Copyright 2018 by Gary L. Pullman
According to the theory of
evolution, species survive by adapting to their environment. For
biologists—until recently, at least—the environment has been
pretty much synonymous with the external, natural world. (More
recently, a branch of psychology, evolutionary psychology, has
suggested that certain mental processes and personality traits may
have survived because they helped the human species to adapt to their
physical environment and, therefore, to survive.)
Human beings differ from
lower animals in several important ways, one of which is their
possession not only of consciousness, but also of self-awareness, of
consciousness of oneself as a
self. Men, women, and children, in other words, live in two
environments, that of the natural world without and that of the
subjective world within, the world of beliefs, emotions, reason,
will, and values.
In
evolutionary fiction, a story begins when one or more changes in one
or both of these worlds occur(s), disturbing the protagonist's
equilibrium (his or her emotional balance, or calmness of mind),
causing him or her to adapt to the environmental change(s) and
thereby regain his or her equilibrium: in The Wizard of Oz
(1939), Dorothy Gale becomes
dissatisfied with her family life (a change in the inner world of her
emotions); as a result, she runs away from home (seeks to adapt to
the change in her emotions); she develops independence by acting
autonomously, dousing the Wicked Witch of the West with water, thus
melting her adversary (adaptation); having come to appreciate her home as a result
of her experiences in Oz (adaptation), she returns to her family and friends, whom
she'd left behind in Kansas. Dorothy's adaptations to the change in
her inner world (her emotions) changes her:
she recovers her equilibrium because she changes (i. e., adapts to
her environment). In The Wizard of Oz,
emotion drives Dorothy to act.
The
external world can also introduce change to which the protagonist
must adapt. In Backcountry (2015), Jenn and
her boyfriend, Alex, leave their home in the city, driving to a
national park in Canada. Their arrival introduces them to a different
environment, a forest, with different challenges than those with which
they are familiar. (Alex has some experience in camping, but his many
mistakes show that he is by no means the master woodsman he believes
himself to be.) Among the challenges the couple face are those of an
intrusive and aggressive stranger, Brad; mountainous and forested
terrain; and a bear. Alex does not adequately adapt, so he does not
survive the couple's ordeal. Ironically, Jenn, who knows less than
Alex about camping, but who has better judgment and makes better
decisions, does adapt to the challenges of their new environment, and
lives. (Alex's many errors of judgment are identified in my post,
“Backcountry:
A Study in the Cause and Effects of Poor Judgment”).
In short, Jenn's intelligence and common sense prevail, while Alex's
smug self-confidence and overestimation of his knowledge and
abilities fail.
A
similar “test” of mental processes and personality traits occurs
in the 1993 thriller, Falling Down,
with William Foster failing to adapt to the changes in his
environments, both internal and external, and Sergeant Prendergast
succeeding in doing so in regard to his own, similar challenges.
Foster's marriage has ended in divorce; Prendergast's marriage is on life
support. Both men encounter hostility, unfairness, and social
decadence. They have both lost children, Foster to his wife in their
divorce, Prendergast to death. Because he cannot adapt to the
challenges these changes introduce into his life, Foster is killed,
while Prendergast, who does adapt to similar challenges in his own
life, survives.
With
these examples in mind, we can construct the formula that is typical
of evolutionary narratives:
- A change in the protagonist's environment, internal, external, or both, occurs.
- Experiencing disequilibrium as a result of the change(s), the protagonist successfully adapts to the change(s) (comedy) or fails to do so (tragedy).
- As a result of the success or failure of his or her attempt to adapt, the protagonist survives or perishes, respectively.
Perishing
can, but need not, be literal. A protagonist can “perish”
figuratively: he or she can go to prison, lose his or her family or
friends, go bankrupt, become disabled, lose dignity or respect, and
so forth.
In
evolutionary fiction, stories become “laboratories” of sorts in
which beliefs, emotions, reason, will, and values are “tested”
by changes in the external environment, the internal environment, or
both environments. Thus, evolutionary narratives suggest the relative
survivability strength of various subjective processes and
personality traits, whether the stimuli (challenges) are imposed from
within or from without the character him- or herself, thereby
underscoring the fact that people are both subjects and objects
simultaneously. Ironically, then, evolutionary fiction seems to
support the idea that human beings occupy a dualistic world that is
both matter and “spirit,” that we are ghosts in machines.
In
future posts, we will apply the formula for evolutionary fiction to
several horror narratives that appear as short stories, novels, or
motion pictures.