Campbell & Sister Souljah: "The Monomyth" and the Coldest Winter Ever
Winter, which is a hero in this novel, had to go through all the trials and tribulations in order to really get to know who she was. Most importantly she learned how to take care of herself and not have everything given to her. Joseph Campbell's Monomyth is basically about the hero's journey and the steps they take to get to the end. In Joseph Campbell's Monomyth he has the departure, adventure and the return of the hero. This monomyth is a pattern found in many different chronicles ("Monomyth"). The departure is when you're separated from something or someone. Then there is the adventure is when basically the journey. During the adventure you discover new things, run in to new people and most of the time you struggle during your journey. Then lastly you have the return, where most of the times you return back to where you were and try to change things around or you want to go somewhere different. Either way when you return, you come back changed or wanting to change. Sometimes you come back as a new person.
Separation
Winters father, Santiaga was arrested the night of her birthday. The police raided the entire house and took everything that was held inside of it including clothes, jewelry, cars, drugs and even broke into their safe and took all the families money. They arrested everyone but the mother and the children. All winter could think about was the money and how were they going to survive without Santiaga. Winter kept thinking to herself about what would her father do in this situation; he would plan and not panic. She thought about selling the furniture in her house to generate cash flow or maybe even sell the entire house before the feds come and raid it. She asked her mother what she thought about her idea and her mother didn't care about anything else but talking to her husband Santiaga. She was so attached to him that, he's the only person she thinks about. She told Winter "Whatever your father says, that’s what I’ll do"(p.96). Her mother couldn't even think for herself. Since Winters mother was always sad because she recently got shot in the face and now her husband got arrested, Winter had no choice but to be strong for her family. Winter figured she and her mother would go visit her father to get some advice on what to do.
Once Winter arrived to her father’s visit, she shared with him her ideas and he agreed. He also told her to try to catch up with one of his workers, Midnight because he's has fifty thousand dollars of his. When she got back home from visiting her father, the housekeeper told her the BCW came and took her three baby sisters because they're underage and in a house with no legal guardian. Winter's life quickly started to fall apart, because every day since her 17th birthday there was something new. Her father got locked up, her mother voluntarily told the police to lock her up, BCW came and took her sisters, the feds arrested the majority of her family and most of her father’s workers except Midnight and now she's all by herself, so now here is where there is a big separation, because now she doesn’t have anyone to turn to. The BCW finally got a hold of Winter and placed her in a group home called "The House of Success."
Journey
Once Winter arrived at the House of Success she was introduced to discipline and curfew, of course she didn’t like it because she never had to go through this. "If you came in after 11:00 pm, your forfeited your passes for the rest of the week. If you were late three times in thirty days, you permanently lost your evening 'opportunities'"(p. 191). This was all new to Winter and the challenge for her was "making something out of nothing." Somehow she had to make some money while she was in there because the sixty-dollar stipend they got every week wasn't good enough for her. Just by observing the girls in the group home she decided she would provide the girls with what they need and help them understand what they needed. Winter provided different services like selling clothes, giving beauty tips, doing their hair, nails, make up and even giving them facials. Every week she would write down a list of things everyone needed and her friend Simone from Brooklyn, would go and pick it up and deliver it to the group home. Both Winter and Simone made money with this side hustle. When Winter got her weekend passes, she would hang out with her friend Simone and Simone would fill her in on the latest news of Brooklyn. Simone informed her that Winter's mother turned into a crack-addict, her Aunt B turned into a prostitute and her father, Santiaga was sentenced to life in jail. Winters entire family had their individual hustles going on.
One thing about Winter was that she never wanted people to know her business, especially her family’s business. She always let people find out themselves. She always felt that she was better than everyone and probably would feel embarrassed if she told her business. Especially since she always had everything a girl could ever want, she would never tell someone her downfall. Winter was a pathological liar and didn’t trust anyone. At the House of Success when girls asks Winter what’s wrong with her, she always makes up a little lie to keep them out of her business. Winter received a letter from her father and started crying, and one of the girls, Rashida wanted to console her but Winter brushed her off as if nothing was wrong. Rashida got upset and expressed her feelings to Winter. “Why do you always act like you’re so cool like you’re in control of every little thing? Why can’t you just admit when something isn’t right so someone could help you?” (212). Of course Winter played it off and told her that those are happy tears that are falling from her eyes. Winter just couldn’t help it, she was a constant liar.
Return
Towards the end of the story, Winter met up with an old friend, Bullet and got caught up in the criminal lifestyle. Bullet put everything in Winters name including their new apartment and a car which they rented to transport cocaine and guns. Since Winter was sitting in the car she rented, she was considered guilty and had to serve fifteen years in prison, even though none of the things in the car was hers. These events show how history repeats itself. Winter had to attend her mother’s funeral in a prison jumpsuit and in handcuffs. Winter saw her little sister Porsche there and noticed that she was as beautiful has she was when she wasn’t locked up. Winter noticed Porsche had fallen into the same trap that she was in; Winter wanted to warn her sister about life but then thought to herself that Porsche would just have to learn her own just like she did. This is the return part of the monomyth because this shows how winter was a different person than when she started. Before the journey Winter was dependant on her parents for everything and at the end of the journey she learned to take care of herself and became more independent. She came to realize that the only person that could look out for her was herself.
Citation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth
Sistah Souljah. The Coldest Winter Ever.1999.Print
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