Neculai Pieptu 01/19/2012 MA American Studies 2nd Year

Archetypal Criticism Approach of Jedediah Berrys Inheritance

This essay represents only an attempt to demonstrate the existence of archetypal images hidden in the literary work Inheritance written by Jedediah Berry, one of the new voices in the American literature. According to Wikipedia, archetypal literary criticism is a type of critical theory that interprets text by focusing on recurring myths and archetypes in the narrative, symbols, images, and character types in a literary work. Archetypes infuse fantasy writing, as well as all other genres, with life and meaning. Many famous fantasy stories include them. Carl Gustav Jung, a psychoanalyst who learned from Sigmund Freud and then branched off to form his own theories, claimed that all human beings share a collective unconscious, a kind of inherited pool of (repeated) psychological experiences, of primordial images, a psychic residue, that influence us without consciously being aware of their existence. Within the collective unconscious there are important archetypes that have risen out of our common human experience. 1 These recurring myths or archetypes are interwoven in the plot of this short novel by appealing to fantasy and magical realism. In an interview for an online magazine Jedediah Berry, confesses his attraction towards fantasy and unconscious:
I prefer to look at fiction as fiction, no matter how it gets categorized, but those questions of fantasy and science fiction of genre in general are useful when used as a lens through which to examine particular threads that go back very far. In the introduction to one of his books, Calvino wrote that the fantastic is the revolt of the Unconscious. I like the idea that theres something subversive about it. Theres an
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http://www.epic-fantasy.com/articles/archetypes-in-fantasy-writing-by-marilyn-peake.htm

opportunity to have what is usually kept under wraps explode onto the surface. Thats what I feel I do, and maybe to some extent thats what I felt I was doing while writing this kind of fiction; that there was something delightful in putting in more trench coats, or in having that gun go off, or in having detectives shining their flashlights into peoples dreams. But I cant help it either. Ive tried sometimes to write fairly realistic stories without indulging in the fantastic, but I inevitably indulge. I need to break something in order to make it interesting to myself.2

Jedediah Berry inevitably indulges in the fantastic in the short story Inheritance where he tries to portray the archetype of evil that is embodied by the beast and Gregs wife named Lilith. The evil is depicted through psychological techniques which create a special and hideous creature called the beast. This beast is discovered by Greg, the main character, in the cellar of his deceased father. During his life, the father does not tell his son about the creature and he continues to feed his secret by himself. The son inherits the beast unaware of its very existence. In other words the beast could be counted as part of our collective consciousness inherited from our ancestors. It may also be associated, in terms of psychoanalysis, with the Freudian repressed id, the unorganized part of the personality structure which contains the basic drives or the pleasure principle that seeks to avoid pain or displeasure aroused by increases in instinctual tension. 3 The inheritance of the beast could be also linked to the archetype of the Fall and the original sin, or the ancestral sin. The concept of original sin describes the state of sin of the entire humanity as a result of the Fall of Man. According to Jeffery Brood, this condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred to as a "sin nature", to something as drastic as total depravity or automatic guilt of all humans through collective guilt.4
2 3

http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2010/07/jedediah-berry-a-stranger-road. Charles Rycroft, A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis., 1968Basic Books <www.wikipedia.com> 4 Jefferey Brodd, World Religions, (2003). Winona, MN: Saint Mary's Press <www.wikipedia.com>

In our story, the inherited beast does not give the impression to be an insignificant slight deficiency but more like a bigger issue, a sort of total depravity for Greg. Beyond beasts human features, the navel visible through wiry hair, the hairless brown nipples, eyes with something like a soul behind them5 and its ability to learn quickly how to drink beer from a bottle, the hideous animal symbolizes what could be the worst in all human beings. With Lilith, the author introduces the myth or archetype of woman. It is interesting to notice the connotations of Liliths name. According to Jewish tradition and mythology the character Lilith is associated with evil. In Jewish folklore she is considered to be the first wife of Adam, or the mother of demons, or even Satans partner.6 In the story, Lilith can connect to the beasts parallel spiritual world. She seems to have a special connection with the beast, something her husband does not understand. Lilith calls the beast him, as if they can relate personally. She teaches him the alphabet and the creature is eager to learn. Later in the story, she communicates with the strange animal at a deeper level: Come to mommy; Come here right this moment.7 The beast, which caught her scent and recognized her, seems to comprehend her language and obeys her orders. In the end, the beast learns Liliths name and Gregs wife is completely perplexed to discover that as if the most important secrets or her true identity were exposed: I got him to say my name. Damn it, he knows my name. 8 In Lilith, the author conceals deep symbolic elements. She could stand for the shadow or the other of man. Genesis I: 27 reads: "And Elohim created Adam in His Image, in the Image of God He created him; male and female He created them."9 So, Adam was created in perfection, as the perfect image of "Elohim." God is not seen as being either male or female, but as both at once. Even the Name Elohim is a feminine word (Eloah
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Jedediah Berry, Inheritance, Fairy Tale Review, editor Kate Bernheimer, Department of English, University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 p. 27 < www.fairytalereview.com>. 6 Encyclopedia Mythica <http://www.pantheon.org/articles/l/lilith.html>. 7 Jedediah Berry, op. cit., p. 35 8 Idem, p.39. http://www.lilitu.com/lilith/khephframes.html

Goddess) with a masculine plural suffix. Thus, if God is male and female, the mother and the father, then Adam (which translates as "Mankind") must also have originally been male and female in one. To be otherwise would have been to be unbalanced, and thus imperfect. In fact, Adam was not a human at allbut a Cosmic Being known as Adam Kadmon. He was the Archetype upon which all humans would later be based, therefore Lilith, who was created from the very dust as Adam, the first woman being his other, his true half, or in Jungian terms, Anima, the feminine aspect - the inner feminine part of the male personality, a
man's image of a woman.

Likewise, the shadow is a very common archetype that reflects deeper elements of our psyche, where 'latent dispositions' which are common to us all arise.10 She could mean the deeper self, that part of us we dont understand, the evil, the old nature, the repressed id, the connection with the evil spiritual realm and maybe the source of evil since Lilith can dominate the beast which equates the evil. To the dual frame the binary pair white and black can be added too white and black is the movie Lilith is watching, white and black is the bedroom, white and black is the wife; opposed and yet complementary, each color symbolizes different things: black stands for chaos, mystery, the unknown, the unconscious, evil, while white stands light, purity, innocence, in its positive aspects, and for death, supernatural, blinding scrutiny of an inscrutable cosmic mystery.11. The alienation between Greg and his father, Lyle, reminds us of the Father and Son Conflict archetype. The son is estranged of his father for thirty years due to the fathers weird behavior, namely his connection with the beast. This strange relationship with the beast is suggestive for the fathers name: Lyle comes from the Norman French lisle, island. He stands as a symbol for the outcast, the alienated. The fathers presence is felt by the son only after his death as if the inherited beast was the link between the two. Gregs life is turned up-side-down by this inheritance. Trying to understand the problem of evil
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http://changingminds.org/explanations/identity/jung_archetypes. http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~mjoseph/guerin150-151.jpg

in his own life he forgets his regular History teaching duties and spends one and half weeks dealing with the Holocaust instead of one week for teaching the entire World War Two unit, according to the teachers planning. His quest for understanding the beast becomes the battle of his existence. Even his name has interesting connotations (Greg comes from the Latin Gregorius and it means watchful or alert). The child is another important archetype in the story. Gordon, the son of Phil and Elise, has a weird attraction towards the beast. He stole the spare key of Lilith and Gregs house in order to visit and pet the thing. The childs curiosity proves to be harmful for the boy. The very existence of the beast puts life at risk and therefore the owner must work out an answer to solve this problem. The solution for Gregs problem does not come from his inner world or from his inner struggles to find a way out. He cannot be his own savior. The salvation is possible as coming from the world outside him, from someone with a different history, someone who dealt previously with his own beast. The help is offered by Abe, one of his family friends, a policeman. Abe stands for Abraham, the symbol or the archetype of faith. The key to the problem requires a leap of faith12 as the Patriarch Abraham took. Greg needs to get out of himself, trust somebody else and use Abes instruments in dealing with his issue. He and the beast had to get into Abes car, arrive at his fathers house and Greg has to use the policemans pistol for killing the beast. Now, once the beast, together with all its evil connotations, was removed, Greg could use some quiet.

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According to Wikipedia, the phrase leap of faith is commonly attributed to Soren Kierkegaard; however, he himself never used the term, as he referred to a leap as a leap to faith.

REFERENCES

Berry, Jedediah, Inheritance, Fairy Tale Review, editor Kate Bernheimer, Department of English, University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 < www.fairytalereview.com>. Brodd, Jeffery, World Religions, (2003). Winona, MN: Saint Mary's Press www.wikipedia.com Rycroft, Charles, A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis., 1968 Basic Books www.wikipedia.com http://changingminds.org/explanations/identity/jung_archetypes, date 18/01/2012. Encyclopedia Mythica <http://www.pantheon.org/articles/l/lilith.html>, date 15/01/2012. http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2010/07/jedediah-berry-a-stranger-road, date 16/01/2012. http://www.epic-fantasy.com/articles/archetypes-in-fantasy-writing-by-marilyn-peake.html, date14/01/2012. http://www.lilitu.com/lilith/khephframes.html, date 14/01/2012. http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~mjoseph/guerin150-151.jpg.