Prompt 1

I assume As I Lay Dying is a hero’s journey because Dr. E selected this book for the hero’s journey class, and he has a PhD. Additionally, while As I Lay Dying is indisputably a “weaker” hero’s journey than other stories we’ve read/watched, I do not believe that this weakness is due to Faulkner's “emphasis on mobile perspective, stream-of-consciousness interior monologue, fragmentation, and nonlinear plotting.” I think a similar narrative pattern to that in As I Lay Dying could be used to make an even more explicit hero’s journey. 

For example, a classic hero’s journey like Star Wars could be told this way. In fact, it pretty much is. We start from Leiahs perspective, then jump between C3PO and R2D2, Luke, Obi-Wan, and Darth Vader. The following is the screen time of each character in the film: Luke Skywalker, 37:30; Han Solo, 19:30; C-3PO, 19:15; R2-D2, 18; Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi, 17:30, Princess Leia Organa, 13:30; Chewbacca, 11; Darth Vader, 9:15. While Luke clearly dominates the screen time, other characters take up major chunks of the film. In fact, Luke’s percentage of total screen time is nearly identical to the percentage of chapters which Darl narrates in As I Lay Dying (31% for Luke, 32% for Darl). Star Wars has a much more obvious hero than As I Lay dying, but this difference is due to the plot and characters, not the narrative pattern.

Ultimately, the question of whether Faulkner’s style in As I Lay Dying can create a hero’s journey is a matter of semantics and opinion. First is the question of how narrowly we define “Faulkner’s style.” For example, if we consider rambling chapters that do not serve to advance the plot as a necessary part of his storytelling style, fitting it to the hero’s journey becomes more challenging. Second is the question of how closely a story must follow the hero’s journey template to be considered a hero’s journey. I discussed this in an earlier post (Zev's Hero's Journey Blog: Critically reflect on Joseph Campbell's 17-step template for the hero's journey. (zevsgoodblog.blogspot.com), but basically, the hero’s journey is so vague that it can be stretched to accommodate almost any story. Third, and most importantly, is the question of whether a story containing a hero’s journey is itself a hero’s journey. Is a hero’s journey strictly defined as a story told linearly, according to the steps of the template, and fully focused on the hero? For example, if a story is entirely told from the perspective of one character who does not themselves go through a hero’s journey, but instead describes a friend undergoing a hero’s journey, is the whole story a hero’s journey, or does a hero’s journey exist within the story?

As an additional note, I don’t recall many examples of nonlinear plotting in As I Lay Dying. Addie’s chapter is the only example that immediately comes to mind. There is also a lot of repetition, which is technically nonlinear. As stated above, the question of whether a hero’s journey can exist in a fragmented story is a matter of opinion. Obviously one can use fragmentation to describe a hero’s journey (going back to Star Wars, even if the scenes were scrambled, the viewers could probably put together the journey), but this comes back to the question of whether a story containing a hero’s journey is itself a hero’s journey.