The archetypal versatility of the image of Becky Hildebrandt in the J. Franzen's novel "Crossroads"

Liashenko Tatiana PhD in Philology Associate Professor of the Department of Foreign and Russian Languages at Moscow state academy of veterinary medicine and biotechnology named after K.I. Skryabin 109472, Russia, Moscow, Ac. Skryabin's str., 23 po-russki@list.ru Other publications by this author

The modern American writer Jonathan Franzen managed to gain fame far beyond the borders of his homeland: his novels, characterized by the depth and subtlety of psychological observations, are very popular all over the world, including in Russia. The writer's creative interest is concentrated in the areas of the inner reality of the characters he creates, whose actions and very way of life are subjected to multilateral reflection. Portraying his contemporaries, typical representatives of the American middle class, white inhabitants of prosperous areas, Franzen concentrates on those problems that prevent his characters from maintaining mental balance, feeling confident in their abilities, and enjoying warm relationships with loved ones. Why is a person unhappy and prone to destructive impulses in conditions of economic and social stability? How does it happen that he becomes an enemy to himself? These questions seem to occupy Jonathan Franzen more than any other.

It is easy to notice that in his most popular novels ("Corrections", "Freedom", "Sinlessness", "Crossroads"), the writer uses a change of position of the narrator (narrator) – a technique very popular in Russian classical literature and giving ample opportunities to create a psychologically reliable text. Franzen turns this technique into a research tool; although the characters in his novels do not speak about themselves in the first person, they share their most intimate experiences with the reader, revealing the inner logic of actions, exposing motivating impulses. In the novel "Freedom", this method of narration receives a plot conditioning: part of the work is an autobiography, which was written by Patti Berglund "at the suggestion of a psychotherapist" and in which the heroine speaks about herself exclusively in the third person. The same "autobiographies" of the characters, although not formally designated in any way, we find in the novel "Crossroads". All these "monologues from the third person" are distinguished by self-revealing confessional, extreme sincerity, self-accusing and self-justifying, very recognizable by anyone who has a more or less pronounced tendency to reflection. Franzen's novels, which clearly tend towards psychological realism, thus become an interesting object for psychoanalytic interpretations and, in particular, for analysis from archetypal positions. 

In addition, the novel "Crossroads", which has the genre characteristics of a family saga, presents to our attention a specially structured system of relationships between the characters, revealing not only the individual characteristics of each of them, but also the mutual influences that contribute to the formation of these features. The family as a system is transpersonal in nature, and functional archetypal connections appear most clearly in the family novel in the form in which they exist in the author's mind. With regard to Franzen's works, it is perhaps fair to say that it is precisely the task of consistent and systematic understanding of archetypal roles that determines the creative methods of the writer as a whole.

It has already been noted in a number of works ^[1] that a family novel has a lot in common with a fairy tale. The initial state for the fairy–tale hero often contains a description of the family situation; the beginning of the action is often carried out with the participation of representatives of the older generation, who actively or passively contribute to the fact that stasis is destroyed and the hero (heroine) is torn away from the familiar environment - in a magical world, in a dark forest, in someone else's home. The plot of a family saga is also usually based on the motive of the formation of the personality of a young man leaving his native home in a physical or metaphorical sense, seeking to establish himself in the world of strangers, and family ties play a guiding and even in some sense a programming role on this path. The archetypal approach, which involves analyzing the functioning of a character in interaction with other characters, allows us to discover in a family novel the oldest images of the collective unconscious, which are essentially universal.

The action in the novel "Crossroads" takes place in the 70s of the twentieth century. One of the central female characters is high school student Becky Hildebrandt, whose image combines a number of archetypal functions: a daughter in relation to parents Marion and Russ, a sister for brothers Clem and Perry, a bride for young musician Tanner Evans. In the last chapters of the novel, she becomes a mother, thus passing through all the female family archetypal roles. Her influence on male characters is as great as that of her mother: the writer gives Becky truly superhuman abilities, the ability to "do amazing things" ^{[2, p. 383]}. Becky realizes this ability in herself when she obviously acquires the status of an archetypal bride – after Tanner finally breaks up with his ex-girlfriend.

Becky's physical attractiveness makes her popular in the school environment: "In New Prospect, the words "Becky Hildebrandt" acted literally like a magic spell" ^{[2, p. 38]} (in the original – "words were magical") ^{[3, p. 27]}. The events of the novel develop during the period when Becky goes through a stage of age transformation: she begins her first serious relationship with a young man; waking up in the morning, she feels internal changes – now she is "a woman a man had kissed" ("the woman who was kissed") ^{[2, p. 57]}.

Of course, Becky, as a magical creature like a fairy princess, cannot make an ordinary man her chosen one; the person who deserves her kiss must be an exceptional, genuine hero. The young man Becky is in love with, Tanner Evans, is "a nice person, from a nice family, but he was also a gifted musician and the coolest guy" ("a good guy from a good family, and also a gifted musician and the coolest guy") ^{[3, p. 61]}. Becky's infatuation with Tanner has as its starting point a "confirmation of status" – "crowning confirmation of her status" ^{[3, p. 66]}, in fact the possibility of a "coronation", transformation from a princess into a queen: "It was a calculation, but soon the feelings arrived" ^{[2, p. 88]}.

The feelings of the heroine are enhanced by the existing obstacles: Tanner is dating another girl. Becky makes an effort to be closer to her hero: on Sundays he attends church – she starts going there too. The desire to succeed in love unexpectedly opens up the spiritual side of life for Becky; speaking from the standpoint of archetypal analysis, she acquires the ability to come into contact with higher forces, to whom she makes a "love oath" ^{[2, p. 351]}. For Franzen, a woman stands much closer to the supernatural than a man, and such a relationship is more than possible for her. Just like Becky, her mother is able to stay in contact with the transcendent ^{[4, p. 49]}. Literally on the same day, with the direct participation of the heroine, "amazing things" happen: Tanner and his girlfriend break up, he confesses his love to Becky, and an agent comes to the concert who is ready to organize a concert tour for Evans's musical group.  

Tanner has a special attraction in Becky's eyes also because he is associated with a friendly relationship with her older brother Clem. For a long time, Clem remained the most important person in the family for the heroine, she trusted him more than others. The author speaks of Becky and Clem as a "couple" ("unit"), a relationship in which somewhat goes out of the sphere of brotherly-sisterly friendship into the realm of the "forbidden" ("forbidden" is a word repeated five times in one paragraph, telling about their relationship in adolescence) ^{[3, p. 52]}. However, the brother leaves to study at college, where he gets a girlfriend, Sharon, and such a completely natural development causes his sister to feel jealous: "Becky would be happy for her brother, she was upset, as if she had been bypassed" ^{[2, p. 59]}. "Inappropriate dislike", "inappropriateness" (the adjective "inappropriate" and the noun "inappropriate" are used in neighboring sentences) ^{[3, p. 78]} manifest themselves in the relationship of brother and sister even when Becky is already beginning to be interested in Tanner.

In the competition with Clem's girlfriend, Becky clearly wins. Having experienced embarrassment ("discomfort") at the sight of an adult sister, in whom he notices a "completely grown woman", Clem thinks about his feelings for Sharon and comes to the conclusion that they are absent. He imagines two girls side by side, imagines a future together with Sharon and "regrets that he is not with Becky now" ("wishing he could be wherever Becky was instead") ^{[3, p. 108]}. The breakup with Sharon is dramatic, and the writer clearly shows that this drama might not have happened if there had not been a competition in Clem's mind between a girl in love with him and his sister: "Clem saw that his heart still belongs to Becky, which is why he broke up with Sharon" ^{[2, p. 640]}.

Later, Clem turns his sister against himself, unflatteringly speaking about the personal qualities of her chosen one, calling him "passive" (in Russian translation – "mumble"). Her reaction to these words ("sensation of hating", "it was like love ripped brutally inside out") resembles the reaction of a deceived lover: "You've got your amazing life-changing sex-loving girlfriend (You now have your amazing girlfriend who loves sex and who changed your life)" ^{[3, p. 320]}. But her brother's opinion turns out to be prophetic: having linked her fate with Tanner, a man whose virtues were not really that exceptional, Becky mysteriously loses hope of success in the future; a combination of circumstances forces her to give up her inheritance and, as a result, from entering a prestigious private college, and a sudden pregnancy turns her from a promising girl, the former "queen of the class", into a provincial housewife. Thus, we can observe how the mutual attraction of brother and sister, an attempt to find an "alternative brother" in the person of the groom to replace the lost one, that is, the mixing of the archetypal roles of sister and bride, lead to unpredictable and not the most positive consequences. In the finale of the novel, it becomes clear that Tanner has not realized himself as a musician, he works in a musical instrument store, they are "tight with money" ("money is tight"), and despite the fact that Becky stubbornly calls her husband "the best" and herself "happy", this is not what what they both aspired to.

As for prophecies, Becky herself has a similar gift. There is mutual hostility in her relationship with her younger brother Perry, and in a moment of frankness, her sister declares: "I don't consider you a good person" ^{[2, p. 48]}. Becky is more aware than other family members that Perry uses alcohol and drugs, she accuses her brother of skillfully and selfishly manipulating others. Everything she says about her brother in the first part of the novel subsequently acquires the property of reality: Perry, under the influence of drugs, commits a number of illegal actions in which his family and friends are unwittingly involved.

It should be noted that Becky's own actions contribute to the crimes of her younger brother: she gives him part of the inheritance she received, and it is with this money that Perry acquires narcotic substances, and then steals the funds allocated to his older brother. Her sister's words accurately reflect Perry's self-esteem, which ranges from extreme self-deprecation ("she hates him... because he's a trash, selfish worm", "he's a bad person") to megalomania, and in some way program (and not only predict) further events, since Perry, feeling "bad", He intends to realize his negative qualities to the fullest. Her brother's actions leave the whole family without funds; Becky is forced to give her parents her remaining share of the inheritance, that is, she also suffers from the consequences of her "magic words". Franzen portrays the family as a system in which the words and actions of one of the members somehow affect all the others, and the woman is assigned a much more important and responsible role. In this system, a woman is a sorceress, she, through her inner state and attitude, is able to create conditions for both successful development and complete collapse, which affects herself. 

As Becky's daughter, Hildebrandt also shows mixed archetypal traits. She is the "favorite child" of her father, who treats her "with respect, as an adult," but Becky herself considers their relationship to be "fake intimacy" ("the charade closeness"). Others notice that the father is jealous of his daughter for Clem ("They quarreled only because of religion and because of Becky", "the old man tried to separate Becky and Clem"), that is, here too, one archetypal role is superimposed on another. Young Becky has a great responsibility for maintaining the marital bond between her parents. When she goes for a walk with her father, she does it for a reason and not for pleasure; as Clem jealously notes, "mom likes that you go for a walk with dad, because he won't run away with you" ^{[3, p. 65]}.

As a result, the natural separation process is painful for Becky, a heavy resentment against her parents, who forced her to give up the money bequeathed by her aunt, leads to a break in relations, and even the birth of her own daughter does not soften the heroine's heart. She deliberately avoids her father and mother, avoids Clem, renounces Perry, and although from the outside it may seem that she has "become even stronger" ("she'd become a dominating force") ^{[3, p. 580]}, but still this is a destructive line of behavior, which undoubtedly affects the new one the family system, on a newborn child.

Becky's functioning as a mother is described in the novel in only a few ways. Clem learns that his sister isolates her daughter from Marion and Russ, does not even allow her mother to hold her granddaughter, although she willingly entrusts the baby to her friends and random parishioners of the church. At the meeting, Clem also gets the opportunity to pick up the girl, while "smiling Becky did not take her eyes off her daughter, as if reminding her who she was better off with" ^{[2, p. 647]}. A smile becomes a form of defensive reaction for Becky: she smiles when she refuses her mother's invitations, smiles when she meets Clem after a long separation ("her smile was more incredible than joyful" – "a smile more incredulous than joyful") ^{[3, p. 577]}. At the same time, behind the smile, Clem feels "forced indifference" ("expression of not caring"), that is, a hidden resentment.

The end of Becky's story is essentially like the ending of a fairy tale: the characters got married, began to live and make money. However, the author, apparently, warns the reader against excessive optimism: it is not by chance that Becky and Tanner are married by the main antagonist of her father, a clergyman. In other words, the contradictions have not been eliminated, they will be transferred to the future and will affect the fate of subsequent generations – those who were born in the relatively stable seventies and later. Thus, the novel can be seen as an attempt at a psychological analysis of the generational problems of white residents of prosperous American suburbs, a truthful and at the same time delicate description of the origins of these problems. If Franzen offers the reader a fairy-tale-like ending, he does so with a serious caveat: modern fairy tales do not end without consequences, unresolved conflicts have a prolonged effect, drawing an increasingly wide range of people into the zone of their destructive influence and eventually forming an unhealthy social reality.   

So, the image of Becky, like other female characters in Jonathan Franzen's novels, is multifunctional, and this versatility turns into a mixture of archetypal roles. Franzen tends to see in a woman a super-powerful being capable of fatally affecting the male inner state and fate as a whole. A woman, whether she is a mother, sister, fiancee or even a daughter, through her attitude to a man creates conditions for his well-being, therefore, it is the female images in Franzen's works that act as the main driving force for the development of action. The "Becky–Clem" storyline is the most revealing in this sense; it clearly demonstrates how "inappropriate" family relationships leave their mark on the organization of significant personal contacts, and the "Becky–Tanner" line reflects the idea that a choice made on false grounds negatively affects the fact that who chooses, and who was chosen.

It is easy to see that the writer is concerned about the imposition of female archetypal roles on each other, in his picture of the world this phenomenon seems clearly unhealthy, negatively affecting the family. The beautiful Becky, perceived as a bride by her father and brother, not only becomes a hostage to this ambiguous role herself, but also spreads destructive impulses throughout the family system. It is also important to understand that Franzen, guided by the norms of psychological realism, avoids an accusatory position towards his characters. There is no blame on the young Becky; the circumstances and specifics of family relations shaped her character, developed the peculiarities of her worldview, which became the basis of the heroine's fate.

An archetypal approach dating back to the writings of C.G. Jung ^[8]; ^[9]; ^[10], it reveals to the researcher the opportunity to penetrate deeper into the psychological essence of a literary text. Female images, viewed from the point of view of reflecting archetypal features in them, appear in connection with other characters, and the gender-role specificity of their functioning becomes more visible. In the modern world, where the crisis of traditional values is clearly felt, a better understanding of the importance and complementarity of gender roles makes it possible to form moral supports leading both man and society in the direction of mental well-being.