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Summary/Response

In this article Catherine Himmelwright discusses the standard expectations behind the myth of the American West. She compares and contrasts the male western archetype with the female. Himmelwright states that, traditionally, male archetypes of this genre have been symbols of movement and freedom, while the female archetypes have been seen as the grounding force. She also brings up the symbols and archetypes of gardens and junkyards and their diametric opposition proposing a connection between the female and male archetypes. However, she concludes in saying that Kinsolver has taken all of these myths, symbols, and archetypes as well as multiple Cherokee myths and combined them to form a "new" western archetype in the character of Taylor.

Kinsolver takes all that is appealing about the western male archetype (the cowboy), and combines it with the sensitive, mythical Native American woman to create a new and distinctly feminine archetype. Jung, being the proprietor of the archetype, gives us the basis for these more complex archetypes laid down in the foundation of the Anima and the Animus. In Jungian analysis the Anima is the unconscious feminine component of men and the Animus is the unconscious masculine component in women. Both have a distinct, but different, role in the American mythology. However, Kinsolver saw fit to "mold an individual who empowers the American experience by stitching together two mythologies, the male western narrative of individualism and the female-centered Native American myth of connectivity, in order to reveal the need for balance within our American mythology" (Himmelwright). Kinsolver saw the "difficulty women have had in gaining admittance to this masculine world, especially access to the role of the hero" (Himmelwright) and crafted a character that carries the weight of both the Anima and the Animus archetype, and suspends itself perfectly between the archetypes of hero and heroine.

Other articles for consideration: Reading the Myth of the West The Female Hero in American and British Lit