Follow Your Myth

This article on the Hulu/Fx Series The Bear will have spoilers, it is not meant to be a review of The Bear, but an examination of why the Bear is good writing, and what it offers as it mirrors human relationships and experiences back to us. 

In particular, I will examine The Bear from a Jungian standpoint of why it is a modern fairy tale, and what it may offer from that television hall of mirrors, which reflects back to us the nature of the human condition.

The Bear, stars actors Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach among the many other actors in this ensemble cast.  This is part of the charm of this series that it is an ensemble. The camera and story never linger too long on the “lead” of the series, Jeremy Allen White’s Carmen “Carmey” Berzatto. I hasten to point out that there are many other fine actors intermingled into this fairy tale, Jon Bernthal (who has a Bear in his name), Jamie Lee Curtis, Lionel Boyce, Liza Colon-Zayas, Oliver Platt, and too many others to name here.

The Bear takes its name from the bear at the beginning of the family name Berzatto. It also hints at the intermingled depth of fairy tales like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, (there are three siblings) as well as possibly the bear of mental illness. It further even implies possible ancestral family things that the Berzatto family well… still bears.

THE FAIRY TALE OF THE BEAR

When I write I am often looking for the mythical or fairy tale connection to a story.  What is the journey that someone is on?  Have we seen aspects of this come up from the collective unconscious and how might a series like The Bear, be a modern fairy tale?  Importantly, why is it an important fairy tale?  There are many things that make this a modern fairy tale, but there are distinctions in why it attracts me as a modern fairy tale. 

To begin with, we abandon the fairy tale castle which we see in the background but never approach. We abandon the prince and the story lingers on the peasants outside the castle.  We ignore the fairy tale emphasis on beauty, wealth and power, and underscore other important motivations for these fairy tale characters. This is why the characters feel real to us, and why in the end they represent us.  

Let’s take a look at what I’m talking about.

ABANDON THE PRINCE

Myth and fairy tales well up from the wellspring of the collective unconscious. According to Carl Jung, they represent things that we are trying to bring to the surface. Myth and fairy tales represent us culturally, spiritually and psychologically, however, we may not always be aware of why they represent us.  

We seem to intuitively feel what they represent and have an understanding that something important is being imparted. We take it in, and emotionally it may move us.

When I examine fairy tales, I am trying to often look for the takeaway, or what takeaway the writer may be amplifying for us. In the past, I have written about some issues I have with fairy tales.  The hero as often seen in a prince, has a lack of motivation beyond acquiring beauty. The heroine’s story often gets cut off too soon, robbing her of her journey because she is rescued by the prince. 

For the male, fairy tales often celebrate the prince, who already comes into the story with wealth and power, and now wishes to acquire beauty. This is what I call the three graces of fairy tales.

The Bear has done away with the prince altogether.  

Instead, we focus on the peasants outside the castle. We focus on those of us who have to live in the real world and are not surrounded by entitlements and privileges.  

The Bear, as seen in Carmen is an imperfect hero. He doesn’t swagger with princely confidence even though he is incredibly good at what he does.  He doesn’t want to keep his hands clean, he is in the trenches side by side with his kitchen crew.  He doesn’t always keep it all together, and that is because he is human and not one-dimensional.  

In short, he is a better fairy tale hero because he feels real and flawed, and because he has things that motivate him beyond acquiring beauty, wealth, and power.  Carmen is closer to Cinderella as an archetype, or Aladdin if we are looking for a male counterpart, but neither of those embodies his journey.

ABANDON THE HIGH CASTLE

I’m sure you have spotted by now the fairy tale castle in The Bear.  I am talking about the castle-like dark spire of the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) in Chicago. It looks like a castle in a fairy tale when the camera explores the cityscape of Chicago.

This camera work grounds us by showing us Chicago. Importantly, it grounds us outside the castle, down on the streets where the rest of us live, the normal people who are not born to royalty. 

In effect, we have taken the camera out of the medieval castle and explored where the most interesting action is occurring. We explore with the baker as seen in Marcus.  We explore with the cooks, like Tina.  We explore with the jester that we see in the character of Fak. What are they all up to when not tending to a prince or princess?  What is their story? 

Down here on the streets, the storylines are also never obvious. No one tells us too directly what they are struggling with. They don’t over-explain, and sometimes (or often) they don’t explain at all. 

We find these people who are much like us working in a grimy kitchen, looking to find meaning and purpose in their own lives. They are not imagining themselves as princes or princesses.  They are trying to figure out where they fit in this city, and in their personal stories. 

Some of these moments are bullet-pointed with phrases like Every Second Counts, or when someone tells Richie he doesn’t respect himself.   In abandoning the castle, we get to see that each character has their own story arc, and they are seeking their purpose in life.  

THE BEAR AS TRANSFORMATION

The Bear importantly does not lazily make characters work to acquire beauty, wealth, and power.  In a beautiful scene, Sydney prepares an omelet for Natalie, and you see the pride and feeling she gets out of doing this for someone.  This simple scene carries much of the emphasis in the series.  Sydney is nurturing someone, and providing for them, and this brings her purpose and fulfillment.

This fairy tale asks us, what is it that we are doing and what are we chasing? What is our motivation for what we do, and is it making us happy?

The journey that each character is on is important in this fairy tale, and we take time with that in season 2, even if we only hint with a beautiful but sometimes quick montage that may hint at some of Sydney’s motivation.  

We get deeper into each character, and this is another strength of the series.  It meanders in these stories, and it tells us that they are important too. 

We have abandoned the castle, and the prince and princess, and a quick happy-ending, and yet in particular season one felt like such a satisfying ending – if not also a bitter-sweet ending.  

That means that perhaps the takeaway that the writers are amplifying is one of finding your place and purpose in life.  The Bear comes closer to the takeaways of older myths which emphasized an inner journey of self-discovery and finding oneself. These things may be in fairy tales, but we lose them because of the shiny things on the surface of the story. 

In this way, The Bear is about transformation and this is what we see.  

We see this transformation happen with characters trying to support each other.  

The restaurant transforms, and the characters transform, and in many ways, it has that satisfying fairy tale feel of transformation. 

It feels maybe more satisfying because it is hard-earned and that feels real to us, and maybe it feels hopeful to us as well.

STRUGGLING WITH THE BEAR

Finally, opposite to finding purpose The Bear presents us with the opposite to finding our purpose and finding meaning in our lives. It shows us what happens when we struggle and wrestle with that inner bear and we may lose.

The character of Michael (Jon Bernthal) embodies someone who like the others has been struggling to find meaning and purpose, but the painful past he carries is holding him down.  We don’t know enough about what he carries for sure, because again, The Bear is never obvious, we are told some of the story.  We are shown little pieces, but we don’t know everything, because life here outside the castle is complex and difficult at times. 

Michael is struggling with a bear that becomes his annihilator.  In his struggle, Michael becomes lost. Before he goes though, he tries to leave some hope for his family, a mission statement that may be embodied by the simple words;

 “let it rip.”

Michael’s failure to make it out of his dark journey is a reminder that fairy tales and mythology may present us with stories about descending into the Underworld but the Bear emphasizes that not all of us make it out of the Underworld when we descend.

This is because real life is not a fairy tale with an always happy ending, in trying to find our purpose and meaning we may become lost as Michael does, and this affects his entire family and his friends who cared so much about him.  

The loss of Michael is felt in the show, and the amazing acting by Jon Bernthal reminds us why. He embodies real gravitas for Michael and makes us miss this character whose loss affects the story and has bent all of these stories toward that hole that he left behind.

This is another sobering message of the Bear, and it is something that is interwoven in the story we have seen, and I believe is yet to come.