I just re-discovered a very interesting article I’ve been searching for ever since I first read it two years ago. It goes into a variety of different things about the purpose and structure of fiction.
One of the things he talks about is the changing relationship of between the protagonist and “evil” within stories about growth. In the beginning of the story, evil is seen as a distant and external force, such as an army poised to invade. The protagonist is basically powerless against the foe in this form. He terms this the “childhood” phase.
In the middle of the story, evil is all around the protagonist. People whom he trusted may at any moment turn against him. At this point, the protagonist is in the greatest danger. He calls this phase “adolescence.”
And then near the end of the story, the protagonist must come to terms with the evil inside themselves. Only once the evil within is recognized and embraced may it be cleansed. The protagonist may then also go out and cleanse others of the evil. This phase he refers to as “adulthood.”
One of the examples he uses is the Lord of the Rings. In that story, the childhood interaction with evil is knowing that the Dark Lord and his armies exist, but in a far away land. In the adolescent phase of that story, the protagonist Frodo must confront evil within the form of Boromir, an ally who suddenly turns on him. In the adulthood phase of this story, Frodo stands at the crack of Mount Doom and abandons his quest, taking the Ring for himself.
It might be interesting to try and apply this pattern to the “story” being told about terrorism. I would say that before September 11th, we were in the childhood phase, where we knew terrorists existed, but they were really only a distant threat (with notable exceptions, of course). Then, when September 11th occurred, we were thrown into the adolescent phase where we have started to question everything and everyone as though they could turn on us at any moment; everyone is a possible terrorist. According to this interpretation then, the only way which we can solve it is to recognize the evil which exists within us - whatever it is that we’ve done or do to bring down this suffering upon us.
I like this model of interpretation for stories, I think, because that in order to overcome something, you must become it. It reminds me how Philip K. Dick has that quote where he says:
- To fight the Empire is to be infected by its derangement.
That definitely happens all the time in his novels. Also, the whole thing kind of reminds me of the end of that awesome Chinese martial arts movie, Hero with Jet Li, where the Emperor gives that speech about how it turns out the one who understands him best is his assassin.
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