The Kitty’s Journey: Joseph Campbell and Friskies

Today’s guest post comes from Shelby Cobras of Illogical Contraption.

Anyone with a sixth grade education should probably already know who Joseph Campbell is. An American mythologist, anthropologist, and author, Campbell was the first to define the perameters of the “Hero’s Journey“, a basic plot outline that most epic tales passed down through history follow. If you are not yet familiar with the “Hero’s Journey”, do not despair. This post will educate you.

The “Hero’s Journey” is a well-accepted phenomenon, an equation that applies to such disparate tales as The Epic of Gilgamesh, Star Wars, Conan The Barbarian, and… a cat food commercial?

Indeed. And not just an example. One of the BEST examples.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q4JLsNtDsM

Trippy, yes, but adhering to the standards of the Hero’s Journey? Absolutely. Allow me to elaborate:
We will start with the first phase of Campbell’s mythical Journey:

PHASE 1 – DEPARTURE

1) The Call to Adventure: The point in a person’s life when they are first given notice that everything is going to change, whether they know it or not.

The Cat/Protagonist (from here on out to be known simply as “Kitty”) approaches the can of Friskies, unaware of the powers it possesses. A journey of epic proportions is in Kitty’s near future, although the hero remains ignorant of its approach.

2) Refusal of the Call: Often when the call is given, the future hero refuses to heed it. This may be from a sense of duty or obligation, fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons that work to hold the person in his or her current circumstances.

The refusal is exemplified here by Kitty’s brief hesitation and confusion when encountering the next step of the journey. (Bear in mind this is only a 60-second commercial.)

3) Supernatural Aid: Once the hero has committed to the quest, consciously or unconsciously, his or her guide and magical helper appears, or becomes known.

The swirling neon colors that emerge from the can of food act as Kitty’s “Supernatural Helper”, guiding him (I will ascribe a male gender role to the feline, although one is not specifically designated in the subject matter) toward the “Threshold”. Kitty is confused (as mentioned in the last step), but also enchanted.

4) The Crossing of the First Threshold: This is the point where the person actually crosses into the field of adventure, leaving the known limits of his or her world and venturing into an unknown and dangerous realm where the rules and limits are not known.

5) The Belly of the Whale: This represents the final separation from the hero’s known world and self. It is sometimes described as the person’s lowest point, but it is actually the point when the person is transitioning between worlds and selves. The separation has been made—or is being made or being fully recognized—between the old world and old self and the potential for a new world and self. The experiences that will shape the new world and self will begin shortly, or may be beginning with this experience which is often symbolized by something dark, unknown and frightening. By entering this stage, the person shows their willingness to undergo a metamorphosis, to die to him or herself.

“The Belly of the Whale”, for Kitty, is the first phase of his voyage, when he finds himself confronted by a large group of computer-generated turkey-things. This is a world like Kitty has never seen before, a place where fowl dance in unison and nothing is what it seems. It is a dark time — the portal back to Kitty’s old life has disappeared, and he has no choice but to carry on. The true Journey is at hand.

PHASE 2 – INITIATION

1) The Road of Trials: The road of trials is a series of tests, tasks, or ordeals that the person must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests, which often occur in threes.

Kitty walks along a path, passing through a tunnel as a symbolic “birth” into his adventure. And remember that part about the “tests that come in threes”. We will get back to that soon.

2) The Meeting with the Goddess: The meeting with the goddess represents the point in the adventure when the person experiences a love that has the power and significance of the all-powerful, all encompassing, unconditional love that a fortunate infant may experience with his or her mother. It is also known as the “hieros gamos”, or sacred marriage, the union of opposites, and may take place entirely within the person. In other words, the person begins to see him or herself in a non-dualistic way. This is a very important step in the process and is often represented by the person finding the other person that he or she loves most completely. Although Campbell symbolizes this step as a meeting with a goddess, unconditional love or self-unification does not have to be represented by a woman.

The “Goddess” here is the pink butterfly carrying the Friskies banner. This is an advertisement, after all, so it is only fair that Friskies assert itself as the “Holy Grail” in this particular tale (another theme we will discuss in further detail later). It is undeniable that a pink butterfly carries a definite “femininity” to its aesthetic, and judging by Kitty’s fascination, her effect upon him is indeed magical. Kitty’s non-dualistic view of “Self” is confirmed.

3) Woman as the Temptress: At one level, this step is about those temptations that may lead the hero to abandon or stray from his or her quest, which as with the Meeting with the Goddess does not necessarily have to be represented by a woman. For Campbell, however, this step is about the revulsion that the usually male hero may feel about his own fleshy/earthy nature, and the subsequent attachment or projection of that revulsion to women. Woman is a metaphor for the physical or material temptations of life, since the hero-knight was often tempted by lust from his spiritual journey.

This step is symbolized by Kitty’s confrontation of the Abyss. The first in Kitty’s “three tests”, his hesitant approach to the gaping emptiness represents doubt about his own disassociation from self. Conquering the Abyss presents itself as Kitty’s first major hurdle. Consider the objects on its periphery: Feminine, milk-giving cows spot the fields in his immediate vicinity, while phallic, jutting windmills float far away on the horizon. Subtle hints at sexuality abound in this scene of fear and adversity.

4) Atonement with the Father: In this step the hero must confront and be initiated by whatever holds the ultimate power in his or her life. In many myths and stories this is the father, or a father figure who has power over life and death. This is the center point of the journey. All the previous steps have been moving in to this place, all that follow will move out from it. Although this step is most frequently symbolized by an encounter with a male entity, it does not have to be a male; just someone or thing with incredible power. For the transformation to take place, the person as he or she has been must be “killed” so that the new self can come into being. Sometime this killing is literal, and the earthly journey for that character is either over or moves into a different realm.

We all know that cats are afraid of water. And what else has “life and death giving” power like water? We drink to live; we drown. Life is given, life is taken. When Kitty boards his vessel, he begins the second of his “tests”, confrontation and atonement with his proverbial “father”, the sea. Need I even call attention to the phallic symbols present?

Consider the scene in The Empire Strikes Back where Luke, in a hallucinatory state, beheads Darth Vader with a light saber, only to find his OWN FACE within Vader’s smoking, shattered helmet. Now observe the manner in which Kitty beholds his own reflection in the water.

His second test completed, Kitty ventures onward to the third.

5) Apotheosis: To apotheosize is to deify. When someone dies a physical death, or dies to the self to live in spirit, he or she moves beyond the pairs of opposites to a state of divine knowledge, love, compassion and bliss. This is a god-like state: the person is in heaven and beyond all strife. A more mundane way of looking at this step is that it is a period of rest, peace and fulfillment before the hero begins the return.

6) The Ultimate Boon: The ultimate boon is the achievement of the goal of the quest. It is what the person went on the journey to get. All the previous steps serve to prepare and purify the person for this step, since in many myths the boon is something transcendent like the elixir of life itself, or a plant that supplies immortality, or the holy grail.

Behold the “Holy Grail” (or “boon”) in all its glory. Kitty has ascended to godhood and possesses not a care in the world. But his dish of Friskies lies back in his own world. The irony is almost palpable.

PHASE THREE – RETURN

1) Refusal of the Return: So why, when all has been achieved, the ambrosia has been drunk, and we have conversed with the gods, why come back to normal life with all its cares and woes?

2) The Magic Flight: Sometimes the hero must escape with the boon, if it is something that the gods have been jealously guarding. It can be just as adventurous and dangerous returning from the journey as it was to go on it.

The reappearance of the magical “Threshold” that brought Kitty into this realm has returned, signalling a completion of the story cycle. In a symbolic “Heaven”, surrounded by jubilant “gods”, Kitty must now face the final “test”: Abandon godhood in further pursuit of the Grail? A return to the mundane feline existence of pre-Journey life? The “boon” beckons…

3) Rescue from Without: Just as the hero may need guides and assistants to set out on the quest, often times he or she must have powerful guides and rescuers to bring them back to everyday life, especially if the person has been wounded or weakened by the experience. Or perhaps the person doesn’t realize that it is time to return, that they can return, or that others need their boon.

Heeding the call of domestic life (but also of the Grail), Kitty approaches the portal to return home. Could it be that Campbell’s “powerful guides and rescuers” are the nameless, invisible “owners” who provide Kitty with the “boon” (Friskies cat food)?

4) The Crossing of the Return Threshold: The trick in returning is to retain the wisdom gained on the quest, to integrate that wisdom into a human life, and then maybe figure out how to share the wisdom with the rest of the world. This is usually extremely difficult.

5) Master of the Two Worlds: In myth, this step is usually represented by a transcendental hero like Jesus or Buddha. For a human hero, it may mean achieving a balance between the material and spiritual. The person has become comfortable and competent in both the inner and outer worlds.

Kitty has proved himself a master of both the “inner” (domestic) and “outer” (fantasy) worlds. Finally, he is allowed to partake of the “Holy Grail” (delicious, Friskies brand cat food). All is well as the curtain falls on the Kitty Epic.

6) Freedom to Live: Mastery leads to freedom from the fear of death, which is the freedom to live. This is sometimes referred to as living in the moment, neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past.

As the camera pans back, we are shown an entire planet, living in peace and harmony under the Friskies banner. The implication is obvious: There is a little Kitty in all of us, and by knowing his story, we too can live in freedom of fear for pain and death. Friskies offers freedom to all, a magical ambrosia releasing all manner of species from the constraints of self-imposed imprisonment. Courage conquers all, and Love can be found in a can.

Author’s Note: My sincere gratitude goes out to Sergeant D at Stuff You Will Hate for calling my attention to this Friskies ad in the first place. (Not that I actually read that blog.)

Shelby Cobras is the sole creator and mastermind behind the brilliantly mundane blog Illogical Contraption. Unfortunately, his cat can’t eat Friskies. It makes her fart.