Dr. A. Peever
Sample Literature Papers for Prof. A. Peever
The first two papers below, by Julie Matthews and Bret Steinbook, were handed in to fulfill the requirement for paper two in my World Literature class during Spring semester 1997 (given at the University of Miami). The third paper, Zylena's, was written during Spring semester 2000 for a course in science fiction in literature and film (given at Barry University). Bret told me that his paper is the result of two weeks' work, and that he'd never come across Paul Radin's work on the Winnebago Cycle before beginning research on this paper. Julie's paper represents a fine articulation of some recurring themes of our class discussions during that semester: the status of "literature" versus "history"; the interpretation of "symbols"; and the real-world applications of "literary criticism." On the subject of downloading, these pieces are the result of Bret's, Julie's, and Zylena's hard work, and they remain the students' own intellectual property. The authors gave me special permission to post their papers.
Brett Steinbook
Eng 201F
Prof. Peever
April 14, 1997
Hero Versus Hero: Oedipus and Sir Gawain in The Winnebago Hero Cycle
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Oedipus Rex, while not myths in Joseph Campbell's sense of the term, because they do not focus on a world conquering type of hero, nonetheless deal with mythological characters. If they are not traditional style myths then what are they? It is the purpose of this paper to argue that these stories are illustrations of a process in which one type of hero is replacing the old hero type. What are these different types of heroes and their significance? Perhaps this is most clearly illustrated in Dr. Paul Radin's Winnebago Hero Cycle derived from his study of the Winnebago Indians and their literature.
It is probably wisest to begin with an introduction to the Winnebago hero cycle itself. The cycle contains four hero cycles each relating to a different kind of hero-- the Trickster, the Hare, Red Horn, and the Twins. The Trickster begins as a fool on whom bad luck befalls and who is always the brunt of practical jokes. In the end the Trickster is the bully and plays practical jokes on others. Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, Coyote, and Bugs Bunny all represent different aspects of Trickster. In the Hare cycle the hero blunders and struggles but in the end he sacrifices himself for the good of mankind. Moses, Jesus Christ, and Prometheus are all Hare types. Red Horn goes out and conquers the evil in the world, coming back changed. Luke Skywalker, Theseus, and Orpheus are all similar to Red Horn. The last cycle is that of the Twins. The Twins take offwhere Red Horn stopped completing the conquering of the earth. They change usually by becoming one figure and stop only when their exploits threaten to topple the world. Perhaps the myth of Hercules was once a Twin cycle myth; Gilgamesh and Enkidu definitely represent this type. These four are listed in order because of the symbolic significance of that order. Dr. Radin explains that the mythic cycle " . . . represents our efforts to deal with the problem of growing up." Therefore the Trickster represents our earliest mental development and the Twins our last stage. A more complete explanation would divert this paper from its main objective.
The next point to be argued logically would be the validity of applying a foreign, Native American, construct to western mythic heroes. This point already has been belabored by Jung and Campbell without any serious opposition. Dr. Radin notes that in his day, "The vast majority of anthropological theorists and ethnologists . . . [began] with the assumption that the apparent sameness of the forms of thought found in widely separated religions . . . could best be explained by what they vaguely called the psychic unity of mankind. This psychic unity . . . expressed itself in a fairly limited number of forms. And it was in mythology that these forms expressed themselves with particular clearness." Suffice it to say, if most scholars in the field assume the validity of this treatment of cross-cultural comparison then it would not be unreasonable for this paper to assume so too.
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Sir Gawain represents the forces of Hare while the Green Knight represents the Trickster. The Green Knight is described as being green, the color of nature. According to Radin, "He and all the objects in the world were brothers and understood each other's language"; this is how the Winnebago illustrate the same connection to nature of the Trickster (Radin 17). Not only is he a Trickster but he's at the end of his cycle. This is evidenced by his purposefulness, his starting the games (instead of being the brunt of them) and his near human appearance (Radin 21,22). According to Henderson, it is only, "At the end of his rogue's progress [that] he is beginning to take on the physical likeness of a grown man" (Henderson 104). Sir Gawain obviously represents Hare. He is a follower of Christ, who himself was a Hare figure. He starts on his adventure as a representative of the court of Camelot. He leaves Camelot knowing he might have his head chopped off for them and yet he goes anyway. This is the essence of the Hare figure: self sacrifice for the betterment of the people. In the Winnebago myth Hare challenges the gods for the Medicine Rites. In Greek myth Prometheus sacrifices himself to bring fire to man. And Christ lets himself be hung on the cross to absolve man's sins.
One can easily see this tale as the old hero coming to challenge the new young upstart. It is the Green Knight who comes and makes the challenge at the Court of Camelot whose members all claim the Hare virtue of defending the people. But who wins out in this confrontation? In the end, one may argue that Sir Gawain has lost to the Green Knight. The only way for Gawain to have won is if he had been virtuous to the last and the Green Knight had taken his head, thus sacrificing himself. But instead he wears the green girdle of protection to cheat at the beheading game and live. In the end the Green Knight only nicks him. By failing to get a serious wound he fails to be a serious healer. Jung says it well when he writes, it is "the mythological truth that the wounded wounder is the agent of healing, and that the sufferer takes away suffering" (Jung 136). The Green Knight could only have won if Gawain had given in and slept with the knight's wife, and then he would himself have become the Trickster through this sexual initiation.
Henderson says, "They brought forth symbols associated with a god-man of androgynous character who was supposed to have an intimate understanding of the animal or plant world and to be the master of initiation into their secrets. The religion contained orgiastic rites that implied the need for an initiate to abandon himself to his animal nature and thereby experience the full fertilizing power of the Earth Mother." One can see this in the Green Knight (as Bercilak) freely leaving Gawain to do what he willed with his wife. It is clear that by not giving in to his animal nature with Bercilak's wife, Sir Gawain has remained true to himself.
It may be called a draw since both leave in one piece. But this is just the end of the Trickster, his last laugh, his reminder to the world of the power of Trickster. The Green Knight fades away like an illusion into Bercilak by the magic of Morgan, a symbolic if not an actual death. On the other hand, it is just the beginning of Gawain's Hare cycle. It may be interesting to note here that in the end Gawain comes full circle, committing the self-sacrifice in his last battle at Arthur's side to save the king. This tale may also be about the author's reluctance to give up the Trickster myth in the face of a new upstart religion that only values the Hare cycle, as well as being a warning not to forget the old ways. As we know historically, Christianity came in and forced the Celts to give up their old religion.
In Oedipus Rex is a similar story between Oedipus and the plague. The plague and the Sphinx represent long-corrupted versions of the trickster. Jung notes this tendency to corrupt the image of the old hero when he writes, "Only when [mankind's] consciousness reached a higher level could he detach the earlier state from himself and objectify it, that is, say anything about it. So long as his consciousness was itself trickster-like, such a confrontation could obviously not take place . . . It was only to be expected that a good deal of mockery and contempt should mingle with this retrospect, thus casting an even thicker pall over man's memories of the past, which were pretty unedifying anyway. This phenomenon must have repeated itself innumerable times" (Jung 143). This is where the Sphinx enters. The Sphinx is sick and twisted in form, half- woman and half-beast. The plague is also a sickness. Both ask a single difficult question whose specific and general answers are the same. The Sphinx asks, "What walks on four legs in the morning, two in the after noon, and three in the evening?" (Bulfinch 124). The plague asks, "Who murdered King Laius?" (Sophocles 109-122). In general both questions can be answered, "Man." Specifically, both could honestly be answered, "Oedipus." Thus one can see both the plague and the Sphinx as the same trickster at work. In a twisted sense both are asking Oedipus to ponder, "Who am I?"
As already covered, the Hare is one who is willing to sacrifice himself for the betterment of the people he represents. Obviously, Oedipus is willing to do this as he states in his speech to his subjects and shows when he says good-bye to his daughters. Hare sleeps with his grandmother and in order to fool her about his identity he has taken his eye out. In the morning when he goes to retrieve it, he finds it has been gnawed away by mice. Like Hare, Oedipus also commits incest. Oedipus has slept with his mother and he too has his eyes scratched out for it. Oedipus and Hare are both raised by foster parents. Hare's virgin mother dies shortly after his birth and he is left in his grandmother's care. Oedipus is thrown away by his father and is taken by a peasant to be raised in another town. The parallels are too great not to see Oedipus as a Hare cycle hero.
Oedipus ends up physically blind and spiritually broken, crushed by the knowledge of his sins. But has he lost or failed? To say so would clearly illustrate our modern bias towards the Red Horn hero who wins by conquering. The action/adventure blockbuster movies that rake in so much money at the box office clearly demonstrate at least America's love of this hero type. What is significant in Oedipus Rex is that Oedipus does solve the riddle despite how cold the trail is and despite his wife's pleading for him to stop. He does leave Thebes according to Bulfinch; thus, according to the prophecy, he has removed the plague from Thebes. He has banished himself from the city, sacrificing his own desire to the good of the people. According to the Hare model he has succeeded in every possible way. Remember, "the mythological truth that the wounded wounder is the agent of healing, and that the sufferer takes away suffering." Oedipus is a much greater success in this light than Sir Gawain who escaped whole and was accepted back home by his friends.
While it is clear that most heroes must conquer evil and go on long questing journeys, this is not the only kind of hero. What happens when the importance of one hero dwindles and the importance of another rises? Or what happens in the gaps between the cycles? Perhaps, as this paper has shown, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Oedipus Rex one hero must test himself against the old hero. Who wins? Only time will tell. Perhaps one day a new myth will be written and a fifth cycle will be born.
Bibliography and Works Cited
Bulfinch, Thomas. Bulfinch's Mythology. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1979.
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973.
Henderson, Joseph. "Ancient Myths and Modern Man." Man and His Symbols. Ed. Carl G. Jung, et al. London: Aldus Books Limited, 1964.
Jung, R.F.C. Hull, trans. Four Archetypes. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992.
Radin, Paul. "Winnebago Hero Cycles: A Study in Aboriginal Literature." Supplement to International Journal of American Linguistics vol. 14, no. 3, July 1948 Indiana University Publications in Anthropology and Linguistics. Baltimore: Waverly Press, Inc, 1948.
"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. 2 vols. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1992, vol.1.
Sophocles. "Oedipus Rex." The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. 2 vols. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1992, vol. 1.
