{"id":4142,"date":"2021-12-08T04:47:09","date_gmt":"2021-12-08T09:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/?p=4142"},"modified":"2021-12-08T05:58:45","modified_gmt":"2021-12-08T10:58:45","slug":"the-grinch-a-villain-makes-a-heros-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/2021\/12\/08\/the-grinch-a-villain-makes-a-heros-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"The Grinch: A Villain Makes a Hero\u2019s Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tumblr_lwoa32M1pW1qcyr71\"<\/a>By Suzanne Lucero<\/strong><\/p>\n

Around this time of year a person might find his or her thoughts turning to a well-known literary character whose ultimate redemption holds hope for even the most hard-hearted of individuals.<\/p>\n

I am speaking, of course, of the Grinch.<\/p>\n

In the first sentence of How the Grinch Stole Christmas<\/em> (by Dr. Seuss), we are introduced to the villain of the piece.<\/p>\n

Every Who<\/em><\/p>\n

Down in Who-ville liked Christmas a lot \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

But the Grinch,<\/em><\/p>\n

Who lived just north of Who-ville,<\/em><\/p>\n

Did NOT.<\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s terrible, we think. Who doesn\u2019t like Christmas? A few sentences later, though, we are given the probable reason for the Grinch\u2019s dislike. His heart, you see, is two sizes too small. Suddenly, the Grinch is a tiny bit sympathetic, and we sort-of understand when he declares,<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy, for fifty-three years I\u2019ve put up with it now!<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI MUST stop this Christmas from coming!<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2026 But, HOW?\u201d\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the inciting incident. The Grinch thinks Christmas means noisy toys and feasting and singing, so how does he stop all this from happening? The Grinch comes up with a plan, a \u201cgreat, grinchy trick,\u201d and puts it into action. In other words, his journey begins.<\/p>\n

He begins by making a Santa Clause hat and coat. (He foregoes the snowy-white beard, though. Maybe it itches.) Then he decides \"grinch+with+dog\"<\/a>he needs a reindeer to complete his St. Nick impersonation. For this he enlists his tiny dog, Max. The Grinch ties a horn on top of Max\u2019s head, thereby changing the dog from a mere pet to a minion: Max will be aiding the Grinch by pulling his sled.<\/p>\n

The plan starts well. The Grinch has Max pull the sled into Who<\/em>-ville and proceeds to steal everything from the first house he sees. The only obstacle that presents itself to the Grinch comes in the shape of a child who has woken up to get a glass of water. When she asks why he is taking the Christmas tree, he placates her with a lie and sends her back to bed. The Grinch continues to ransack the village until all the presents, all the decorations, and all the food for the feast is packed into bags, loaded precariously on the sled, and pulled:<\/p>\n

Three thousand feet up! Up the side of Mt. Crumpet,<\/em><\/p>\n

He rode with his load to the tiptop to dump it.<\/em><\/p>\n

(You\u2019ve really got to be feeling sorry for Max at this point.)<\/p>\n

The Grinch gloats. He\u2019s won! Christmas can\u2019t come, now. Everything is gone and the Whos<\/em> will all be crying. He pauses to savor his victory and puts his hand to his ear to listen.<\/p>\n

And he did hear a sound rising over the snow.<\/em><\/p>\n

It started in low. Then it started to grow\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

But the sound wasn\u2019t sad!<\/em><\/p>\n

Why, this sound sounded merry!<\/em><\/p>\n

It couldn\u2019t be so!<\/em><\/p>\n

But it WAS merry! VERY!<\/em><\/p>\n

In the hero\u2019s journey, there comes a point where he or she must \u201center the cave.\u201d This is the ultimate low point in the story. The hero is alone, either physically or emotionally. Everything he or she has been working for is crumbling and the antagonist has triumphed; the hero is, actually or metaphorically, dead.<\/p>\n

This is the Grinch\u2019s cave. This is where he realizes he\u2019s failed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0He HADN\u2019T stopped Christmas from coming.<\/em><\/p>\n

IT CAME!<\/em><\/p>\n

Somehow or other, it came just the same.<\/em><\/p>\n

But How the Grinch Stole Christmas<\/em> is a hero\u2019s journey, not a morality tale. For all villains, unless they are true psychopaths (which is a medical condition), the cave offers a final chance to redeem themselves. When their defenses have been beaten and they are no longer fighting but only trying to understand why they failed, their hearts can be touched with a little thing called grace.<\/p>\n

Then the Grinch though of something he hadn\u2019t before!<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe Christmas,\u201d he thought, \u201cdoesn\u2019t come from a store.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe Christmas \u2026 perhaps \u2026 means a little bit more!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

That was the elixir the Grinch found in his cave, the piece of him that was missing. He realized that material things don\u2019t bring happiness. Simply being together with those we love is reason enough to sing.<\/p>\n

\"the_grinch_cut_the_first_roast_beast_by_rhetoric_of_sushi-d4jyzdf\"<\/a>And what happened then \u2026?<\/em><\/p>\n

Well \u2026 in Who-ville they say<\/em><\/p>\n

That the Grinch\u2019s small heart<\/em><\/p>\n

Grew three sizes that day.<\/em><\/p>\n

With this new understanding and (we hope) love in his heart, the Grinch completes his hero\u2019s journey by returning everything he has taken from the Whos<\/em> and sharing in their celebratory feast.<\/p>\n

Merry Christmas everyone.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

Suzanne Lucero is a wife, mother, and pre-published author who knows a little about a lot of things and is constantly learning more. She is passionate about writing and is determined to publish her novel-in-progress within 5 years.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Suzanne Lucero Around this time of year a person might find his or her thoughts turning to a well-known literary character whose ultimate redemption holds hope for even the most hard-hearted of individuals. I am speaking, of course, of the Grinch. In the first sentence of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (by Dr. Seuss), … Continue reading The Grinch: A Villain Makes a Hero\u2019s Journey<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1159,1171],"tags":[27544,27546,27545],"class_list":["post-4142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fictional-heroes","category-legendary-heroes","tag-grinch","tag-grinch-hero","tag-grinch-villain"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phawtM-14O","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5376,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4142\/revisions\/5376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}