The American West and the Archetypel Orphan

L O U I E W. A T T E B E R Y The College of Idaho The American West and the Archetypel Orphan The archetypal orphan, a central figure in traditional mythol­ ogies and literary art the world over, appeared early in American literature and has continued to play a starring role. Nowhere is this figure presented more clearly than in Western Americana, and in no other body of fiction and folklore has he been drawn with the theological penumbra with which our best Western creative minds have reflected him. A bit later I shall want to hypothesize about the psychological beginnings of the orphan, but at this moment I must take time for a clarification of terms. I find that even among those who should knew better, the word myth too often means a kind of willful fab­ rication serving to pervert or distort truth. I do not use the word that way. Let me offer three statements about myth ranging from the simple and limited to the complex and probably too inclusive: (1) myths are attempts by primitive man to explain natural phe­ nomena. This is the etiological function, and while it is not wrong, it is grossly simple; (2) myths are the expression by concrete symbols of various human sexual or other emotional conflicts. This is better, but vague; and (3) finally, there is this from Bronislaw Malinowski: Myths were created to narrate, to establish, to codify, to justify, and to enhance various primitive customs, rituals, and moral and re­ ligious precedents; they are a “narrative resurrection of a primeval reality [archetype] told in satisfaction of deep religious wants, moral cravings, social submissions . . . and even practical require­ ments. . . ,” and vouching for workability of ritual and containing rules for the guidance of man.1 Perhaps from these statements a fourth can be synthesized: Myths are traditional narratives whose plot situations and characters are archetypal, and they metaphoric­ 1Kenneth W. and Mary W. Clarke, Introducing Folklore (New York, 1965) n., p. 33. •This paper was delivered at the annua! meeting of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, Western Americana section, at the Air Force Academy, October, 1968. 206 Western American Literature ally reflect the accumulated but unconsciously held wisdom of the human race.2 Then there is the other critical term: archetype. I suggest it as a synonym for what Malinowski calls a primeval reality. Students of literature and folklore are familiar with the Jungian notion of the collective unconscious indiscriminately distributed throughout the human race and containing somehow the inherited psychic ex­ periences which constellate around typical characters and situations of life: “psychic residua of numberless experiences of the same type.”3Familiar also are the contemporary refractions of Jungianism in Northrop Frye whose most serious qualification of Jung (that I know of) is simply that the hypothesis of the collective unconscious is unnecessary in literary criticism. Lest uncontrolled archetype hunting become our second most popular national indoor sport, I would suggest that classical mythology, both primary and secondary epics, the Bible and various other sacred writings, and fairy and folk tales provide a rubric (per­ haps palimpsest is a better word) which can discipline the search. And may I further observe that On Aggression by Konrad Lorenz and The Territorial Imperative by Robert Ardrey have seriously tempered the confidence of the tabula rasa behaviorists and have made it respectable to talk once again of the darker side of the psyche where the cosmic mysteries are rehearsed and where part of man’s role as a member of the created order is played out. Let me posit, then, the notion that the orphan is one of these archetypes without now examining the rich psychological or emo­ tional ontogeny of it. The orphan may be described as having lost physically or emotionally one or both biological parents and being endangered as a consequence; moreover, he usually seeks and finds companionship of some kind. He is frequently isolated from his home place. Then depending upon how deeply he partakes of the heroic archetype—we are reminded by Jung that “clear-cut distinc­ tions and strict formulations are quite impossible in this field”4— 2Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary...