The Yearling and the Hero’s Journey

Jody Baxter is like many young boys: innocent, trusting, playful, and lonely. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author of The Yearling, takes Jody on a hero’s journey that gradually but permanently shifts his perspective from boy to man. In fiction, as in life, the process isn’t always pretty. 

A Familiar Story Structure

Today I’d like to walk through the plot of the Yearling in a different way. Instead of giving you a simple recap, I want to look at Jody Baxter’s coming of age through the lens of Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero’s Journey”  cycle. 

As I thought about Jody’s gradual growth into maturity, I realized the progression looked familiar. It’s not just a linear process; it’s a cycle with distinct phases. Way back in the day, I wrote a whole series of posts about The Hero’s Journey, and now the plot structure is deeply ingrained in my mind. Once you’re familiar with it, you’ll begin to see it everywhere too. 

The Hero’s Journey

Coming of age often begins and ends at home, but by the end of the cycle the boy has become a man. This is the basic gist of the Hero’s Journey. The hero begins in his ordinary world at home, experiences a call to adventure, and refuses it. He meets with a mentor figure who shows him he must accept the challenge, and so he’s convinced to cross the threshold into adventure. He then goes through various tests while discovering allies and enemies. 

Things get serious when he approaches the inmost cave, which is the climactic event or faceoff. He embraces it and tackles the ordeal head on, emerging victorious with the reward he came to seek. He then begins the road back home, where people may have begun to wonder if he’d been lost forever. His return is almost like a resurrection, but he has proof of his journey: the elixir he left to procure. He is home again, but he’s a new man and has the treasure to prove it. 

And that, in a nutshell, is the Hero’s Journey. For this series, the “adventure” we’ll focus on is the coming-of-age process. See what you think as we look at Jody Baxter’s journey through these stages.

Jody’s Journey

If you’re not familiar with the story and don’t want me to spoil it for you, now would be a good time to quickly polish off all 500+ pages or listen to the 14-hour audiobook. Otherwise, enjoy this Hero’s-Journey-style summary.

Beginning in the Ordinary World

Ordinary World: Jody Baxter is a 12-year-old boy who grows up on a wild and lonely farm in the backwoods of Florida. He helps a bit around the farm, but he spends most of his time scampering off to daydream and play. His tenderhearted Pa tries to protect Jody from life’s harsh realities and obligations, while his no-nonsense Ma keeps them well fed but scolds them for pretty much everything.

Call to Maturity: Ma Baxter is always hounding Jody to do more work around the farm so Pa doesn’t have to do it all himself. Jody tags along on the jobs he finds exciting, like bear hunting and trading, and he helps with some chores. But he’s still a kid, and he acts like it. 

Refusal: Although he’s pushed to man up, Jody is still content to play with his only friend, Fodderwing, and Fodderwing’s collection of misfit pets. Jody longs for a pet of his own to take the edge off his loneliness, but he won’t be interested in real responsibility unless he has no other choice.

Meeting with the Mentor (in This Case, Death): The choice comes soon enough. Pa gets bitten by a rattlesnake, and Jody has to run for help like Pa’s life depends on it. Pa has the sense to shoot a doe and use her liver to pull the venom from the bite while he waits. Pa lives through the ordeal but is greatly weakened.  

Entering the Special World

Crossing the Threshold: Two events coincide to push Jody across the threshold toward maturity. First, the doe that Pa shot has left behind a fawn. Jody adopts it as the pet for which he’s been longing, and he feels his life is finally complete. But this unexpected gain is tempered by an unthinkable loss—Fodderwing gets sick and dies. Now Jody has a great responsibility in the form of Flag, the fawn, but also a great heartache as he contemplates why Fodderwing had to die. These realities draw him away from carefree naivety. 

Tests, Allies, and Enemies: Now Jody is on the path toward maturity in earnest. Pa is weaker and gets sick more often since the snake bite, so he needs Jody’s help. Jody wrestles with questions about love, jealously, and death as his family tries to keep their allies and avoid making new enemies. But as Flag grows, Jody undergoes greater tests of his loyalty and maturity as he cares for the growing fawn while also trying to look out for the farm.

Approach to the Inmost Cave of Maturity: As Flag grows from a fawn into a yearling, Jody has a harder time keeping him in check. His cute capers have turned into destructive habits. He can’t be penned and insists on destroying the family’s crops—their only livelihood. Jody begins a man’s work in earnest, working to the bone to repair the damage that Flag wreaks. When Flag easily jumps the tall fence that Jody has spent weeks building around the garden, Pa knows the time has come. He gives the order for Jody to shoot Flag.

Ordeal: Of course, Jody refuses outright to shoot the best friend he has—the fawn who has eaten from his hand, slept in his room, played with him, and given him purpose for the past year. He looks for any and every alternative, but nothing will work. In fact, Jody’s delay costs the Baxters a critical amount of crops. Pa is too weak to leave his bed, so he gives Ma permission to shoot the deer. In a nightmarish sequence of events, Ma wounds Flag, but in order to end Flag’s suffering, Jody has to finish the job himself.

Reward of Maturity: While Jody did what had to be done, he did it with a child’s heart. He is sickened, hateful, and livid. He runs away from home without a plan. At last, near-starvation provides the catalyst for maturity. He realizes that starvation is terrifying, and that’s what his parents had been protecting the family from. He understands that Pa had not betrayed him but had done what he must to provide for the family. Jody doesn’t like it, but he finally understands.

Re-entering the Ordinary World

The Road Back: Jody passes out from hunger and exhaustion. A passing boat picks him up, gives him some soup, and  drops him off several miles from home. Now that Jody is thinking more clearly, he understands that his childhood is over and it’s time to go home. He had left with hateful words toward his parents, and he wants to put it right.

Resurrection: A feeble Pa is waiting for Jody’s return. He had thought Jody was dead and gone forever, but his return is life itself to Pa. Jody listens as his father gives him advice, man-to-man. He is finally able to hear and accept it not as a boy but as an equal. 

Return with the Elixir of Maturity: Now that he’s home, Jody will take Pa’s place around the farm. He has grown from a boy to a man, and Pa has faded from a man to an invalid. In a symbolic gesture, Pa leans on Jody as the son leads his father to bed. The torch has been passed, and Jody is now the man of the house. 

Terrible Truths

If you felt shocked at the climax of the story, then join the club. It’s a horrible scene—even more so as you think back on the relationship between the boy and the fawn throughout the book. 

Did it need to happen that way? Could Jody have matured in a less heart-wrenching way? You and I will both be pondering these questions. Next time, we’ll be digging in to three themes that are critical to coming of age: love, death, and family. I’m really looking forward to it, so if you’re not too depressed to go on with the series, I’ll see you then!