Darkness in The Tale of Despereaux

As fantastical and whimsical as The Tale of Despereaux is with its fairytale references, characters, and notions, the characters are a mix of light and darkness (as the story would have it) in a dark story; the princess is spoiled, stubborn, and kind of snobby, Despereaux fights cowardice, repeatedly fainting, Chiaroscuro longs for light, deep inside of himself, and Mig is just stupid and easily taken advantage of. Even secondary characters such as the king, Despereaux’ family, the cook, and Mig’s father, are varying levels of crooked, selfish, and nonsensical. Another dark side of this seemingly children’s story is the lack of things being made completely right. Despite the topic of forgiveness being brought up, redemption, as I think of redemption, is not truly gained. Both Despereaux and the Pea forgive those that have wronged them merely to protect themselves from hurting, not for the true benefit of those seeking it. The ending is no fairytale: Mig is still deaf, deformed, stupid and fat. Roscuro never finds healing. Despereaux’ love for the princess will never result in marriage or fruition by children, as he has not been a prince under enchantment. Additionally, by lack of information, Pea could stay spoiled.

The Alchemist as Hero Myth more than Bildungsroman

The Alchemist can be considered as a bildungsroman for multiple reasons, it seems to contain even more elements of the “Hero Myth.” Santiago does undergo a great amount of growth as he achieves his Personal Legend, but the fact that he is still called “the boy,” even on the last page of the novel, leaves readers wondering if there is any other “legend” as there is such a neat conclusion despite him still being a “boy.” While this is a great achievement and the boy’s journey has been at least a year, he doesn’t seem to really “come of age,” despite great understands of God and the soul of the world. As for “Hero Myth” examples, Santiago steps out of the world that he knows (shepherding), is encouraged in that “crossing of the threshold” by a mentor figure (Melchizedek, king of Salem), faces great hardships (work, fear in desert, robbery, being held prisoner) and faces an ultimate challenge (to become the wind) after training with the alchemist that allows him to “return” with the “boon” of fulfilled self-exploration, a fulfilled Personal Legend, and a material treasure (as well as a sweetheart) to boot.

Theme of Learning in The Alchemist

An interesting theme to think on that is found throughout The Alchemist is man’s search for knowledge. While in most classic literature, the search for knowledge (forbidden or inaccessible) leads to the “fall” of man, chaos, and destruction. However, within this story, man is only fulfilled by being willing to strive for, sacrifice for and search for the knowledge of what his heart says, what his treasure is, and what his Personal Legend is, with each of these intricately linked. Each step, as random as it may seem, provides Santiago with the knowledge to complete one further step of his journey (including the thief’s ignorant disclosure of the true location of the treasure after beating and robbing him). Meanwhile, the alchemist is able to teach Santiago true alchemy because unlike the Englishman, Santiago is willing to learn anything to achieve his Personal Legend, not just wanting to learn for material gain. In addition, the dialogue about the secrets of alchemy only being found by those who are not wanting it for its own sake adds more interest to the theme.

THOMS...bildungsroman?

Although THMOS could be considered a bildungsroman because of the growth that Esperanza experiences, I hesitate to categorize it as a bildungsroman because of the lack of completion in Esperanza’s growth. There does not seem to be any real resolution of the issue of childhood vs. adulthood, and although Esperanza’s voice does age throughout the story and the ending describes her coming back to the house that she once scorned and left, she does not really address the issue of innocence vs. knowledge/sensuality that has been carried throughout the book and explored in greater depth towards the end. The reader does not have a very clear idea of what kind of adult Esperanza has actually become, even though the reader can tell that she has been intelligent and studious enough to leave the area and then come back with the ability to make it better. Because of this lack of closure, it is difficult to peg this novel strictly as a bildungsroman. However, the work is still strong, because the theme of innocence vs. knowledge is a classic theme, resounding with other famous works such as Milton’s Paradise Lost, Shelley’s Frankenstein, a great deal of Blake’s poetry and the Bible.

Kinship, Cumulatively

Of the different novels that we have read throughout the semester, I thought it would be interesting to explore the kinship between Esperanza and Huckleberry Finn as characters. Each is on the border of the large transition between childhood and adulthood, and each has choices to make regarding that transition, specifically, who they will be (Will Huck be a racist as his society demonstrates? Will Esperanza be a doormat as her society demonstrates? Will Huck use his money unwisely? Will Esperanza use her sexuality to gain power?) Additionally, though there is evidence of both Huck and Esperanza leaving their societies in search of something better, both of them eventually return to their societies and make them better, because they themselves have gained value and identity despite their separation (physically, emotionally and mentally) from their places of origin.

Growing Up is Hard to Do

A prevalent conflict throughout The House on Mango Street is the conflict of wanting to remain a child versus wanting to be an adult, and what kind of adult at that. An especially poignant moment of this is the moment in which Esperanza seeks to save Sally from the boys, but finds that Sally has no desire to be saved and instead shuns her. Esperanza is always comparing her own age to the age of other girls, many of whom are already married. Additionally, she compares her own feelings about the future to the different ways that society attempts to answer the question, “What is a woman?” whether that means someone who has nice legs with fancy yellow shoes, or someone with eye make-up like an Egyptian and gray hose with black shoes, or someone that gets up before everyone to make tortillas, some “smart cookie” who “could have been something,” someone locked at home because their husband doesn’t trust them, someone to rape and beat, or someone who leaves their plate at the table and doesn’t put their chair back (much like a man). It is easy to see why the idea of adulthood both intrigues and terrifies Esperanza.

Life of Pi and Bildungsroman

Life of Pi is not necessarily a bildungsroman, but more along the lines of the “journey novel” or travel genre. Although as in any good bildungsroman deep thoughts are considered and analyzed (for example, religion, faith, trust, cooperation, nature vs. knowledge, morals vs. traditions in the types of foods eaten or abstained from, etc.) and the protagonist Pi gains experience concerning survival on the ocean with a Bengal tiger, it can be argued that Life of Pi is not a bildungsroman because Pi really does not come to some great realization or paradigm shift; he merely examines, re-examines and goes deeper with thoughts that have already occurred to him. Because these are old thoughts and not new ones, Pi is not really “growing” or “coming of age” as much as is commonly done in bildungsroman literature. The closest experience to "coming of age" would probably be his realization that the only way to survive on the sea is to help Richard Parker to survive as well, and the loss and continued attachment that Pi feels after Richard Parker slinks off into the Mexican jungle without any sort of “goodbye” or acknowledgement of their relationship.

The Tiger or the Lady

The tie between this explanation of the deathbed reaction of an atheist versus an agnostic and the events at the end of the novel are evident in the phrases, “beholden to dry, yeastless factuality” and “lack imagination and miss the better story.” Essentially, these expressions capture the tension that the Japanese interviewers face when being forced to choose between the Pi’s narrative involving the tiger and other improbabilities or his narrative about the cook who murders Pi's mother, which is unfortunately, more probable in the eyes of society. Even so, the Japanese men’s choice to record the tiger story in their log as if it were fact redeems them from their time of doubt, just as the theoretical atheist is redeemed in his “deathbed leap of faith,” where he acknowledges what he sees as “L-L-Love” and God instead of “f-f-failing oxygenation of the b-b-brain.” Essentially, Pi challenges readers to seek truth instead of merely collecting and accepting facts.

The Problem With Cohabitation

It is interesting that despite all of the conflict concerning the danger of traveling with a tiger, Pi in convinced that he would not have survived without the company of Richard Parker. While readers can be sure that Richard Parker would not have survived without Pi to provide and plan ahead for him, what did Pi really gain from Richard Parker, other than companionship? If there had been no tiger in the boat, Pi could have drunken more than twice as much water, as well as eaten more than twice as much food. He could have focused more easily on the tasks at hand, protected himself with the tarp instead of sacrificing it as Richard Parker’s territory, and he could have had a greatly diminished feeling of stress, not worrying about both survival and a tiger, but merely focused on survival while sleeping comfortably in the boat. Perhaps Pi’s point is that without Richard Parker there would be nothing to hope or trust in (not that Richard Parker was really trustworthy). At any rate, it is interesting to think about why Pi felt he needed R.P.