I think that there are certainly many archetypes that are
evident in mythology that can be identified in this story of self-knowledge and mature
development. To me, the motif of the young Sarty choosing to betray his father and then
leave his family and by implication leave his father's unscrupulous attitude towards
property and law finds many echoes in similar characters who leave everything they have
known and set out on a quest by themselves to find a new life. Consider the motif of the
journey and how this is echoed in so many epic classics such as The
Odyssey and other myths.
Consider how Sarty is
persented at the end of this excellent tale:
The slow constellations wheeled on. It would be
dawn and then sun-up after a while and he would be hungry... He went on down the hill,
toward the dark woods within which the liquid silver voices of the birds called
unceasing--the rapid and urgent beating of the urgent and quieting heart of the late
spring night. He did not look
back.
Although he is depicted
as suffering from profound isolation and loneliness at the end of the tale, there is a
sense in which this is actually a liberation for him, that leaving his family has helped
him to find himself as the "constellations wheeled on" and he walks into the "quieting
heart of the late spring night" without looking back. Through the motif of the journey
and the departure, which is captured in so many mythological tales, Sarty finds
release.
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