Taming the Untamable and Childhood Nostalgia

While we were talking about Jewel's special relationship with his prized horse, I couldn't help but think back to a very old cartoon I watched when I was younger, called Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. It was made in 2002 by Dreamworks, and I absolutely loved it. Evidently I wasn't the only one to feel that way: it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and earned $122.6 million on a $80 million dollar budget. But enough of its achievements for now, back on why Spirit and As I lay Dying have some super similar scenes/ motifs.

So, the idea of "taming the beast" is a very classic action in a hero's journey. Sometimes it's relatively easy, but more often than not it's quite difficult. It can range from taming giant monsters or tending to fearsome/ unruly animals. Lots of examples come to mind: Owen Grady taming the pack of velociraptors in the most recent Jurassic Park, Belle teaching manners to the Beast in The Beauty and the Beast, or Hiccup taming Toothless in How to Tame your Dragon. In our particular cases however, the fearsome beast that's trying to be tamed is a little bit more down to Earth: the horse.

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron is an animated American western film that follows the adventures of a young mustang stallion living in the 19th century wild west. At this time, the U.S. army is fighting the indian wars and taking over the soon-to-be western united states. There's a lot of plot I could get into, but for the sake of not spoiling the movie in case you haven't seen it/ keeping things relevant to the taming of horses, I'll jump around. Spirit is captured by the U.S. army, who happen to be the antagonists in this movie, to be used in the U.S. calvary. "The Colonel", one of the head honchos of the calvary, tries to tame him but fails *miserably*, since Spirit is a very violent and very rebellious horse. Meanwhile, a Lakota Native American named Little Creek has also been captured and has been brought to the same calvary post as Spirit. A series of events occur, and with Little Creek's help, Spirit is able to escape the post with a bunch of other horses. Here's where the actual taming begins.

Back at the Lakota village, Little Creek first tries to tame Spirit with kindness. Spirit, being the fiercely independent soul he is, still refuses to be ridden. Little Creek tries a large variety of tactics: bribery with massive amounts of apples (which spirit loves), trickery with a fancy quilt, and even wooing Spirit with a mare. However, all of these tactics prove to be relatively useless and Spirit remains as rough and rowdy as ever, until through a series of very interesting events Spirit finally yields and allows Little Creek to ride him. These taming scenes feel astonishingly similar to Jewel and his horse; both horses are unruly and very untamed until much later on, forced through many unpleasant situations. Both of the tamers of these "beasts" have an affinity for animals, sometimes treating them even better than the humans around them. Overall I just think it's pretty neat to see such a similar kind of relationship in two completely different story arcs. Highly recommend watching Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron if you haven't seen it btw! It might be 14 years old now but I still really like it!