A Heroine's Journey of Epic Proportions

 

A Heroine's Journey of Epic Proportions

             Stemming from Joseph Campbell's hero's journey monomyth, Maureen Murdock created a similar model for a heroine's spiritual growth and journey. This blog aims to explain the scenes in the movie Epic that most directly align with Murdock's monomyth, focusing on the Separation from the Feminine, Identification with the Masculine and Gathering of Allies, Initiation and Descent to the Goddess, and Integration of Masculine and Feminine stages.

            With the main character of Epic, Mary Katherine (nicknamed M.K.), losing her mother, Susan, at the beginning of the movie, we immediately enter the Separation from the Feminine stage. Following her mother's death, Mary Katherine moves in with Radcliffe, her scientist and nature fanatic father, leaving behind her previous home and the environment that reminds her of her mother. After being saddled with a nearly intolerable amount of grief and burden following her mother's death, M.K. wishes for a normal life away from these burdens and feelings in her new residence; however, her frustration and emotional separation from her father builds as his obsessive research with the natural world conflicts with her desire for normality and someone to lean on. Criticizing him following their reunion, she says, "You chose this over us," highlighting her feelings of being neglected by Radcliffe while he continued to pursue his outlandish and obsessive research. Separating from her mother both literally and spiritually through death, M.K. reunites with her distant father during her this Separation from the Feminine stage.

            After realizing the emotional distance between her and Radcliffe, M.K. seeks to better understand her father and his obsession with the natural world to get closer to him, entering the Identification with the Masculine stage. Before her mother's death, Radcliffe's obsession with the natural world drives Susan away, resulting in M.K. spending most of her childhood away from her father. Thus, now living and interacting with her father after years apart, M.K. identifies with the masculine part of her identity. In addition, we see this identification with the masculine return when M.K. shrinks and ventures into the unknown world of the Leafmen. Embracing the masculine warrior culture of the Leafmen to survive against the Boggans, M.K. also aligns with her more masculine side. When Ronin, M.K. Leafman mentor, offers her the chance to separate from the dangerous journey with the Leafmen and return to safety, M.K. says, "No. I'm staying. I'm not letting them down." M.K. refusal of Ronin's offer and the safer choice shows her transformation into a more masculine warrior devoted to fighting against the Boggans. Reconnecting with her father and embracing the warrior culture of the Leafman, M.K. embraces her masculine aspects during the Identification with the Masculine stage. 

            Magically shrunk to the size of a Leafman, M.K. encounters the amazing, secretive, and dangerous realm of the Leafmen, entering the Initiation and Descent to the Goddess stage as she truly begins her otherworldly journey. While searching for her family dog, Ozzy, M.K. encounters the dying Queen Tara, the ruler of the forest, who shrinks M.K. to the size of a Leafman and entrusts her with a magical pod, which she must deliver to Nim Galuu, the glowworm wizard. Meeting with this dying goddess and initiated into the world of the Leafmen, M.K. begins her perilous journey through the unknown natural world, supported by Ronin and his Leafmen squadron. When the Queen whispers, "The pod must bloom," M.K. is tasked with the responsibility of completing this deadly delivery, embarking on a dangerous mission, yet one that she can't possibly refuse due to her shrunken state. Encountering a dying goddess who forces her on a dangerous mission to save the Leafmen and unshrink her body, M.K. is initiated into this unknown hidden realm and Ronin's Leafmen warriors during this Initiation and Descent to the Goddess stage.

             After suffering and overcoming numerous trials with the Leafmen against the Boggans, M.K. grows to understand the fragile ecosystems of nature and realizes the significance of both the human and natural worlds in her life, especially her romantic feelings for the Leafman Nod. No longer seeing her father's research as a rejection of her and her mother, M.K. accepts her masculine side and shows her father the natural world he's spent many years searching for, bring them closer together. Helping the pod bloom, defeating the Boggans, and cultivating a romantic relationship with Nod, M.K. accepts her mother's death and reunites with her femininity, viewing Queen Tara as her role-model and becoming a balanced, resilient person. Through the acceptance of both her known and unknown worlds, M.K. accepts both her mother's (human) world and her father's (natural) world, reconciling with both the masculine and feminine parts of her identity. We end the movie with this sense of harmony and balance as M.K. accepts her whole self and her role as the bridge between the human and natural worlds during this final Integration of Masculine and Feminine stage.

- Max Bolton