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.

Baby Houseman's Heroic Journey -- Part 16

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 and Part 15.

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This series will continue in Part 17.

Baby Houseman's Heroic Journey -- Part 15

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 and Part 14.

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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 Meeting with the God

The Man As Tempter

Atonement with the Father

Apotheosis

The Ultimate Boon

In this series of articles, I have finished the Ultimate Boon subpart. There I argued that Baby Houseman achieves her Ultimate Boon in the final scene, where her dance performance demonstrates that she should no longer be perceived as being a "Baby" -- rather, she should be recognized henceforth as being an adult, capable, confident woman. Also, immediately after her dance performance, she reconciles with her father.

Baby has accomplished her initiation into adulthood and has become a hero with improved qualities:

Wisdom

Life Experience

Familial Support

Recognition

Adult Authority

Confidence

Performance Ability

Emotional Self-Control

Generosity

Baby will be able to apply those improved qualities to her future efforts in her life.

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The Wikipedia article about the Hero's Journey listed the three parts as Departure, Initiation and Return. The article list's the Return subparts as follows.

Return

Refusal of the Return

Having found bliss and enlightenment in the other world, the hero may not want to return to the ordinary world to bestow the boon onto his fellow man.

The Magic Flight

Sometimes the hero must escape with the boon, if it is something that the gods have been jealously guarding. It can be just as adventurous and dangerous returning from the journey as it was to go on it.

Rescue from Without

Just as the hero may need guides and assistants to set out on the quest, often he or she must have powerful guides and rescuers to bring them back to everyday life, especially if the person has been wounded or weakened by the experience.

The Crossing of the Return Threshold

The trick in returning is to retain the wisdom gained on the quest, to integrate that wisdom into a human life, and then maybe figure out how to share the wisdom with the rest of the world.

Master of Two Worlds

This step is usually represented by a transcendental hero like Jesus or Gautama Buddha. For a human hero, it may mean achieving a balance between the material and spiritual. The person has become comfortable and competent in both the inner and outer worlds.

Freedom to Live

Mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which in turn is the freedom to live. This is sometimes referred to as living in the moment, neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past.

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The 1987 movie Dirty Dancing does not depict any of those "Return" subparts, but the movie's beginning does provide a few clues about what Baby's return to her Ordinary World. The movie begins with Baby narrating from the year 1987 (the year when the movie was released), when she says:

That was the summer of 1963, when everybody called me "Baby", and it didn't occur to me to mind. That was before President Kennedy was shot, before the Beatles came -- when I couldn't wait to join the Peace Corps, and I thought I'd never find a guy as great as my dad. That was the summer we went to Kellerman's.

This narrative indicates that the following events happened between the end of the vacation at Kellerman's in September 1963 and the movie's release in August 1987.

* She no longer was called "Baby" by most people.

* She began to mind still being called "Baby".

* The Kennedy assassination and the Beatles' arrival affected her life.

* She continued to at least think about joining the Peace Corps.

* She did find a guy as great as her Dad.

Other clues about the future are provided by the song Big Girls Don't Cry, which accompanies Baby's narrative. The lyrics reveal how the relationship between Baby and Johnny Castle eventually ended.

The lyrics tell Johnny's perspective in 1987, looking backwards in time toward 1963. Johnny had told Baby that he was terminating their relationship while hoping secretly that she would beg to continue it. Baby, however, had accepted the relationship's termination stoically, with her mother's emotional support.

I told my girl we had to break up;
Thought that she would call my bluff,
But she said, to my surprise:
"Big girls don't cry."

Baby, I was cruel.
Baby, I'm a fool.

"Shame on you," your Mama said.
"Shame on you, you cried in bed.
"Shame on you, you told a lie."

Big girls DO cry

"Big girls don't cry."
That's just an alibi.

The opening scene is like a duet performed in 1987 -- telling the movie audience what would happen after the movie's story. Baby's narrative indicates that afterwards she no longer would be called "Baby" and so forth. Meanwhile, Johnny's song tells how the romantic relationship between himself and Baby would end.

So, the 1987 movie does reveal some facts about Baby's return to her Ordinary World, which will happen after the movie's story ends on September 2, 1963.

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In the ABC original movie, released in 2017, Frances (previously called Baby) is shown having a husband and daughter ten years later, in 1973.

Baby with her husband and daughter in 1973

Many people reject this 2017 TV movie as a genuine sequel. However, I offer two arguments for accepting this depiction of Frances's personal situation in 1973.

* Eleanor Bergstein never presented her own sequel and has not objected to this sequel.

* The 1987 movie's opening narrative indicates that Frances eventually (before 1987) will find a guy as great as her Dad.

I myself accept (unless Bergstein ever presents her own sequel) that in 1973 Frances will be a happy wife and mother.

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The available clues about Baby's Return to the Ordinary World enable me to elaborate a few of the subparts as follows:

Return

Refusal of the Return

The "Big Girls Don't Cry" lyrics indicate that Baby would be very sorry -- would cry -- about the termination of her relationship with Johnny. Baby would spend a tearful time fantasizing that she might continue her relationship with him after all.

Rescue from Without

The song's lyrics indicate also that Baby's mother will provide the emotional support necessary to accept the termination of the relationship with Johnny. Baby's mother will shame Baby into accepting the relationship's termination. Baby's mother will tell Frances to stop acting like a Baby.

The Crossing of the Return Threshold

Baby's opening narrative indicates that Frances's life will go through a significant transition that coincides with the period from November 1963 (when President Kennedy was assassinated) to January 1964 (when the Beatles arrived in the USA). After that intermediary period, Frances will cross a threshold into a new stage in her life.

Master of Two Worlds

In 1987 Baby will tell this story because she still is proud of her idealism that governed her actions during that summer vacation at Kellerman's Mountain Home in 1963, when she was 17 years old. Now in 1987, she is 41 years old, and she maintains much of that youthful idealism but she has learned also to deal with the practical considerations of being a wife and mother for many years. 

Therefore, the movie Dirty Dancing comprises all three parts of the Hero's Journey genre:

1) Departure

2) Initiation

3) Return

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This series will continue in Part 16.

Baby Houseman's Heroic Journey -- Part 14

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 and Part 13.

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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 Meeting with the God

The Man As Tempter

Atonement with the Father

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 Atonement with the Father subpart. There I argued that Baby Houseman was a "Daddy's Girl" who had deceived and disappointed her father. Subsequently she had to redefine her relationship with her father on a more adult level. The process of redefinition required effort and time.

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Now I will discuss the Apotheosis subpart. The word is pronounced as follows:

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The Changing Minds website describes the Apotheosis in a Hero's Journey as follows:

.... The hero transcends, achieving a higher place. This is a 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 dictionary describes apotheosisas:

The elevation of a person to the status of a god.

The notion is thus one of achieving perfection, reaching enlightenment and nirvana, transcending to another level.

In transcending, the cycle of death and rebirth is repeated as the hero dies as their former self and is reborn into new self, perhaps that of the true hero. ...

I like especially the word enlightenment as an alternative to the word apotheosis.

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I perceive Baby's stage of enlightenment to take place in the following scene.

Baby is sad to part from Johnny, but she controls her emotions maturely, because she is philosophical about her situation. In other words, she is thoughtful and objective. She has placed her relationship with Johnny into proper perspective. She is ready to go on with her life without Johnny, but much wiser because of her brief experience with him.

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The same Changing Minds website describes the Ultimate Boon in a Hero's Journey as follows.

Eventually through the many trials, the goal of the journey is achieved. This is the ultimate boon.

The boon may be finally gained after a battle with the ultimate villain or a particularly difficult last trial.

The ultimate boon is often the climax of the story, where the major tension of the story is resolved. ...

In movies, expensive special effects and large orchestras may be used to enhance the action, creating awe and wonder in the audience.

I perceive that Baby Houseman achieves her Ultimate Boon in the final scene, where her dance performance demonstrates that she should no longer be perceived as being a "Baby" -- rather, she should be recognized henceforth as being an adult, capable, confident woman. Also, immediately after her dance performance, she reconciles with her father.

Baby has accomplished her initiation into adulthood and has become a hero with improved qualities:

Wisdom

Life Experience

Familial Support

Recognition

Adult Authority

Confidence

Performance Ability

Emotional Self-Control

Generosity

Baby will be able to apply those improved qualities to her future efforts in her life.

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This series will be continued in Part 15.

Baby Houseman's Heroic Journey -- Part 13

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 and Part 12.

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This series will continue in Part 14.

Baby Houseman's Heroic Journey -- Part 12

This post follows up Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10 and Part 11.

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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 Meeting with the Goddess

The Woman As Temptress

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 Meeting With the Goddess and the Woman As Temptress subpart, which I renamed as Meeting With the God and  Man As Tempter.

There I argued that Johnny Castle played both roles of Baby Houseman's God and Tempter. I wrote that becoming a partner in a sexual relationship was a key part of Baby's initiation into adulthood while she was progressing on her heroic journey.

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Now I will discuss the Atonement with the Father subpart.

At the movie's beginning, Baby indicated two problems in her Ordinary World:

Everybody called me "Baby", and it didn't occur to me to mind.

I thought I'd never find a guy as great as my Dad.

Baby was a Daddy's Girl.

When Baby begins her heroic journey, she has no thought of changing her relationship with her father, but the journey brings her into a situation where she deceives and disappoints her father. Therefore she and her father will have to redefine their relationship at a more adult level.

This redefinition is not easy for either Baby or her father. In the following scene, Baby's monologue is rather immature and nonsensical. She still cannot articulate her thinking well about her own situation, and so she largely blames her father for the rupture of their relationship.

Baby's bratty monologue, of course, fails to mollify her father's disappointment in her.

Baby and her father do not accomplish a significant reconciliation until the movie's denouement.

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Baby's journey causes her to consider as a potential romantic partner a man who is very different from her father. Johnny is not highly educated, professionally successful and financially secure. Baby even feels rather ashamed of Johnny and delays introducing him as her boyfriend to her father. She feels that her father will become even further disappointed in her because of her boyfriend choice.

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This series continues in Part 13.

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Baby Houseman's Heroic Journey -- Part 11

This post follows up Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9 and Part 10.

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This series will continue in Part 12.

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. ....

The last sentence applies to Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing.

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This series will be continued in Part 11.

Baby Houseman's Heroic Journey -- Part 9

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

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This series will be continued in Part 10.

Baby Houseman's Heroic Journey -- Part 8

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

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In my previous posts of this series, my comparison of 1) the movies The Wizard of Oz and Dirty Dancing with 2) the genre of the Hero's Journey progressed through the scene of Supernatural Aid.

In The Wizard of Oz, the Supernatural Aid happens when a tornado transports Dorothy's house onto Oz, where Dorothy meets the Good Witch of the North, who becomes Dorothy's mentor and who gives her a talisman -- a pair of ruby slippers -- which gives Dorothy the confidence to accept her Call to Adventure.

In Dirty Dancing, the Supernatural Aid happens when Baby Houseman meets Billy Kostecki at just the right moment for him to enable her to follow Johnny Castle further into the employees' bunkhouse. Billy gives Baby a talisman -- a watermelon -- that gives her the confidence and a reason to enter the bunkhouse and to join the "dirty dancing" party. Thus Baby accepts her Call to Adventure.

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According to the Wikipedia article about the Hero's Journey, the Supernatural Aid scene is followed by the following two scenes.

Crossing the First Threshold

This is the point where the person actually crosses into the field of adventure, leaving the known limits of his or her world and venturing into an unknown and dangerous realm where the rules and limits are unknown.

Belly of the Whale

The belly of the whale represents the final separation from the hero's known world and self. By entering this stage, the person shows willingness to undergo a metamorphosis. When First entering the stage the hero may encounter a minor danger or set back.

After a heroine crosses the First Threshold, she enjoys the new delights of the Extraordinary World. However, she still feels like a stranger there.

Eventually, however, the heroine feels consumed by the Extraordinary World and feels that she is perhaps permanently separated from her Ordinary World. Ultimately she faces the possibility of even dying in the Extraordinary World.

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In The Wizard of Oz, after Dorothy receives her talisman (the pair of ruby slippers) from her mentor (the Good Witch of the North), she is delighted as she begins to learn about her new surroundings.

Eventually, however, the delights are replaced largely by dangers. As she crosses through a field of poppies, she might fall into a permanent sleep. Now she is in the Belly of the Whale, from which she might never escape.

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In Dirty Dancing, Baby carries her talisman (the watermelon) across the First Threshold and into the bunkhouse where the "dirty dancing" party is taking place.

Crossing the Threshold

The movie camera shows Baby seeming to pass through a Space-Time Portal.

At the bunkhouse party, Baby begins to become acquainted with the resort's employees with whom she is not supposed to socialize. She has fun watching them dance and has some more fun dancing briefly with Johnny.

After Baby has been introduced to Johnny and Penny briefly in the bunkhouse, she becomes more acquainted with them several days later, when Penny is demonstrating wigs.

Baby sees Penny and Johnny again,
several days after the "dirty dancing" party.

Baby engages Penny in a personal conversation

Baby is having delightful fun getting to know these employees with whom she is not supposed to socialize.

As the story continues, Baby learns more about Penny and Johnny, helps Penny get an abortion, learns how to dance from Johnny, and performs with him at the Sheldrake Hotel.

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Baby's Belly-of-the-Whale realization happens when she learns that Penny has fallen into mortal danger following her abortion.

Baby sees Penny's mortally dangerous situation while Baby herself is planning to sexually seduce Johnny. Seeing Penny perhaps dying as a consequence of sexual intercourse, pregnancy and abortion must cause Baby to ponder her own mortality.

Soon afterwards, Baby's father learns about Baby's situation and becomes furious with her. Now Baby must ponder also that possibility that she soon will become estranged from her family.

Baby pondering mortality and estrangement

Baby is continuing her heroic adventure, but now she is in the Belly of the Whale. Now she realizes that she might not be able to return ever to her Ordinary World.

Baby's realizations of her own mortality and of her eventual separation from her family do not discourage her. On the contrary, her determination to continue her heroic journey becomes stronger.

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After a heroine has passed through the Belly of the Whale, she continues her heroic journey with increased confidence and determination.

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This series continues in Part 9.

Baby Houseman's Heroic Journey -- Part 7

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

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This series will be continued in Part 8.

Baby Houseman's Heroic Journey -- Part 6

This post follows up Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5.

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In my previous posts of this series, I fit the movie Dirty Dancing into the Hero's Journey genre through the Refusal of the Call to Adventure.

The Call to Adventure happened when Baby Houseman agreed to act as the magician's stooge. When she came to the resort's main building to meet the magician, she happened to overhear the resort's owner Max Kellerman saying that the male waiters were 1) hired because of their higher education and excellent career prospects and 2) supposed to romance the resort's young female guests.

Baby could have exploited this information to enjoy a romantic adventure with a pre-med student working as a waiter -- she could have found a guy as great as her Dad -- but she instead involved herself safely and publicly with the resort's assistant manager, Neil Kellerman. In other words, Baby refused her Call to Adventure.

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According to the Wikipedia article about the Hero's Journey, the Refusal of the Call to Adventure is followed by the following scene.

Supernatural Aid

Once the hero has committed to the quest, consciously or unconsciously, his guide and magical helper appears or becomes known. More often than not, this supernatural mentor will present the hero with one or more talismans or artifacts that will aid him later in his quest.

The hero perceives that a talisman gives him special power, but essentially the talisman gives him the necessary courage to accept the call to adventure.

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In the movie The Wizard of Oz, the Supernatural Aid is the tornado that blows Dorothy's house to Oz, where it lands onto and kills the Wicked Witch of the East. In the following moments, Dorothy's mentor, the Good Witch of the North, appears and begins to explain Dorothy's new situation to her.

The Dorothy's mentor magically places ruby slippers, as talismans, onto Dorothy's feet.

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In Dirty Dancing, after refusing the Call to Adventure for several days, Baby sees Johnny Castle engaging in sexual activities with a woman in the woods. Johnny and the woman part from each other, and Johnny walks away down a path.

Baby now perceives her Call to Adventure again, and so she begins following Johnny. (See the first 0:55 minute of the following video of deleted scenes.)

The Supernatural Aid happens when Baby fortunately meets Billy Kostecki at just the right moment for him to enable her to follow Johnny further into the employees' bunkhouse. Billy gives Baby a talisman -- a watermelon -- that gives her the confidence and a reason to enter the bunkhouse and to join the "dirty dancing" party. Thus Baby accepts her Call to Adventure.

Baby receives her magic talisman from her new mentor.

Baby learning from her mentor Billy how to use her talisman

The talisman gives Baby the courage to accept her Call to Adventure.

Billy now is revealed to be Baby's mentor in her heroic adventure. Through the entire story, Billy explains Baby's situation to her and provides advice and support.

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The watermelon talisman symbolizes a future pregnancy -- the happy result of Baby's eventually finding "a guy as great as her Dad".

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This series will be continued in Part 7.

Baby Houseman's Heroic Journey -- Part 5

This post follows up Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

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This series will be continued in Part 6.

Baby Houseman's Heroic Journey -- Part 4

This post follows up Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

I do not think that Eleanor Bergstein wrote her Dirty Dancing story with the Hero's Journey model in mind. I do, however, think that comparing that story to that model is a thought-provoking exercise in literary analysis.

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Deb Peterson, in her article The Hero's Journey, explains that in this genre the hero leaves his ordinary world by responding to a "Call to Adventure". Peterson's article -- which uses the movie The Wizard of Oz as an example -- includes the following passages.

.... The Call to Adventure can come in the form of a message, letter, phone call, dream, temptation, last straw, or loss of something precious. ...

Dorothy’s call to adventure comes when Toto, representing her intuition, is captured by Miss Gulch, escapes, and Dorothy follows her instincts (Toto) and runs away from home with him.

Almost always, the hero initially balks at the call. He or she is being asked to face the greatest of all fears, the terrible unknown. This hesitation signals the reader that the adventure is risky, the stakes are high, and the hero could lose fortune or life ... There is charm and satisfaction in seeing the hero overcome this reluctance. The stiffer the refusal, the more the reader enjoys seeing it worn down. ...

The hero’s doubt also serves to warn the reader that he may not succeed on this adventure, which is always more interesting than a sure thing, and it is often a threshold guardian who sounds the alarm and cautions the hero not to go ....

Dorothy encounters Professor Marvel who convinces her to return home because the road ahead is too dangerous. She goes home, but powerful forces have already been set in motion, and there is no going back. ...

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In Dirty Dancing, the Call to Adventure happens when Baby Houseman, on her first day at the resort, accepts Billy Kostecki's invitation to act as the magician's stooge. That evening she goes alone to the resort's main building, to a back door, through which she will meet the magician.

Baby responds to her Call to Adventure by going to the main building
to meet the magician and to learn how to perform as his stooge.

At that back door, Baby gets her first peek into the resort's secret world when she spies Max Kellerman instructing the waiters and entertainers about how they should and should not treat the young female guests.

Baby overhears the resort's secret rules about how the male employees
are supposed to treat the young female guests.

Baby learns from Max Kellerman's secret instructions that:

* the waiters were hired because of their higher education and excellent career prospects.

* the waiters are encouraged to romance the young female guests.

This information would be the key for Baby to begin a romantic adventure knowledgeably during her vacation at the resort. Since she hopes to "find a guy as great as my Dad", she now knows that she should position herself to be approached romantically by a waiter, who is likely to be a pre-med student.

Later that evening, Baby goes through with her stooge act in the magic show. Thus she becomes the center of attention for a while. There's a good chance that some pre-med student working as a waiter will notice her and approach her soon.

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In the genre of The Hero's Journey, the scene of The Call to Adventure is followed often by a scene of The Refusal of the Call. These two scenes are described by the Wikipedia article about The Hero's Journey as follows:

The Call to Adventure
The hero begins in a situation of normality, from which some information is received that acts as a call to head off into the unknown.

The Refusal of the Call 
Often when the call is given, the future hero first refuses to heed it. This may be from a sense of duty or obligation, fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons that work to hold the person in his or her current circumstances.

In The Wizard of Oz, these two scenes happen as follows.

The Call to Adventure
Dorothy runs away from home with her dog Toto.

The Refusal of the Call
After consulting with Professor Marvel, Dorothy returns home.

The scene of The Refusal of the Call tells the story's audience that the hero perceives The Call to Adventure to be consequential, risky or dangerous.

In Dirty Dancing, Baby's Refusal of the Call is depicted in two ways:

1) Baby involves herself publicly with the resort's assistant manager, Neil Kellerman, the owner's grandson.

2) Several days later, Baby remains involved only with Neil and only platonically.

Although Baby has acquired secret knowledge that she might become romantically involved with a pre-med student working as a waiter, she fails to position herself for such an opportunity. Furthermore, Baby's public involvement with Neil will discourage any waiter from approaching her romantically.

In contrast, her sister Lisa, who lacks such secret knowledge, has become involved romantically with pre-med student Robby Gould, who is working as a waiter and who has been encouraged to romance the young female guests.

Baby has responded initially to a Call to Adventure, but soon afterwards she refused that Call. She fears the risks of a real romantic adventure with some pre-med student working as a waiter in a summer job. Baby wants to "find a guy as great as her Dad" -- her Dad is an educated and successful doctor -- but she squanders her secret knowledge by involving herself publicly and platonically with Neil. As a consequence of that safe involvement, no pre-med student working as a waiter will approach her romantically.

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This series will be continued in Part 5.