Dirty Dancing Analysis: Baby Houseman's Heroic Journey -- Part 10

This post follows up Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8 and Part 9.

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The Wikipedia article about the Hero's Journey explains that a typical story of that genre comprises three main parts -- Departure, Initiation and Return. Each such part typically comprises various subparts. For the Departure and Initiation parts, Wikipedia lists the subparts as follows.

Departure

The Call to Adventure

Refusal of the Call

Supernatural Aid

Crossing the First Threshold

Belly of the Whale
Initiation

The Road of Trials

The road of trials is a series of tests that the person must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests, which often occur in threes.

The Meeting with the Goddess

This is where the hero gains items given to him that will help him in the future.

The Woman As Temptress

In this step, the hero faces those temptations, often of a physical or pleasurable nature, that may lead him or her to abandon or stray from his or her quest, which does not necessarily have to be represented by a woman. Woman is a metaphor for the physical or material temptations of life, since the hero-knight was often tempted by lust from his spiritual journey.

Atonement with the Father

In this step the person must confront and be initiated by whatever holds the ultimate power in his or her life. In many myths and stories this is the father, or a father figure who has life and death power. This is the center point of the journey. All the previous steps have been moving into this place, all that follow will move out from it. Although this step is most frequently symbolized by an encounter with a male entity, it does not have to be a male; just someone or thing with incredible power.

Apotheosis

This is the point of realization in which a greater understanding is achieved. Armed with this new knowledge and perception, the hero is resolved and ready for the more difficult part of the adventure

The Ultimate Boon

The ultimate boon is the achievement of the goal of the quest. It is what the person went on the journey to get. All the previous steps serve to prepare and purify the person for this step, since in many myths the boon is something transcendent like the elixir of life itself, or a plant that supplies immortality, or the Holy Grail.

In this series of articles, I have finished the Departure part and am about to begin the Initiation part.

I argued that Baby Houseman entered the Belly of the Whale when she realization that Penny Johnson was in mortal danger after her abortion. This realization caused Baby to ponder her own mortality and possible estrangement from her family, especially since she was planning to seduce Johnny Castle.

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Now in this Part 10 of my series, I will begin the Initiation part and its first subpart.

Initiation

The Road of Trials

The road of trials is a series of tests that the person must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests, which often occur in threes.

Baby's Road of Trials begins when she brings her father to Penny's cabin to treat her for her abortion consequences. By doing so, Baby soon ruptures her relationship with her father and thus begin her initiation into adulthood.

Baby tries unsuccessfully to deal with her father's anger

The relationship between Baby and her father has changed fundamentally since he has realized that she lied to him about the money he had lent her. She no longer can mollify him easily by acting as his cute, adoring daughter.

She will have to develop a new, more adult relationship with him, and this transformation will take time, thinking and effort. She will make practically no progress with her father for several days.

Another set of trials -- not depicted in the movie -- was Baby's preparation for the talent show. She was developing and practicing a performance with Johnny. The movie audience's only glimpse of this effort is the "Love Is Strange" scene.

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In the movie Wizard of Oz, the Good Witch of the North plays the role of her mentor and perhaps also the role of the Goddess. Right after Dorothy falls asleep in the poppy field -- falls into the Belly of the Whale -- the Good Witch of the North causes a snowfall that wakes Dorothy (at 2:40 in the below video).

The following video shows other movies' scenes where the hero meets with a goddess.

Two of the subparts listed in the Wikipedia article mention the Hero and a Goddess (see the list above in this post). Here in this discussion of Dirty Dancing, I will switch those characters' sexes as follows.

The Meeting with the God

This is where the heroine gains items given to her that will help her in the future.

The Man As Tempter

In this step, the heroine faces those temptations, often of a physical or pleasurable nature, that may lead her to abandon or stray from her quest, which does not necessarily have to be represented by a man. Man is a metaphor for the physical or material temptations of life, since the heroine was often tempted by lust from her spiritual journey.

The Dirty Dancing character who fits these two subparts best is, of course, Johnny Castle.

I suppose that many people would think that -- in terms of the Hero's Journey genre -- Johnny is Baby's mentor. However, not until after Johnny becomes sexual with Baby is he motivated to advise and help Baby. Johnny teaches Baby to dance only in order to help Penny and himself.

Baby's mentor is Billy Kostecki, and she perceives him to be the person who gives her information, advice and support in order to orient her in her situation at the resort.

Baby perceives Johnny rather to be a god-like being -- "you are everything". Subsequently she is tempted to become sexual with him, and she succumbs to that temptation.

Becoming a partner in a sexual relationship is a key part of Baby's initiation into adulthood while she is progressing on her heroic journey.

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Essayist Melissa Bourbon Ramirez summarizes these two subparts as follows:

The Meeting with the Goddess

The meeting with the goddess represents the point in the adventure when the person experiences a love that has the power and significance of the all-powerful, all encompassing, unconditional love that a fortunate infant may experience with his or her mother.

It is also known as the “hieros gamos”, or sacred marriage, the union of opposites, and may take place entirely within the person.

In other words, the person begins to see him or herself in a non-dualistic way. This is a very important step in the process and is often represented by the person finding the other person that he or she loves most completely. Although [Joseph] Campbell symbolizes this step as a meeting with a goddess, unconditional love and /or self unification does not have to be represented by a woman.

Woman as the Temptress

At one level, this step is about those temptations that may lead the hero to abandon or stray from his or her quest, which as with the Meeting with the Goddess does not necessarily have to be represented by a woman.

For Campbell, however, this step is about the revulsion that the usually male hero may feel about his own fleshy/earthy nature, and the subsequent attachment or projection of that revulsion to women. Woman is a metaphor for the physical or material temptations of life, since the hero-knight was often tempted by lust from his spiritual journey.

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Movie analyst Gordon Napier summarizes these two subparts as follows (first and second):

The Meeting with the Goddess

A unification with someone, it doesn’t have to be a woman but most likely is but it also includes self unification. It’s a stage where the hero receives a boost or support from love, specifically unconditional love, which means it is accepting of the good and the bad in someone, accepting both the bliss and the pain, the pleasure and the suffering. Meeting someone who completes you, your opposite.

The Goddess also symbolizes the end goal of a better life that there is something above mundane and the dangerous something that makes life worth living. She is the hero’s muse, an inspiration for taking the heroic action.

In Blade Runner, Deckard’s job is to hunt down and eliminate Replicants. He meets Rachael, she’s had memory implants and doesn’t know she’s a Replicant. Even though she is what he must kill, he falls in love with her, he accepts her for what she is, good and bad.

In Star Wars A new Hope, Luke learns of Princess Leia’s detention and plans for extermination. She inspires him to not just wait where they were safe but to rescue her. She is leading a life he aspires to, she’s a rebel taking up the cause against the Empire and, as is often the case, she is in some exalted role of Princess. ...

Woman as the Temptress

The Temptress is the opposite of the Goddess, the Goddess compels the hero on but the Temptress, provides a distraction or a detour. Rather than performing the role of a blocker or threshold guardian the Temptress presents a situation for the hero where he must make a choice.

This is an internal, moral battle rather than a physical battle. After enduring the grueling road of the trials, the Temptress throws up an option to take the easy way out, to give up on the quest. But by demonstrating he has the ability to refuse this offer, he is more heroic because of it.

The Temptress role may also be played by the Goddess but is not necessarily female. ....