength to carry on, the love of his life is the go-to answer. However, this is not solely the writers fault, I believe that many of these stories had other characters that could have been "Goddesses", but we have been hard-wired to give this title to the Hero's love interest. That is why I applaud Josh, Mitchell, Jamie, and Mary for thinking outside the box in their analysis of American Sniper. They did not mindlessly fill in the box with Chris Kyle's wife, but instead thought about who he cared about enough to risk his life every day, and that was his fellow soldiers.
Don't get me wrong. I am not saying it is wrong to call the hero's love interest the "Goddess", but I think we should open ourselves up to a broader interpretation. What do you guys think? Should the Hero's love interest always be assigned the role of Goddess? Should Chris Kyle's wife have been the Goddess in American Sniper? Let me know.
I agree with you and I also made the same point in my post. In The Last Samurai, we unanimously agreed that the Goddess is Taka. Taka is Algren's caretaker in the village and is the widow of the soldier Algren killed. In the beginning they do not really have much of a relationship, and she sort of resents him. She is uncomfortable with his presence and finds it shameful that she is taking care of the man who killed her husband. She provides for him and acts like a mother figure, despite how much she hates it. Throughout the film, Algren befriends her children and is deeply respectful of the members of the village. She learns to like or maybe even love him. Before he leaves for battle they share an intimate moment where she dresses him in her husband's armor, and this moment actually kind of acts as an "Atonement with the Father (or Mother)" occurrence.
ReplyDeleteInteresting question Dan. I watched American Sniper for this assignment and our group felt that could be the "goddess" of the story, but because this is a nonfiction movie, the mono myth does not always fit perfectly. The "goddess" may not even be present in the story. Do all heroic journeys need a "goddess"?
ReplyDeleteThat's what we were thinking when we made Chris Kyle's fellow soldiers as the goddess instead of his wife. His main motivating factor for continuing to fight was his fellow soldiers, to the point where his marriage was at risk. He went on a 4th tour of duty specifically because his comrade was killed and he had so many issues back home not because he felt that he killed people whom he shouldn't have, but that he didn't save people whom he should have. His wife is more of the temptation (as we have on our chart) because she wasn't as much in favor of his military lifestyle as he was and wanted him to return, not enabling him to do the actions which regard him as the hero of the movie.
ReplyDeleteIn the case of Casino Royale Vesper, who is Bond's main love interest, is Bond's motivation for winning the poker games and for quiting MI6 after the poker game was over. When talking to 'M', the head of MI6's 00 division, Bond disguises it as his love for his country, but in reality it is Vesper because without her he would have continued to serve his country after the Le Chiffre job had ended. Vesper is the goddess in Casino because she is the girlfriend of Bond, but also because she is his motivation for his actions.
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