Friday, December 12, 2008

Darger’s Explanation for Reality

I feel that while Henry Darger was an outside artist, he wasn’t meaning to be. As stated in the video Henry Darger had slight mental issues, on top of that he probable felt abandoned by his father. Much like the movie “Pam’s Labyrinth” Darger’s story of the Seven Vivian Girls was his way of explaining reality to himself the best he could. To support this it is easy to see he puts himself into the story 3 times. First he is all of the Seven Vivian Girls put together. Throughout Darger’s childhood he considered himself to be higher standing then any adult. The Vivian girls mimicked this quality by always out smarting and out running the adult enemy, and even making smart remarks to friendly soldiers. The second character he places himself in is one of the generals of the good side. This character plays the role as the father he wishes he could be but the church denies him the ability to be. This character plays another roll though. The two armies that do battle are symbols for the conflict going on in Darger’s head. His god never seemed to answer his prayers wither it be asking for snow or hoping to be aloud to a doubt a child. As the general for the good side he leads the attack against the blasphemous ideas that are running amuck in his head. The constants losses against the evil army symbolizes his grow distance from his god. All of that peaks off with the introduction of his third character, General Darger who works for the bad side. This final character shows that Darger has lost all faith in his god. I have never had the chance to read all 1500 pages, so I can’t be sure if he hadn’t put himself into more than those 3 characters, those 3 characters play the more important rolls.

Internet problems did not allow me to post this last night.

1 comment:

Stephanie Lewis said...

Good comparison to the main character in Pan's Labyrinth!