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The Female Monomyth in Twenty­First Century Post­Apocalyptic Fiction Written By: Amanda J. King For all the change that came about in the twentieth century, the surprising lack of adaptation by the film and television industry left many feeling disenfranchised with entertainment as a whole. As the nation slid into the twenty­first century, riding the high of a prosperous decade, cinema and television alike were content to ride the coattails of success pioneered by previous generations. Sitcoms, police procedurals, overly theatrical soap operas, and daytime game shows dominated the market. Similarly, Hollywood continued to churn out unintelligible action films designed to stroke America’s inflated ego. Rippling muscles, broad shoulders, fists ­­white­knuckle tight­­ gripping the handle of a sawed­off shotgun, these were the definitive attributes of a Hollywood hero, wrapped up neatly behind designer shades. Aside from the few genuinely well developed films and T.V. series, rote storytelling and machismo ideals permeated the box­office and our television sets. It wasn’t until tragedy befell our nation that we were forced to reassess our relative position in international politics and the world economy. For as often as life may imitate art, art is not impervious to life­like inspiration. A new generation was once again forced overseas, leaving many women to hold down the fort. America was lost, for the time being, and the resultant restructuring of cinema conveyed this. Strong female leads weren’t unheard of ( i.e. Alien, Silence of the Lambs, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, etc ), but they most certainly were more ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ often the exception to the rule. The Great Recession in the latter half of the aughts only further solidified this shifting trend in female empowerment. Data from a study performed by the University of New Hampshire shows that, “[...] women now contribute 47 percent of familial income, up three percentage points from 2007 to 2009, and are increasingly taking on the role of main breadwinner in their households”. Enter the age of the American heroine. I find it prudent to mention that femme fatales have long been a cornerstone of many an action flick; however, well developed female characters who manage to avoid being relegated to anything other than a love interest are few and far between. The heroine I have chosen for examination, who not only functions as a substitute for her male counterpart, but came into her own through the subversion of the primarily male Campbellian epic, is Imperator Furiosa of Mad ​ Max: Fury Road. ​ George Miller, the mind behind Mad Max: Fury Road, a self­proclaimed student of ​ ​ Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces never intended to create a feminist epic. As ​ ​ any writer knows, however, characters and stories often have a way of evolving organically, and he captures that sentiment here : “She had to be female, she had to be an experienced road ​ warrior; [...]the feminist notions of the film simply came out of the character and her behaviour.” The title of this film is misleading, as the downtrodden, hopeless Max is merely provided as a foil for Furiosa and her steely optimism. This journey is very much her own and through the following paragraphs, I hope to highlight this. The viewer is first introduced to Imperator Furiosa as she prepares the war rig for a journey across the wasteland in search of gasoline from a neighboring town. Immortan Joe, the leader of this Citadel, has rallied Furiosa and several other members of his inner circle to man the convoy. Although it is unknown to the viewer at this time, Furiosa has already received and accepted the ‘Call to Adventure’; this call manifested in the rescue and subsequent smuggling of Immortan Joe’s five sex slaves (or breeders, as they are referred to in the film). Oftentimes, the hero is reluctant to heed this call. Furiosa, however, never once questions the utter necessity of saving these women from his clutches, directly undermining the traditional course of Campbell’s epic. Enter Max, Furiosa’s mentor, a seasoned wasteland traveler, with vast knowledge of the world outside the walls of the Citadel. While Max may not fill the traditional role of a monomythical ‘guide’ or ‘helper’ at this point in the film, he certainly will grow to be invaluable to Furiosa and her cause. Once Immortan Joe realizes he’s been duped and finds his breeders missing, he gives chase, enlisting the help of his minions and the leaders of the surrounding towns. Furiosa and company brutally repel the invaders, losing their attackers in a titanic sandstorm. This literally marks Furiosa’s ‘Crossing of the Threshold’; she has been propelled into the land of the unknown, marked as a traitor of the Citadel. No rest for the weary, Furiosa must now sort out her allies and their varying allegiances. Following the sandstorm, Max awakens to find himself tethered to one of Joe’s minions, Nux, and is stranded amongst Furiosa and her band of refugees. After a desperate power struggle Furiosa asserts her dominance and enlists the help of an unwilling Max. She reveals the true nature of her journey, the search for the “Green Place”, her homeland. In a typical epic, the result of this scene could be interpreted as the ‘Helpers’ stage, where the hero recruits several beings to act as companions throughout his/her journey. Nothing is often that simple in Fury Road and ​ ​ ​ ​ these companions must be won over by the Imperator. In a last ditch effort to subvert her (literal and metaphorical) authority, Max and Nux attempt to usurp her rig before being denied the right to command her vehicle. At every turn, this monomythical heroine must fight to partake in even the most basic Campbellian stages. Hot on the tail of Furiosa’s war rig is Immortan Joe, the initiator of the next stage, “Tests” or “Road of Trials”. As the war rig makes its way across the wasteland, Joe further pushes our heroine towards the climax, endlessly assaulting Furiosa and her crew, her unshakeable faith and drive showcased in every frame. “Meanwhile there will be a multitude of ​ preliminary victories [...] and momentary glimpses of the wonderful land,” states Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces. This glimpse comes in the form of a desolate and dreary ​ ​ marsh populated by Kafkaesque humanoids, this marsh is what has become of the mystical “Green Place”. In a nod towards Gilgamesh, Miller fashioned the “Green Place” after Enkidu’s ​ ​ ‘House of Dust’ where “[...] soil is their sustenance and clay their food, where they are clad like birds in coats of feathers[...]”. Ultimately, these trials propel Furiosa into the next stage, “The Meeting with the Goddess”. Her crew is ambushed by the Vulvani, an overly conspicuous term for a group of elderly female warriors, only to realize these women also originated from her homeland. These women represent Furiosa’s only remaining ties to her mother and she recruits them for her final return to the Citadel. Not only do the Vulvani offer their services, but they hold the key to restoring greenery to the wasteland. At the entrance to their forgotten homeland awaits Immortan Joe, privy to their plan to seize his unoccupied throne, and once again he assails the crew. These scenes are the culmination of Campbell’s ‘Climax’ and ‘Flight’, combined into a rousing finale through the desert. “Remember me,” Furiosa growls as she brutally tears Joe’s flesh from his face. The final battle left the Imperator mortally wounded and Max’s role as ‘helper’ is finally realized. As she bleeds out in the backseat, Max performs a wildly dangerous blood transfusion in order to restore her consciousness, the “Resurrection” stage of the monomythical epic. Armed with the knowledge and optimism needed to restore the Citadel to glory, our heroine crosses the final threshold on her return journey across the plains. She returns to the origin with the “Elixir”, the proof of the tyrant Joe’s death, the seedling from the Vulvani, and the wisdom required to rule justly. Furiosa has come full circle, battle hardened but not dispirited. Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road is a feminist execution done right. Not only is Furiosa the ​ ​ protagonist of what was once a dominantly male franchise, but she also brings a breath of fresh air to a relatively stale genre. So often is the inclusion of a female protagonist heavy­handed, that the viewer feels overwhelmed by allusions to the director’s progressiveness rather than immersed; these types of thematic choices transgress rather than progress. Fury Road, however, ​ ​ never once alludes to the predominantly female casting choices and instead chooses to allow the viewer to envision a post­apocalyptic future where your sex does not determine your validity as a leader. Immortan Joe and his motley crew are exaggerated representations of a failed patriarchal society, one that has succumbed to testosterone­fueled­V8 engine­idolatry. He clings to these outdated ideals in an effort to suppress any forward thinking movements, and Furiosa steps in to topple his iron­fisted regime. More often than not, females are relegated to the role of viewer vehicles and Miller challenges this tradition by placing the titular character, Max, in the backseat. Max exists solely to provide the viewer with a window into Furiosa’s background and reasoning, almost unprecedented for a movie of this caliber. “Today’s hero is tomorrow’s tyrant,” posits Campbell; here’s hoping that Furiosa makes a better leader than Joe could ever dream to be. Works Cited MacInnes, Paul. "George Miller on Mad Max Fury Road." The Guardian. N.p., 02 Oct.

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