Mythic Mailer in An American Dream: Difference between revisions

Stories that concern mythic heroes on quests battling psychic darts, dragons, devils, and talking moons set themselves up for incredulous critics. Many of the critics who argue that ''<u>An American Dream</u>'' is not a realistic novel believe that it is an allegory. Myth is often intertwined with allegory. According to Frye, all myths incorporate some allegory because in our attempt to explain myth, we allegorize.{{sfn|Frye|1957|p=341}} However, allegory is a direct comparison which dominates the structure of the work and is intentionally moralistic. Frye maintains: "Genuine allegory is a structural element in literature: it has to be there, and cannot be added by critical interpretation alone".{{sfn|Frye|1957|p=54}}

Both myth and allegory employ metaphor. Allegory itself is often defined as an extended metaphor.{{sfn|Holman|1980|p=10}} Metaphor is used extensively throughout Mailer's work. Stanley Gutman emphasizes that "Mailer's essential medium is metaphor".{{sfn|Gutman|1975|p=129}} One consequence of this aspect of Mailer's work, especially in ''<u>An American Dream</u>'', is that it could be incorrectly or incompletely interpreted as an allegory. Some scholars, such as Adams and Robert Begiebing, believe that the novel is an allegory, filled with complex yet reductive metaphors. Myth is naturally metaphorical, but Mailer is not trying to be purely metaphorical, and especially not purely allegorical. In an interview with Adams, he denies that such was his motive or his technique: "I don't believe a metaphorical novel has any right to exist until it exists on its ground floor. You know I never start with my characters as symbols".{{sfn|Adams|1975|p=210}} Instead, Mailer intensifies his realistic plot to develop the mythic aspect of his narrative, and thus, the metaphorical strength of his characters. The characters are not allegorical personifications, but Mailer's idea of real human beings engaged in a very real battle between good and evil. In extraordinary situations one is forced to delve deep within himself, calling forth a stronger, more aware person in the process. In Mailer's private cosmology, it is universally important for each individual to emerge from the crucible of the subconscious for the better.

A look at Mailer's cosmology helps to explain the basic thematic patterns of his work, especially the mythic patterns in ''<u>An American Dream</u>''. Mailer is often considered as having a personality which dominates and overshadows his writing or as "bursting with a passion too big for his pen".{{sfn|Aldridge|1965}} His own personal quest transcends didacticism and emerges in the dialectic in his work. Although Mailer's philosophy seems intertwined with the mythology in ''<u>An American Dream</u>'', we must be careful not to confuse the two. Chase discusses this potential problem:

Chase further states that "poetry is the indispensable substructure of myth".{{sfn|Chase|1949|p=109}} In this context, Frye agrees that "every poet has his private mythology".{{sfn|''Archetypes''|1989|p=680}} Lennon, in an essay delineating Mailer's cosmology, agrees that it purposefully pervades his poetics. To begin with, "in several ways Mailer still must be considered an existentialist".{{sfn|Lennon|1986|p=145}} However, Mailer believes in God, albeit an "embattled God". {{sfn|Adams|1975|p=216}} whose destiny is linked with ours: "I'm an existentialist who believes there is a God and a Devil at war with one another".{{sfn|Adams|1975|p=213}} Our individual contribution to good or evil has a direct effect on the ultimate outcome of this cosmic battle. Unfortunately, in our existential void, we cannot be sure which choices are good and which are evil. Mailer discusses this dilemma:

Lennon further discusses Mailer's beliefs about the importance of choice. There is "an extraordinary emphasis on man's free will, his ability to rough-hew not only bis own destiny but to affect God's as well".{{sfn|Lennon|1986|p=147}} The existential nature of the choices tends towards the absurd and can lead to inaction. But, the resultant void would ensure the Devil's ultimate victory. In ''<u>An American Dream</u>'', Mailer uses the mythic quest to raise awareness and to develop this existential dialectic. "Why write," Mailer asks in an interview with Lennon, "if you are not going to change consciousness?".{{sfn|Lennon|1986|transctips=3}} Lennon summarizes Mailer's private mythology on choice:

With this emptiness, Rojack begins his quest for renewal--the pursuit of knowledge and the giving of love--by going to see Deborah. In the mythic character archetypes of "male-female polarity"--"hero-devil-god and woman-destroyer-preserver"{{sfn|Friedman|1975|p=309}}--Deborah is a destroyer. She attempts to occupy his newly voided center and, Rojack, in his mystically heightened state, senses her malevolence. In the struggle that occurs during their meeting, Rojack describes her action: she tried to find my root and mangle me".{{sfn|Mailer|1964-65|p=30}} Her desire is to destroy his creativity and selfhood. When he realizes this he kills her. His rational mind tries to stop him, but the inner voice, the voice that responded to the moon, pushes him on. "I could feel a series of orders whip like tracers of light from my head to my arm, I was ready to obey, I was trying to stop".{{sfn|Mailer|1964-65|p=31}} But he does not stop. He describes himself as "floating. I was as far into myself as I had ever been and universes wheeled in a dream".{{sfn|Mailer|1964-65|p=31}}  

Murder is often necessary in myth because the destruction of evil and the growth of good are the most important things to be depicted. However, Rojack's murder of his wife, Deborah, understandably troubles readers. In defense of Rojack's action, Tanner insists that "When he [Rojack] murders Deborah, he is breaking free not just from a destructive woman, but from the picture of reality imposed by her world".{{sfn|Tanner|1971|p=359}} Begiebing describes Deborah in explicitly mythic images. He defends Mailer against the accusations of sexism in this book:

<blockquote>Deborah, his wife, is the dragon-guardian at the threshold to that other land. She is the "Great Bitch," maimer and castrator, a figure mythical heroes have faced as long as their quests have been recorded. Once we see Deborah as a mythological figure in a visionary world, we will not be marooned on the literal issue of Mailer's sexist portrayal of women ...{{sfn|Begiebing|1980|p=62}}</blockquote>

Was Deborah so evil that her murder was not a act of greater evil on the part of Rojack? Or was Deborah a victim of evil and Rojack's act less than heroic--indeed, pathological? Deborah's father, Barney Kelly, describes Deborah's conception. While having sex with Deborah's mother, he claims: '"I took a dive deep down into a vow, I said in my mind; "Satan, if it takes your pitchfork up my gut, let me blast a child into this bitch!'"{{sfn|Mailer|1964-65|p=240}} Deborah's birth was a result of that satanic vow. Cursed from the beginning, Deborah, at age fifteen, again falls victim to her satanic father. He enters an incestuous relationship with her. Kelly describes his initial lust for her: "I felt an awful desire to go to her room: my teeth were literally grinding, my belly was a pit of snakes. It was as if the Devil had come into the room at that instant and was all over me ..."{{sfn|Mailer|1964-65|p=250}} Because the story is narrated only through Rojack's perspective, we never really know how complicitious Deborah actually was. But we do know that her conception and upbringing contributed to whatever degree she was evil.  

When Rojack enters that phase of life that sparks his heroic quest, he has been smothered by his own materialistic success and enveloped by his relationship with Deborah. A successful marriage is based on love. Rojack feels that their marriage was held together by hooks: "After Deborah had gotten her hooks into me, eight years ago she had clinched the hooks and they had given birth to other hooks. Living with her I was murderous; attempting to separate, suicide came into me".{{sfn|Mailer|1964-65|p=9}} As the first step towards his goal, he must kill the dragon--Deborah--menacing his path. Lennon elaborates on the possible justification of such an egocentric action:

<blockquote>If society stifles an individual, smothers him in conformity, then be cannot act in any moral way. Stultified by the homogenization of technological society, man's first impulse should be to escape--escape first, assertion of self first, change first--then morality, then self-discipline, then harmony, community, love.{{sfn|Lennon|1986|p=149-150}}</blockquote>

This freedom to act as an individual is a uniquely Western, and, more emphatically, American idea. Joseph Campbell discusses the difference between the Eastern mythologies and those of Europe. In the European myths, the emphasis was on an individual's own "potentiality",{{sfn|Campbell|1990|p=212}} while in the East, the emphasis was on the individual's role as part of the social order. In the European tradition, the individual, like Mailer with Rojack, must act outside the prevailing. social mores in order to attain heroic status. Campbell writes: "Now there's the individual experience--refuting the values of the whole system"{{sfn|Campbell|1990|p=213}} By murdering Deborah, Rojack disregards contemporary social morality and substitutes his personal vision or values. He accepts responsibility for himself, thus taking the path to freedom.