The Motif of the Journey in American Literature
The Journey
The journey is a very important motif in American literature (and indeed, in literature of all periods and cultures), understood not only as literal journey, but also as a metaphysical, introspective process of transformation. The motif of the Journey can be seen in many different works, such as Rip Van Winkle, Walden and The Scarlet Letter.
Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle
In Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle, the protagonist Rip, is the antithesis of the American hero. He is, so to speak, an American anti-hero. According to typical American values, one must work hard in order to achieve goals in his or her life, and in order to improve her or his life conditions. Rip Van Winkle is just the opposite; he is constantly wasting his time, doing unprofitable things. He is, in other words, an unproductive person, who spends most of his time playing with children and sitting, idle, under a tree. One day, he undertakes a journey to escape his wife and his ordinary life: he goes to the mountains and then falls asleep. Surprisingly, he remains asleep for twenty years. He undertook this journey before a few years before the American Revolutionary War had taken place. On waking up, he returns to his village, and he realizes he does not recognize many people. He also finds out that his wife, whom he found unbearable, has died. When people realize he’s Rip van Winkle, he is perceived by some as a legend, inasmuch as everybody wants to listen to his incredible story. Thus, the main idea is that someone who was relatively insignificant has gained, because of his journey, the stature of a legend. The physical journey undertaken by Rip is also two other things: a temporal journal (20 years pass), and perhaps more importantly, a metaphysical journey: a lazy relatively insignificant man has become a living legend.
Joseph Campbell’s Analysis
According to Joseph Campbell, the story of the hero takes place in three stages: withdrawal, initiation and return, where the hero abandons his family or his community, undergoes an initiation, which is usually an encounter with supernatural forces and eventually returns to society, wiser than he was before. A closer reading of “Rip Van Winkle” side-by-side with Campbell will demonstrate that Irving was well aware of the pattern, and that he followed it and veered from it intentionally for his own purposes.
Thoreau’s Walden
In Walden, by the transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau, we can see a physical journey that is representative of a spiritual journey. The protagonist undertakes a journey, he leaves civilized society and goes to the forest, in the proximity of the Pond Walden, and builds a cabin for himself. He decides to live isolated from civilization. This isolation allows him to explore his capabilities completely, and also to understand his true spiritual nature. Thus, the journey in Walden is very clearly approached from a transcendentalist point of view. His reason for going to the forest is to overcome the obstacles that materialistic society places in the path of the individual. Only through isolation and direct contact with nature can the individual get to know himself truly and accurately.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter
In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the protagonist, Hester Prynne, because of her adultery, is marked with a scarlet “A” letter by her Puritan neighbors in New England, which obviously stigmatizes her. She thus ceases to be a respected woman and becomes ostracized. Being rejected, Hester must adjust to a new lifestyle, and thus begins her heroic journey. Progressively, hardship makes her become a self-sufficient single mother. After all the tribulations she endures, she is no longer weak or feeble, but becomes strong-minded, stronger, we might say, than the society that ostracized her. Moreover, by being charitable and generous, despite both her poverty and her ostracized status, she manages to transform the way others see her. This transformation is clearly manifested in the way people reinterpret the scarlet letter “A” she was obliged to wear: from “Adulterous” to “Able”. Like Rip Van Winkle, although in a different sense. Hester also acquires the stature of a legend: she survives by herself in an especially difficult world, Puritan America.
Conclusion
As a way of conclusion, we can say that in these works, three kinds of journey are undertaken. On the one hand, Rip Van Winkle undertakes a triple journey: physical, temporal, metaphysical. He becomes a legendary figure from pre-Independence times, a relic from the past. On the other hand, Thoreau undertakes a journey to the forest, to isolate himself from society and thus achieve knowledge of his true self through direct contact with Nature. Finally, Hester Prynne is ostracized from society, thus initiating a personal journey of transformation, from weak to self-sufficient. Because she continues to be charitable and generous, she transforms the source of her ostracism (adultery) into a source of pride (able). She is thus stronger than the Puritan society that punishes her, and she can hence be seen as a legendary figure.