Baby Houseman's Heroic Journey -- Part 17

This post follows up Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15 and Part 16.

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Most of Dirty Dancing takes place on the grounds of Kellerman's Mountain Home. Some travel away from that setting does happen or is mentioned in the movie, however.

* The Houseman family drives to Kellerman's.

* Baby Houseman and Johnny Castle travel to the countryside for the "Hey, Baby" scene.

* Baby and Johnny travel to and from the Sheldrake Hotel.

* Penny Johnson and Billy Kostecki travel to New Paltz for the abortion.

* Johnny drives away from Kellerman's after he has been fired.

Baby's only actual travel during her "heroic journey" are her trips to the countryside and to the Sheldrake.

Beyond her actual travel, however, she travels symbolically in several scenes.

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There are a couple of scenes where Baby crosses a bridge over a river or where she climbs stairs uphill. When Baby helps Billy carry the watermelons to the "dirty dancing" party, she crosses such a bridge and climbs such a stair. These two movements symbolize travel.

Baby about to cross a bridge and climb a stair.

In the "Wipeout" scene, Baby again crosses this bridge and climbs this stair -- symbolizing travel.

In the "Hey, Baby" scene, Baby crosses a log-bridge over a river.

The "Hey, Baby" scene ends with Baby practicing the dance's lift movement in a lake. The lift itself symbolizes air travel.

The lift-in-the-lake scene symbolizes also the initiating rite of baptism -- the rite of purification by means of water. The Hero's Journey genre essentially depicts an initiation into adulthood -- an initiation that is symbolized by such a rite.

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In a previous article titled Space-Time Portals in the Movie Dirty Dancing, I pointed out that Baby's entrance into the "dirty dancing" party is framed as a passage through a space-time portal.

Baby passing through a space-time portal

The bunkhouse doors are a frame -- a portal -- within the larger frame of the movie screen.

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I do not think that the movie's screenwriter, director or cinematographer intended to present all or any of those scenes with such symbolic meanings. However, many people in the movie audience perceive such symbols subconsciously.

For example, the "Wipeout" scene's bridge-crossing and the stair-climbing probably did not symbolize travel in the minds of the people who made the movie, but those movements nevertheless do symbolize travel subconsciously in the minds of many people who watch the movie.

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In this series of articles about the Hero's Journey genre, I do not argue that Eleanor Bergstein developed her story following the model of this genre. It's possible that she did so, but I don't argue so.

Nevertheless, many people watching the movie perceive this model subconsciously, because this model is common in many stories.

In any case, analyzing the movie with regard to the Hero's Journey genre is a thought-provoking exercise in literary analysis.

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This post concludes this series of articles.