Quest of the Spirit: From Suffering to Acceptance

116. Forgotten Symbols in Malcolm Lowery's Under the Volcano!

                                                              Archetypes and Existentialism

         Archetypes provide yet another means of analyzing human behavior as a form of psychological determinism. These unconscious symbols and patterns often reflect man's need for order and purpose in a world of misplaced values and dreams. As psychologist Carl Jung suggests in Man and His Symbols, the "associations and images" function in an "extremely valuable" capacity and "form a bridge between the ways in which we consciously express our thoughts and a more primitive, more colorful and pictorial form of expression" (Jung 32). Just as the dream serves "to try to restore psychological balance by producing dream material that re-establishes, in a subtle way, the total psychic equilibrium," so do archetypes "unveil a human attempt to re-create a spiritual or psychological meaning." As Jung emphasizes, these "representations" must not be confused with instincts, which are "physiological urges . . . perceived by the senses"; however, these same recurring patterns also "manifest themselves in fantasies," which "reveal their presence only by symbolic images." Although these evidences, or archetypes, assume a "specific shape in which they express themselves" on a person level, Jung stresses that "their general pattern is collective," and that they "are found everywhere and all times." In this manner, all men share a common symbolic history, one which easily entertains a deterministic dialectic. The author further notes that "like the instincts, the collective thought patterns of the human mind [are] innate and inherited, operating "when the occasion arises in more or less the same way in all of us" (Jung 64). In the following article, an archetypal interpretation provides a means of understanding the spiritual nature of man's alienation in modern society.

                                                              Searching for Truth

           Like Einstein and Born who were searching for a new ethics in an age of advancing technology, and Schweitzer and Newman who were searching for the truth in early religious practices; so do Jung and author Malcolm Lowry search for the truth in the ancient archetypal symbols of man's primeval past. Carlyle also suggests new ethical clothing; while Tillich, Bonhoeffer, and Lewis advocate an authentic faith in action. Niebuhr laments the paradox of human institutions attempting to achieve celestial outcomes, and Heidegger calls for spiritual transcendence. Conrad and Freud turn to the innate images of the unconscious, and Lawrence to spiritual fulfillment in primitive forces of attraction. For Dostoyevsky, truth emerges through suffering and acceptance, while Buber and Kierkegaard call for a closer dialogue with the divine. In essence, all of the approaches emphasize that man should rely upon the feelings of his heart in his attitude toward God and his fellow man. Compassion, toleration, and understanding should supersede the ideals of progress, domination, and personal gratification. Malcolm Lowry's quest for truth begins with the ancient symbols of a long abandoned Edenic world.

          In Search of Eden: An Archetypal Study of Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano

             "Do you know, Quincey, I've often wondered whether there isn't more in the old legend of the Garden of Eden . . . than meets the eye. What if Adam wasn't banished the place at all? . . . What if his punishment really consisted . . . in having to go on living there, alone, of course—suffering, unseen, cut off from God . . ." (Lowry 133). Although the Consul 's statement directed at his neighbor appears somewhat facetious, nonetheless, the dilemma of a lost Adam in a lost garden specifically applies to the theme of Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano. Thus, the author compares the idyllic archetypal Edenic Garden to the deteriorating values of the twentieth century. Consequently, in the tradition of the Bildungsroman, anti-hero Geoffrey Firmin quests for meaning in the patterns of man's long-forgotten subconscious past—believing that these recurring themes will unlock the doors of his identity within an absurd present. In essence, the Consul's search focuses upon his differentiating between the ideal past and the real present that comprises the steps toward his development.