The traditional human family represents a necessary transition between self and community. In the difficult era of the 1930’s, the family’s role shifted to guard against a hostile outside world rather than to provide a link with it. With the drought in the Dust Bowl and other tragedies of the Great Depression, many were forced to look beyond the traditional family unit and embrace their kinship with others of similar necessity. In his novel The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck uses the theme of strength through unity to comment on the relationship between the dissolution of individual families and the unification of the migrant people. The journey of the Joad family west illustrates this as they depart a parched Oklahoma, arrive in a hostile California, and eventually settle in amongst others as unwelcome there as they are.
With the return of Tom to the family in the beginning of the story, the Joad family is once again united, though at the same time we see them to be utterly isolated from other migrants. It is not until the loss of a proverbial “right-arm” of the family (Grandpa) that the family is first unified with others, the Wilsons. As their journey progresses, they lose more members and struggle through increasing hardships, but in each situation the two families act as one and persevere. Grandma follows her husband to the grave, Ivy Wilson’s health degrades, Noah leaves the family he knows doesn’t truly love him, their cars continually break down, and their money is fast disappearing. Vehicles, food, and money are all shared, but with one family’s loss the entire group benefits.
The Joad family’s experiences when they first arrive in California ar…
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…n’s baby is stillborn, signifying a terrible loss to the Joad family. Soon after, they come upon another family, and Rose of Sharon is able to use the milk meant for her dead child to help a sick, starving old man. What’s more, Rose of Sharon used her own milk, something normally only for the family, signifying the absence of a traditional family, and instead a universal family of a common plight.
Throughout the course of the story, roughly half of the Joad family dies or disappears, but by the end of the novel the Joads are in a desperate yet relatively comfortable position. This was because as they gave up their kin, they were welcomed into society as a whole. In this manner John Steinbeck uses the theme Unity leads to Survival to comment on the relationship between the dissolution of individual families and the unification of the migrant people.
The Epic Poem, Beowulf – A Jungian Reading of Beowulf
A Jungian Reading of Beowulf
The epic poem, Beowulf, depicts the battles and victories of the Anglo-Saxon warrior Beowulf, over man-eating monsters. The noble defender, Beowulf, constantly fought monsters and beasts to rid the land of evil. The most significant of these monsters, Grendel, represents Beowulf’s shadow, the Jungian archetype explored in the essay collection, Meeting the Shadow.
The character Grendel portrays the fallen self, which will assert itself violently if neglected, and must be overcome throughout life. The monster Grendel mirrors the part of our fallen state. Grendel’s ancestry leads to the biblical figure Cain, to which all evil can be attributed. Grendel represents the hidden evil of Beowulf. Rollo May describes this in his metaphor “the dragon or the Sphinx in me will often be clamoring and will sometimes be expressed”(174). Grendel represents Beowulf’s Sphinx, that lashes out on others.
The name Grendel can be roughly translated to mean “grinder,” and “storm” (Raffel Burton 152). These terms come to life when he invades the Mead Hall. Grendel “Rushed angrily across the inlaid floor, snarling and fierce: his eyes gleamed in the darkness, burned with a gruesome light. Then he stopped, seeing the hall crowded with sleeping warriors, stuffed with rows of young soldiers resting together. And his heart laughed, he relished the sight, intended to tear the life from those bodies by morning”(46). Grendel and the other monsters that represent Beowulf shadow “project their own evil onto the world” (Peck 178). Grendel the “Shepherd of evil, guardian of crime” represents the inherent evil that the shadow embodies (Burton 46).
Beowulf fought off Grendel like we must fight…
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…be transformed into anger towards others and the denial of ones evil. The neglected shadow if not projected in another’s direction, will surface in oneself to restore the imbalance personality. Evil presents us with a daily struggle between temptations and justice. Like Beowulf, we must battle the evils of our shadow until it has been recognized and defeated.
Works Cited
Bly, Robert. “The Long Bag We Drag Behind Us.”Meeting the Shadow. Ed Connie Zwieg and Jeremiah Abrams. Los Angeles: Jeremy Teacher, Inc. 1991.
May, Rollo. “The Dangers of Innocence.” Meeting the Shadow. Ed Connie Zwieg and Jeremiah Abrams. Los Angeles: Jeremy Teacher, Inc. 1991.
Peck, Scott, M. “Healing Human Evil.” Meeting the Shadow. Ed Connie Zwieg and Jeremiah Abrams. Los Angeles: Jeremy Teacher, Inc. 1991.
Raffel, Burton, trns. Beowulf. New York: Penguin, 1963