Mythic Mailer in An American Dream: Difference between revisions

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-We have identified the central myth literature, in its narrative aspect, with the quest-myth. Now if we wish to see this central myth as a pattern of meaning also, we have to start with the workings of the subconscious where the epiphany originates, in other words in the dream. (Northrop Frye, 684) and reprinted here with the permission of the author.
+We have identified the central myth literature, in its narrative aspect, with the quest-myth. Now if we wish to see this central myth as a pattern of meaning also, we have to start with the workings of the subconscious where the epiphany originates, in other words in the dream. (Northrop Frye, 684) and reprinted here with the permission of the author.<blockquote>To begin with, the book is absolutely a myth--I'm trying to create a modern myth, (Conversations with Norman Mailer, 102)</blockquote>Norman Mailer's book An American Dream has been acclaimed by many critics, including the author himself, as possibly his finest novel. On the other hand, many scholars have attacked it for its unrealistic plotline and unbelievable characters. Reviews of the book were decidedly mixed. Life magazine call it "by conventional standards...a grotesquely implausible book, full of horrific occurrences and characters who appear to uniformly insane" (12). On the positive side, Joan Didion claimed "An American Dream is one more instance in which Mailer is going to laugh last, for it is a remarkable book"(39). Mailer scholar J. Michael Lennon writes that " The book's defenders, with few exceptions, [have] tended to see the novel as myth, fantasy, or allegory"(9).<blockquote>In support of interpreting An American Dream as a myth, I begin by citing Joseph L. Blotner's description of mythic exegesis of literature: When meaningful, coherent, and illuminating parallels are discerned, the work may be interpreted in terms of the myth. Often what appears fragmentary or only partly disclosed in the work may be revealed as complete and explicit through the myth .... It is not an interior approach asserting that myth was present at the conception and execution of the work; it rather asserts that myth may be brought to the work at its reading. (548)</blockquote>
-    To begin with, the book is absolutely a myth--I'm trying to create a modern myth, (Conversations with Norman Mailer, 102)
-Norman Mailer's book An American Dream has been acclaimed by many critics, including the author himself, as possibly his finest novel. On the other hand, many scholars have attacked it for its unrealistic plotline and unbelievable characters. Reviews of the book were decidedly mixed. Life magazine call it "by conventional standards...a grotesquely implausible book, full of horrific occurrences and characters who appear to uniformly insane" (12). On the positive side, Joan Didion claimed "An American Dream is one more instance in which Mailer is going to laugh last, for it is a remarkable book"(39). Mailer scholar J. Michael Lennon writes that " The book's defenders, with few exceptions, [have] tended to see the novel as myth, fantasy, or allegory"(9).
-    In support of interpreting An American Dream as a myth, I begin by citing Joseph L. Blotner's description of mythic exegesis of literature: When meaningful, coherent, and illuminating parallels are discerned, the work may be interpreted in terms of the myth. Often what appears fragmentary or only partly disclosed in the work may be revealed as complete and explicit through the myth .... It is not an interior approach asserting that myth was present at the conception and execution of the work; it rather asserts that myth may be brought to the work at its reading. (548)
 I believe that bringing a mythic perspective to An American Dream is the best way to understand it because myth forms the structural and thematical core of the book. Myths often appear to have unrealistic plots and incredible characters because they deal with the universal and the extreme. In this paper I will attempt to demonstrate this mythic relationship in three ways. I will begin by establishing that myth and Mailer's particular cosmology underlie and inform the romantic nature of this novel. Next, I intend to discuss how the mythic elements Mailer uses in this work contribute to the evolving myth of America. In conclusion, I will show how the novel's particularly American hero, Stephen Rojack, and his ultimate feat--his walk upon the parapet, relate to specific ancient and modern myths. In addition, I will note that although Mailer does not use only one myth to tell his story (he borrows from many myths), his protagonist Stephen Rojack follows the basic quest-myth or monomyth as described by Joseph Campbell in The Hero With a Thousand Faces.
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 After Rojack impregnates Cherry, he engages in the ritualistic aspect of this mythic plot by journeying uptown to visit Deborah's father, Barney Kelly. His trip echoes that of the few mythic heroes who descended into the shadowland of Hades. While he is with Kelly, who describes himself as a "solicitor for the Devil" (236), Rojack realizes that, in atonement for Deborah's murder, he must walk the parapet on Kelly's balcony thirty floors above the city. This ritualistic act expresses Rojack's dilemma over the existential nature of good and evil. He completes one circuit of the parapet and jumps down to safety as Kelly reaches to knock him off. Intuitively, he knows that he needs to walk the parapet again for Cherry's sake, yet he does not. Consequently, he returns to Harlem to discover her dead and with her their future child. His failure to completely fulfill the demands of the ritual echoes the failure of the Grail heroes, especially that of Parzival. Alone, Rojack heads for the proverbial West. The book ends as he leaves first for Las Vegas, and then down into the primitive depths of South America where the aboriginal American dream may still exist.
-    Mailer describes Rojack's journey in both fantastic and realistic terms. Critics have argued strenuously which is which. It is important while studying An American Dream to remember that Mailer is primarily writing a myth. Myth is the unifying principle underlying the romantic aspects of this novel. In this section of my paper I will show how both romance and realism contribute to the myth.
+<blockquote>Mailer describes Rojack's journey in both fantastic and realistic terms. Critics have argued strenuously which is which. It is important while studying An American Dream to remember that Mailer is primarily writing a myth. Myth is the unifying principle underlying the romantic aspects of this novel. In this section of my paper I will show how both romance and realism contribute to the myth.
 Ironically, most critics who are unhappy with the book mention its lack of realism. In some ways, Mailer uses the mythic aspects of An American Dream to explore his own concept of reality. Mailer basically thinks in mythic terms; he is a mythic realist (Adams 211). When asked about the basis of reality in this particular novel, Mailer replied: