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If one considers a hero to be an ordinary person under duress, who triumphs because of the strength of his character, then the dude is simply a man out of place, pulled into a conflict much bigger than himself (like the classic detective stories), and in the end will get the bad guy and return his world to a state of normalcy. This makes him the hero “for his time and place”.
Part of his motivation for completing his journey comes from his family. Now, we won’t say family in the traditional sense, but the characters of Walter (John Goodman) and Donnie (Steve Buscemi) serve as the Dude’s dysfunctional family. They are his bowling team, but more so than that, Walter and the Dude interact as if they were married, lamenting the world’s problems to each other over beer and bowling. And if those two are husband and wife, so to speak, then Donnie completes the Dude’s dysfunction as the illegitimate child, always around but always told to be quiet. A scene from the film goes something like this:
DUDE ...They gave Dude a beeper, so whenever these guys call—
WALTER What if it's during a game?
DUDE I told him if it was during league play—
Donny has been watching Quintana.
DONNY If what's during league play?
WALTER Life does not stop and start at your convenience, you miserable piece of shit…
Donnie is constantly asking questions, but always is ignored or suppressed. Nonetheless, he is a part of the family and is always included in ventures to the bowling alley.
So what is it about the presence of these two that make the Dude the “man for his time and place”. Solely, it sets the Dude in similar situations to the many dysfunctional families at that time, and especially in Los Angeles. He is not that much different in his family situation from many of his neighbors, and so the story relates that “if the Dude can do it, anyone can”. Heroes inspire the common-folk to do better, to achieve more, to get more out of life.
Now, one might argue that, as far as achievement, the Dude is about on the lowest rung of that ladder. To many, he might appear as “a bum, a loser, someone the square community wouldn’t give a shit about”, to quote the Dude later. The important thing to realize is that the Dude is complete. He wants not more than what he has, and his pacifist views bode well with his lifestyle. The following line from that same scene comes from the other Jeffry Lebowski, the millionaire, who says “Well, aren’t you (a bum…)?” The dude pauses, and says “Well…yeah…” He is who he is and isn’t afraid of being himself. Temet Nosce, as the Latin goes, which loosely translates “know thyself”, a quality most all heroes require, or gain through their journey.
It’s important at this point to examine the different ideologies in which the Dude comes into contact on his path. The film operates on many levels, of which the Coens are well aware. Our hero’s character, that is to say his redeeming qualities, are brought to the forefront by being pitted against other ideological points of view. The beautiful thing is, many of the antagonists who challenge our hero are identified by their ideological state. The police chief of Malibu is called a “fascist”. Smokey and his bowling team are “pacifists,” like the Dude. The German kidnappers are nihilists, who at one point Walter refers to as Nazi’s because of their “threatening castration”. Other antagonists aren’t referred to in the same manner, but each qualify as archetypes for counter points of view to the Dude’s.
The Big Lebowski is clearly an ultra-capitalist. His main motivation is greed, and as we come to find out, is the person responsible for the disappearing million dollars. As his daughter refers to him later in the film, stating, “…I give him a reasonable allowance. He has no money of his own. I know how he likes to present himself. Father’s weakness has always been vanity.” This fact brings out the notion that, though the Big Lebowski appears to be satisfied with his lifestyle through his accomplishments, the truth is the exact opposite. The Big Lebowski’s life is hollow and without meaning, save the desire to gain more money. The Dude, on the other hand, has absolutely no money, but he is a real person and is happy with the way things are So, when the Dude is placed in direct confrontation with this neo-conservative in search for his replacement rug, the two are naturally at odds, and because of the Dude’s strength of character, he is destined to triumph over his greedy counterpart. The following is from the two’s first encounter, after the Dude has listened to Big’s capitalist rhetoric:
DUDE Ah fuck it.
LEBOWSKI Sure! Fuck it! That's your answer! Your answer to everything! Tattoo it on your forehead!
The Dude is heading for the door.
LEBOWSKI Your "revolution" is over, Mr. Lebowski! Condolences! The bums lost!
As the Dude opens the door.
LEBOWSKI ...My advice is, do what your parents did! Get a job, sir! The bums will always lose-- do you hear me, Lebowski? THE BUMS WILL ALWAYS—
The Big’s capitalist rhetoric is an earful, no doubt, but that’s all it is. His screams are more pleas to be heard, are hollow and have no meaning, hence why when the Dude exits the room, we still hear Big’s bellowing echo through the door and down the massive hallway. And because the Dude is stronger, when Brandt asks how the meeting went, the Dude lies and says “the old man told me to take any rug in the house”. Symbolically, then, the Dude’s pacifist ideology defeats the capitalist ramblings of an old man, an ideology our hero had forsaken long before.
So the dude has his rug back, and everything has returned to normal. It’s important to note that, like many traditional heroes, the Dude has his sanctuary, his place of refuge where he can worship in his own way. It keeps our hero sane. So when the defilers enter his home in the beginning (the defilers being henchmen of Jackie Treehorn, the pornographer, discussed later) and pees on his rug, his sanctuary has been corrupted. The rug is a central element to his temple, lain in front of his altar, expressed as “really tying the room together.” Without it, our hero has no place of recourse, and his altar of alcohol, weed and picture of Nixon bowling is incomplete without it.
So the Dude brings his shrine back to its natural state, but not for long. He has triumphed over the greedy Cerberus, but now faces an ideology rooted in money that’s much older: the aristocracy, in the form of Maude Lebowski. Maude represents a princess of sorts who comes into the story because the rug taken “had sentimental value to [her]”. Maude the princess lives in a world cluttered with things, but realizes she has a higher purpose, namely, her art. The Dude and Maude are initially at odds over the rug, but the Dude’s ideology doesn’t conflict as much with Maude’s, as she makes him a deal to recover the missing money for a cut. Maude’s world is alien to the Dude, evident in the scene with Knox Harrington, another aristocrat, who never truly acknowledges the Dude’s presence. Knox continually laughs in a snobby manner, at one point forcing the Dude to react: “what the fuck is with this guy?” Despite their differences in class, Maude soon realizes she can get something out of this peasant. She wants a child, and tricks the Dude into being the father. Now the dude doesn’t know about the ruse until after he’s done the deed, but finds she wants no help in raising the child. After this, his state returns to the norm, wherein he believes he just got laid. This encounter between our hero and the princess plays on the age old section of the hero story where the royalty were always attracted to the story’s hero for their good genes, on some levels. Maude’s insistence of the Dude to visit the doctor for an examination is symbolic of her testing the Dude’s character, to see if he’s a fit enough hero to reproduce with.
Speaking of reproduction (you mean coitus?), Jackie Treehorn presents an obstacle in our hero’s path. The Dude’s sanctuary was originally violated because of the incompetence of the mafia’s muscle, and later in the film we find the Dude invited to one of Treehorn’s “beach party”. Treehorn is a pornographer, but more so represents the “organized crime” element of the story. Our hero is set upon his path as a victim of this crime syndicate, but later tries to make a deal with the mobster to recover the same million dollars. Little does he know that a deal can’t be struck with the devil in which the hero can win, and lucky for the Dude, Jackie Treehorn doesn’t believe his story. The Dude shows a moment of weakness here in the face of temptation, and suffers a minor setback in his quest, as Treehorn drugs him after he gets his information and sets him upon the streets of Malibu. But, as our hero reminds us just before he passes out, “all the Dude ever wanted was his rug back.” He would’ve made a deal with a devil, ‘cause he realizes his soul is out of reach of the evil, another quality many traditional heroes either attain or possess. That return to normalcy, the return of the rug, is all the Dude wants. But as the encounter with Treehorn reminds us, never trust the devil to keep his word.
After being ejected from Treehorn’s, the Dude encounters the Chief of Police of Malibu, our stories “fascist”. The Chief is unquestionably tied to Treehorn’s crime syndicate, and acts upon his own authority to make sure nobody disturbs his corrupt friends. The Dude, though drugged, quickly realizes this and draws upon his experience of protesting (assumedly) to deal with this crooked cop. He won’t attack, because he is by nature a pacifist, but the Dude definitely has his principles.
CHIEF Mr. Treehorn draws a lot of water in this town, Lebowski. You don't draw shit. We got a nice quiet beach community here, and I aim to keep it nice and quiet. So let me make something plain. I don't like you sucking around bothering our citizens, Lebowski. I don't like your jerk- off name, I don't like your jerk-off face, I don't like your jerk- off behavior, and I don't like you, jerk- off --do I make myself clear?
The Dude stares.
DUDE I'm sorry, I wasn't listening.
In the face of being degraded, the Dude reacts in the only way he knows to get the facist cop riled up, by pretending he doesn’t matter. Fascists are consumed with power and degradation of others, but the Dude reacts non-violently yet strongly, and is able to tear down the Chief’s composure. He subsequently takes a beating from the Chief, but our hero’s ideology is still in tact, showing the audience he perseveres. Subsequently, his perseverance pays off as in the next scene, Maude shows up and gets naked.
Another antagonist in our hero’s journey is the pederast, Jesus Quintana, who is representative of the sexual despoiler. He always speaks in a sexual manner, like when he’s threatening our family in the bowling alley about winning the tournament, he says things like “are you ready to be fucked, man?” To Walter and the Dude, Jesus is no threat. They know he is after little boys, for as Walter informs us, Jesus “spent six months in Chino for exposing himself to an eight-year-old. Though Jesus is out to defeat our hero in the bowling tournament, he blows a kiss at our proverbial child, Donnie, who innocently blinks in confusion. Both times, though, when Jesus confronts our hero and his partner, the two are unfazed. Walter has seen much worse things in the jungles of Nam, and the dude’s counter of “yeah, well, that’s just like, your opinion, man” lets the audience know our hero will come out on top.
A discussion of the Nihilists should be brought up at this point, for they are the only group of people who do shake our hero at any point. Every other conflict seems an annoyance, but to the Dude and his family, Nihilism presents a real threat, as is evident in the quote below.
Walter sadly shakes his head.
WALTER Fucking Germans. Nothing changes. Fucking Nazis.
DONNY They were Nazis, Dude?
WALTER Come on, Donny, they were threatening castration!
…
DUDE They're nihilists.
WALTER Huh?
DUDE They kept saying they believe in nothing.
WALTER Nihilists! Jesus.
Walter looks haunted.
I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, but at least it's an ethos.
The Dude can combat capitalism and he knows how to deal with the aristocracy. His practice dealing Walter, a Vietnam veteran, can defend our country’s ideology against the communists, but all are seemingly powerless at first against the belief in nothing. It’s rather like the argument Socrates gets into with Cleitophon in The Republic. Cleitophon is, too, a nihilist, and his method of argument cannot fit into the mold of Socratic dialogue; simply because there is, in fact, no method at all. He is later dismissed by Socrates as unworthy of sitting in the same circle and is not heard from anymore in the story.
The nihilists in the film represent the same ideological quandary to our hero. When the Dude first witnesses one of the nihilists, he is in a pool passed out. Bunny Lebowski, the Big Lebowski’s trophy wife, tells the Dude “Ulee [won’t mind if you blow on my toes]; He doesn’t care about anything. He’s a nihilist.” The Dude responds, “Oh, that must be exhausting.” From afar, nihilism presents no threat to our hero’s belief system, but as we come to find out, the nihilists are posing as the kidnappers, and therefore come directly into conflict with our hero. Throughout the film, the nihilists are tracking the Dude to get “ze million dollar”. The dude realizes his ideologies won’t hold against those who have no competing belief system, and so is terrified when Ulee (Peter Stormare) and the other two Germans (Flea, Tortsen Voges) break into his apartment, destroying random items at will. Ulee threatens castration, symbolically a removal of those qualities that make a man who he is, threaten oddly otherwise, and leave. Nihilism in this case exists only to destroy other belief systems by basing all arguments on the fact that nothing exists. The Dude and Walter have not before dealt with this kind of madness, and so it naturally shakes them, so much so that they dabble in it a bit later when threatening little Larry Sellers, who they think has the money.
WALTER Is this your homework, Larry?
Larry does not respond.
WALTER Is this your homework, Larry?
DUDE Look, man, did you—
WALTER Dude, please!. . . Is this your homework, Larry?
DUDE Just ask him if he--ask him about the car, man!
Walter is still holding out the homework.
WALTER Is this yours, Larry? Is this your homework, Larry?
DUDE Is the car out front yours?
WALTER Is this your homework, Larry?
DUDE We know it's his fucking homework, Walter! Where's the fucking money, you little brat?
Throughout Walter has been staring at Larry with the homework extended towards him.
WALTER Look, Larry. . . Have you ever heard of Vietnam?
DUDE Oh, for Christ's sake, Walter!
WALTER You're going to enter a world of pain, son. We know that this is your homework. We know you stole a car—
DUDE And the fucking money!
WALTER And the fucking money. And we know that this is your homework, Larry.
WALTER You're killing your FATHER, Larry!
DUDE We’re gonna cut your dick off.
No answer.
In this short period of time, the Dude and Walter throw all these ideologies at the 12 year old, who obviously has no concept of what the two are talking about. Our hero is feeling frustrated, unable to keep the anti-believers from making him less of a man, and so in the end resorts to the only type of statement that scared him into acting, one from a nihilist point of view. Fortunately for our hero, it doesn’t work, mainly because the kid has no clue about the money, ‘cause it was never there to begin with.
As our hero’s journey progresses, we come to find out that the money in fact never left the greedy Big Lebowski’s possession. After confronting him, the Dude solves the riddle and sets the world aright. Except when the three, later, exit the bowling alley, the Nihilists returned, setting the Dude’s car aflame. They are unaware of the Big Lebowski’s trechery, and so have come for their money. By this time, though, the Dude’s conception of the world has been restored, and not even an attack by nihilists can faze him. Below are a few quotations from the final encounter:
DUDE You don't have the fucking girl, dipshits. We know you never did. So you've got nothin' on my Johnson.
…
DONNIE Are these the Nazis, Walter?
WALTER They're nihilists, Donny, nothing to be afraid of.
…
WALTER There's no ransom if you don't have a fucking hostage. That's what ransom is. Those are the fucking rules.
ULEE Zere ARE no ROOLZ!
WALTER NO RULES! YOU CABBAGE-EATING SONS- OF- BITCHES—
KIEFFER His girlfriend gafe up her toe! She sought we'd be getting million dollars! Iss not fair!
WALTER Fair! WHO'S THE FUCKING NIHILIST HERE!
…
DONNIE Are they gonna hurt us, Walter?
Walter’s tone is gentle
WALTER They won't hurt us, Donny. These men are cowards.
We see from these few lines how quickly the nihilists’ logic falters when confronted with simple logic, much like nihilism itself. One who adheres to a belief in nihilism, a belief in nothing, still has a belief system, and so this scene shows the utter nonsense presented by true nihilism. Our kidnappers, though, aren’t true nihilists, because when confronted with a logical pattern that’s irrefutable, their “adherence” to it flutters away, leaving a pack of angry, rabid Cleitophons awaiting dismissal by our hero’s troop. The quotes from Donnie are included because Donnie represents perpetual innocence, and after this encounter, Donnie has a heart attack and dies. Literally, he can’t bear to see a person(s) fall so far into the trap. It spoils his innocence, so much so, that the Donnie we know, the little boy, has been awoken to the horrors of faulty logic. If he were to survive, one would imagine him confronting his abusive parent, Walter. Freud might have some things to say here, too, but screw that guy. Instead, though, the Coen Brothers decide to transmute Donnie’s death of innocence into a physical death.
After triumphing over the many different views in the world, the Dude’s world returns to normal, and who do we have to wrap it up but our good friend, the Stranger. In the final conversation with the Dude, the Stranger tells the Dude to “take ‘er easy”. The Dude responds “yeah, well, The Dude abides.” In a simple three word statement, the Dude sums up his entire ideology, and gives us the only explanation for why he’s our hero, because he knows himself, he understands the world, and acts as the gods would have him act, even if it is Richard Nixon on that altar. Our hero can be nothing but, and so, he abides. To those who aren’t quite there, who may not know what he knows, well, fuck it. Life’ll get ‘em there if they’re meant to be there, and if not, well…