Finding a Hero's Journey in As I Lay Dying
I think the narrative pattern of the hero’s journey can still be deciphered in such a storytelling style. Although complicated and at times difficult to figure out, there is still a journey and a larger story. It may not be particularly heroic, and most of the characters aren’t sympathetic, but I think there is room within the hero’s journey for sad stupid people and their journeys. Many of the stylistic choices of As I Lay Dying aren’t barriers to it being a hero’s journey. While a much more clear-cut hero’s journey, and simplified for his younger audience, Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus series has a similar style, with 7 main characters and ~9 different POVs, nonlinear plotting, and somewhat stream-of-consciousness interior monologue. While none of the narrators in the series are unreliable, they all have secrets they keep from each other and the reader, and they all have different goals that give them different perspectives, like in As I Lay Dying . Also like the Hero...