Many of our favorite movies follow the heroic cycle. For this blog, choose a movie that follows the heroic cycle and identify the following:
The Heroic Cycle in Girl Interrupted. The home: The main character 19 year old Susanna feels that she is suffocating in the life she is living. She was living recklessly and didn’t care about life. The Separation: The doctors suggest to her parents that she should be committed into Claymore Hospital, a mental institution after combining a bottle of aspirin and a bottle of vodka thinking it was a suicide attempt. She heavily denies that she tried to commit suicide. The doctors diagnosed her with Borderline Personality Disorder. She befriends the band of troubled women in her ward and falls under the hypnotic sway of Lisa, the wildest and most hardened of the bunch. The initiation: Together, the two run away and visit a friend named Daisy who was mistakenly released from the mental facility as a result of her father's financial pull. Daisy is emotionally fragile and desperately insecure. She agrees to let Suzanna and Lisa spend the night at her place even though Lisa berates Daisy. In the morning Suzanna discovers Daisy dead in the bathroom. Daisy was pushed over the edge by Lisa's cruelty, and so hung herself. Suzanna calls the cops and Lisa flees, later to be caught and returned to the facility in a nearly catatonic state. Suzanna is sad for Lisa. Suzanna tries to maintain a friendship but Lisa turns on her by luring her down to the basement and violently attacking her. Suzanna stands up to Lisa by rallying the other girls in her own defense. Lisa backs down and Suzanna decides to pursue her own treatment more seriously. The return: Susanna is released the next day. Before she leaves, she visits Lisa and talks to her again; telling her that she will get out and that she must come and see her. As Susanna leaves, she says goodbye to all her friends, giving Polly her adopted cat Ruby and reconciling with Georgina. At the end of the film, Susanna states that by the 1970s, most of her friends were released. (She changed her life around and helped most of the girls see the potential they had inside of them to get out of the mental hospital. Very heroic!!)
- The original "home" (young, innocent, immature)
- The separation (the call to adventure)
- The initiation (the road of trials)
- The return
The Heroic Cycle in Girl Interrupted. The home: The main character 19 year old Susanna feels that she is suffocating in the life she is living. She was living recklessly and didn’t care about life. The Separation: The doctors suggest to her parents that she should be committed into Claymore Hospital, a mental institution after combining a bottle of aspirin and a bottle of vodka thinking it was a suicide attempt. She heavily denies that she tried to commit suicide. The doctors diagnosed her with Borderline Personality Disorder. She befriends the band of troubled women in her ward and falls under the hypnotic sway of Lisa, the wildest and most hardened of the bunch. The initiation: Together, the two run away and visit a friend named Daisy who was mistakenly released from the mental facility as a result of her father's financial pull. Daisy is emotionally fragile and desperately insecure. She agrees to let Suzanna and Lisa spend the night at her place even though Lisa berates Daisy. In the morning Suzanna discovers Daisy dead in the bathroom. Daisy was pushed over the edge by Lisa's cruelty, and so hung herself. Suzanna calls the cops and Lisa flees, later to be caught and returned to the facility in a nearly catatonic state. Suzanna is sad for Lisa. Suzanna tries to maintain a friendship but Lisa turns on her by luring her down to the basement and violently attacking her. Suzanna stands up to Lisa by rallying the other girls in her own defense. Lisa backs down and Suzanna decides to pursue her own treatment more seriously. The return: Susanna is released the next day. Before she leaves, she visits Lisa and talks to her again; telling her that she will get out and that she must come and see her. As Susanna leaves, she says goodbye to all her friends, giving Polly her adopted cat Ruby and reconciling with Georgina. At the end of the film, Susanna states that by the 1970s, most of her friends were released. (She changed her life around and helped most of the girls see the potential they had inside of them to get out of the mental hospital. Very heroic!!)
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