A Textual Analysis Of Jim Harrison’s Legends Of The Fall
FACULTAD DE HUMANIDADES Y CIENCIAS DE LAS EDUCACIÓN52433UNIVERSIDAD DE JAÉNFacultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la EducaciónTrabajo Fin de GradoA Textual Analysis ofJim Harrison’sLegends of the FallAlumno: Vanessa Colomo CañadaTutor: Dra. Mª de la Cinta Zunino GarridoDpto: Filología InglesaJulio, 20161
CONTENTS:Abstract and key words/ Resumen y palabras claves .3-41. Jim Harrison’s Biography .6-81.1. A sense of freedom: Montana .8-112. Textual Analysis of Legends of the Fall .11-122.1. Plot .12-132.2.Characters .13-142.3. Setting .14-172.4. Style and main topics .17-272.5. Language .27-292.6. Narrative voice 29-302.7. Time 30-322.8. Allusions .322.8.1. Religion 33-352.8.2. Names of characters .35-382.8.3. Mythology 38-402.8.4. Influences of other authors. 40-432.9. Symbolism .432.9.1. Animals 43-492.9.2. Numerology .50-512.9.3. Tristan’s voyage .51-523. Conclusions .53-544. Bibliography .54-562
Abstract:This project is aimed at accounting for the textual analysis of Legends of the Fall (1979)by Jim Harrison. Before starting with the analysis, we will offer a section dedicated tothe personal life of this author with the objective of making his personality known to theSpanish reader. Similarly, it is important to mention that his life was based on theanxiety he felt for freedom. This intimate and personal desire will be present in hisliterature through out-of-doors images such as landscapes, mountains, lakes and, last butnot least, animals.Furthermore, we will deal with aspects such as the plot, characters, style and languageas well as the classification of the work within the literary genre. After that, the reasonswhy Legends of the Fall has been called novella will be considered. Apart from that,this essay pretends to demonstrate that our story introduces more than one literarysubgenre because of the variety of topics belonging to the existentialist novel such aslife, fate, and death. It is also worth mentioning that this work follows the pattern ofhistorical fiction novel, among others, due to its historical-cultural context in which theplot is developed.Finally, the reader will observe a detailed study of the narrative techniques employed byJim Harrison within this complex literary creation, taking into account the role ofnarrative voice, the change of time in the narration, and finally, the different literarydevices, as in the case of allusions and symbolism.Key words: textual analysis, , Legends of the Fall, Jim Harrison, freedom, out-of-doorsimages, plot, characters, style, language, literary genre, novella, existentialist novel,life, fate, death, historical fiction novel, narrative techniques, narrative voice, time,allusions, symbolism.3
Resumen:Este proyecto propone un análisis textual de la novela Legends of the Fall (1979) escritapor Jim Harrison. Antes de comenzar dicho análisis, ofreceremos un apartado dedicadoa la vida personal del autor con el objetivo de introducir su personalidad al lectorespañol. Asimismo, cabe mencionar que su vida estuvo marcada por su ansia delibertad. Este deseo íntimo y personal será trasladado a su literatura a través deimágenes que evoquen la idea de out-of-doors como pueden ser los paisajes, montañas,lagos y, por último pero no menos importante, animales.Además, trataremos aspectos tales como la sinopsis, los personajes, el estilo y ellenguaje que pueden ser observados en la obra así como la clasificación de ésta dentrodel género literario. Más tarde, se expondrán las razones por la cuales Legends of theFall ha sido en muchas ocasiones denominada novella. Por otra parte, este ensayopretende demostrar que nuestra obra muestra una mezcla de subgéneros literarios yaque presenta temas de la novela existencialista como pueden ser la vida, el destino y lamuerte. Pero también, sigue el patrón de la novela histórica ficcional, entre otros,debido al contexto histórico-cultural en el que se presenta la trama.Finalmente, el lector entrará de lleno hacia el estudio minucioso de las técnicasnarrativas empleadas por Jim Harrison dentro de la obra, teniendo en cuenta el papelque juega la voz narrativa, los saltos en el tiempo durante la narración, el uso dedescripciones y los recursos literarios incluyendo las alusiones y el simbolismo.Palabras claves: análisis textual, , Legends of the Fall, Jim Harrison, libertad, out-ofdoors images, sinopsis, personajes, estilo, lenguaje, género literario, novella, novelaexistencialista, vida, destino, muerte, novela histórica ficcional, técnicas narrativas, voznarrativa, tiempo, alusiones, simbolismo.4
In memory of Jim Harrison5
“Death steals everything except our stories.”― Jim Harrison1. Jim Harrison’s biography:Surprising as it may be, a lot of external circumstances and factors affected the way inwhich Jim Harrison would write his poems and novels. This is the reason why it isnecessary to offer a wide vision of his life in order to understand his writing and, at thesame time, examine this author’s mind.James Thomas Harrison was born in December 1937 in Graylin, Michigan. His father,called Winfreld Sprague, was an agronomist who awakened in Harrison the passion forthe out-of-doors. His mother was Norma Oliva Wahlgre Harrison, who providedhimwith a comprehensive vision about classics of modern literature: James Joyce(1882-1941), Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), Walt Whitman, (1819-1892) HermanMelville (1819-1891), William Faulkner (1819-1891), Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891)and John Dos Passos (1896-1970). We can link these authors with the idea of AmericanModernism and see the main features between Harrison and them such as the evocationof past times because Modernist writers tend to think that past time was always betterthan the present. Other characteristics are the alternation of the vital and melancholictone, the use of mythological references, especially with sensual images; and theappreciation for the European literature.During his childhood, he spent many years in Michigan but when he was seven yearsold, he was attacked with a bottle by a girl and, as a consequence of it, he lost the visionof the left eye. In addition to this shocking fact, he was considered by himself the blacksheep of the family because his brothers became deans at university while Harrisonabandoned his studies when he was eighteen years old, following his passion to be poet,and as a result, he decided to travel to New York.6
Wild youthAmong his most outstanding skills, it is important to mention that he was a self-taughtperson; although he refused to attend a workshop on creative writing, he wrote aboutdifferent genres such as novel, poetry and even cook books. His master pieces werepublished in The New Yorker, Espire, Men’s Journal and The New York TimesMagazine.However, tragic problems knocked on Harrison’s door when he was twenty-one yearsold because his father and sister died in a car accident. This fact made him a mentallystrong person with profound ideas which will be expressed in his writings. After that, hedecided to restart his studies at Michigan University where he graduated and becameprofessor at the State University of New York.In spite of his career, he did not consider himself professor, so he decided to publish hisfirst poem book Plain Song (1965) during his stay at Michigan State University. It wasduring this stage when he met Linda King, who became his wife. He had two daughters,Jamie Potenberg and Anna Hjortsberg. Our man was a good friend of the actor JackNicholson, who introduced him in Hollywood when Nicholson proposed Harrison toadapt the script about Legends of the Fall.Although he was a hidden novelist and poet, he wrote sixteen novels of fiction fromwhich we can underline: Wolf: A false Memoir (1971), A Good Day to Die (1973),Legends of the Fall: Revenge, The Man who give up his name and Legends of the Fall(1979), Dalva (1988) and The Great Leader (2011).Apart from that, Harrison was a great admirer of Antonio Machado, Federico GarcíaLorca, Jorge Guillén and César Vallejo and he had the opportunity to claim that “la7
poesía en español dominó el siglo XX”1. Finally, he not only left with his death a greatvacuum in the American continent but also in the mind of many readers who are nowventuring to know the horizons of this surreptitious author. He died in March 2016 inPatagonia, a town in Arizona.Life as experience to write1.1. A sense of Freedom: Montana.During centuries, the need of freedom has been a common place for the entire humanrace. It might be considered as an internal feeling that men possess from their birth totheir death. This desire is constantly present in the novel Legends of the Fall (1979), inwhich Jim Harrison shows his fascination with this emotion, made perceptible to thereaders of the novel especially by means of his descriptions.In this sense, he describes with steadiness the different landscapes of Montana using asmany details as possible. Harrison’s dexterity immerses readers into the novel with theobjective of making them feel as if they were one of his characters. For this reason, ourauthor places the story of Legends of the Fall in open spaces such as mountains andlakes:1Aguilar, A. (27 de marzo de 2016). Muere Jim Harrison, el escritor de “Leyendas de Pasión”. El País.Recovered from lidad/1459096040 419392.html (lastaccess 06/06/16)8
By the first light the wind blew hard against the yellowed aspens, the leavesskittering across the high pasture and burying themselves in a draw. Whenthey forded their first river the leaves of the cottonwood stripped by the windcaught in the eddies, pasting themselves against the rocks ( ) Even in thisvalley they could hear the high clean roar of wind against cold rock abovethe timberline. (1994: 195-196)Even though freedom is present, Harrison knows perfectly well that the characters, whohave been created by him, are trapped like a bird in a cage. There is a contrapositionbecause the protagonists need freedom but the novel in itself is their prison. It isimportant to mention that the lack of freedom is due to different circumstances such asfatality, destiny, historical facts, deaths and culture but all these concepts will be dealtwith later.Having reached this point, one fundamental question appears: what is freedom?Although it has been a very controversial concept because of its subjective essence,Freedom can be defined as “the right to do or say what you want without anyonestopping you”2. This idea refers to the action that people do or the idea that people feelto do something. It is a standard definition because freedom requires a more specificdefinition depending on the different perspectives of some authors.On the one hand, freedom can be positive factor in the man but also negative because ofits power of destruction. It is important to point out that men are free in their mind. Thisconception is based on a psychological point of view because the inner mind of a personis able to imagine and think internally without any kind of restraint, even if the externalworld is oppressed by laws and cruelty.In contrast, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), the Enlightenment philosopher,declared (2000: 364): “l’ homme est né libre et partout il est dans fers.”In this context,Rousseau criticises that society causes the destruction of individual freedom. It might bethe closest definition to Harrison’s idea of freedom because our author makes evident inthe book that the social and cruel context in which the characters are involved destroystheir life due to the succession of fatal events.2Definition extracted from Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/ (last access 6/06/16 )9
On the other hand, Harrison conceives freedom as out-of-doors. His literary personasare placed in an external free scenario, which is Montana, but they are prisonersregarding their feelings and emotions. In addition, he explains in an interview how hefeels about the external freedom: “your only alternative as an artist is to create your ownhabitat for your soul. I figured out that my main obsession is freedom, and if I didn’t have thefreedom of close access to the natural world, I wasn’t going to survive” (2002:ix).Montana: Muse of Jim HarrisonHarrison creates and adapts his own sense of freedom essence through the protagonists’eyes. At the end of this project, readers will understand that the feelings and attitudes ofcharacters in the novel are a chain that needs to be unchained in order to give thecharacters that freedom that they cry out for. Nevertheless, Jim Harrison will surprise usbecause this feeling is desired but never fulfilled by the characters and it leads the novelto a tragic realism.On many occasions, Jim Harrison has been compared with Ernest Hemingway becauseof his descriptions of the out-of-doors landscapes and activities. Nevertheless, he deniedit by saying (2002:16): “Oh, I don’t like those at all. I don’t see any similarities, butmaybe that’s unusual”. To a certain extent, Harrison’s comment might be considered areaction against critics who think that he is the new Hemingway. Our author probablywanted to assert that every writer has his own way of writing and is different from therest. This way of writing reinforces the values of the literary identity. Harrison’s opinioncould be understood as an affirmation of writing regarded as an individual work.Furthermore, Terry W. Phipps maintains that “the comparison is just a convenience.The comparison may have grown from his lifestyle, his love of the outdoors, hunting10
and fishing, or his past reputation for hard living” (2002:166). In this point, it isimportant to remark that what critics compare here are mainly the personalities andleisure activities of the two writers rather than their literary style. How many writers canuse an open place to narrate their stories? There are many authors who make it. In thiscase, if both writers are Americans, they tend to place their novels in America. It is truethat Harrison assumed that he read Hemingway and other authors, but this fact does notimplicate that our author wanted to be like him.2. Textual Analysis in Legends of the Fall:In what follows, we will offer a textual analysis of the novel where narrative techniquesplay an essential role. It is important to point out that Harrison’s writing is verycomplex due to its countless influences that were taken from different Modernist as wellas Spanish authors. This section will offer a meticulous study on plot, characters,setting, style, main topics, language, narrative voice, time, allusions and symbolism, inorder to make readers, especially those who are not familiarized with his figure, awareof Harrison’s universe,.To begin with, we will focus on the concept of narrative techniques, a controversialnotion because whereas for some author they are only literary devices such asmetaphors, allusions, repetitions and so on; for others they refers to the analysis of theplot, characters, style, themes and structure:Narrative techniques provide deeper meaning for the reader and help thereader use imagination to visualize situations. Narrative literary techniquesare also known as literary devices. Before we look too closely at narrativetechniques, it's important to understand that literary elements in narrativesinclude such things as the setting, plot, theme, style or structure, characters,and perspective, or voice of the story, since literary techniques are bestunderstood in the context of one of these elements.33Definition extracted from Online Narrative Techniques in Writing: Definition, Types & examples es-in-writing-definition-types-examples.html (lastaccess 08/06/16 )11
In this quote, the reader can observe that narrative techniques implicate to take intoaccount not only literary devices but also structure, plot, characters, setting, style,language and narrative voice.According to the structure of the novel, Legends of the Fall is written in two hundredseventy six pages in which readers will find three independent short novels: Revenge,The Man Who Gave up His Name and Legends of the Fall. However, it is important toclarify that we will focus only on the final one.Our story is divided into three chapters: in the first chapter, there is a presentation of thesetting and characters. The second one is the development of the plot and the final partoffers the dénouement. It is also important to point out that the short novel shows anepilogue in order to clarify what happens after the end of the story. Therefore, it mightbe considered a sequel in which the author explains how his most important character,Tristan, as we will see below, carries on his live and ends it.2.1. Plot:The colonel William Ludlow decides to bring up his three sons in the wild Montana, faraway from the city and the influence of the Government. His experiences as Colonelmake him reflect on the corruption and the cruelty of the American Government. Forthis reason, he resolves to live in a place separated from the city and start a life in aranch.The story starts when Ludlow’s three sons Alfred, Tristan and Samuel decide to enlist inthe First World War. After that, the brothers’ lives change forever when Samuel iskilled by the German soldiers during the war; Tristan blames himself for his brother’sdeath and Alfred hates Tristan and blames him for what happened to Samuel.When Alfred returns from the war, he carries in a box Samuel’s heart, which Tristanhad preserved in paraffin after extracting it in the Native American way in order to buryit. Tristan is admitted in a Psychiatric hospital due to the shock that he had experiencedin the war. He has a temporary madness because the loss of a brother is very difficult tounderstand.Tristan comes back to the ranch and marries his cousin Susannah but he does not loveher, he only wants to forget Samuel and have a son who might balance his loss.However, they never had a son because of Susannah’s infertility and he travel aroundthe world so as to think about himself and his life. After seven years, Tristan returns12
again during the Great Depression and finds his father ill due to an embolism butLudlow recognizes Tristan and feels happy about his arrival. He informs that Alfred is arepresentative of the American Government and marries Susannah. Then, Tristanobserves that Isabel II, the girl of the ranch, has become a beautiful woman and they fallin love. They decide to marry but Alfred and Susannah do not attend the weddingbecause of a travel. Tristan and Isabel II have two sons, Samuel and Isabel III, whomeet their uncles Alfred and Susannah in a dinner in the ranch but the relationshipbetween these brothers is so distant.Later on, Tristan earns money by smuggling liquor, which is forbidden in American bythe Volstead Act and this activity will eventually bring tragedy to Tristan’s life becauseIsabel II will be killed by the police, after being informed that Tristan is sellingCanadian whisky. When Tristan sees his dead wife in the car, the anxiety of revengeseizes him and, as a consequence, one of the officers dies as a result of Tristan’s angeror fury.Finally, Susannah commits suicide because she is hopelessly in love with Tristan andcannot bear the fact that he loves another woman. Alfred starts to hate Tristan more andmore because he considers that he has snatched Susannah. The story ends when twoIrish polices arrive to the ranc
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