GUILT
AND REDEMPTION IN JOE HILL’S HORNS
P. Ramya
Ph.D. Research Scholar
PG & Research Department of English
Government Arts College (A), Salem-7
&
Dr. T. Alagarasan
Associate Professor of English
PG & Research Department of English
Government Arts College (A), Salem-7
Abstract:
This article examines Ig Perrish’s Metamorphosis, which
reveals the true nature of people and the darkest truth, through touching and
developing a strong innate and telepathic bond with a snake. Joe Hill blurs the
lines between truth and reality viathe implementation of psychic ability in his
third novel, Horns. Hill always
wants his readers to experience unimaginable things in his works. The
protagonist, Ig receives these psychic abilities from the spiritual power, ‘The
Treehouse of Mind’. He is psychologically agitated by the murder of his
girlfriend. The treehouse of mind exists in Ig’s imagination and its completely
imagination place. The treehouse of mind offers him to know the real murderer
of his girlfriend, Merrin Williams. Ig Perrish suddenly knows the development
of two sensitive horns on his temples. Before attaining these psychic
abilities, Ig believes everyone whoshows his sympathy for the false accusation
of being a murderer. After this transformation, he encounters his past and
uniquely pursues his redemption. This article discusses the circumstances that
transform a person into an evil and howpsychometry, the ability to know the
truth helps him to solve problems. Psychometry is the sixth sense or
extrasensory perception through touch to access a person’s memory and hidden
darkest truths.
Keywords: Psychometry, Redemption, Truth, Horns,
Supernatural
Psychometry,
a psychic gift, can learn more about a person or item via sensory experience,
or touch. It gradually blurs the distinction between reality and imaginary
worlds by challenging the individual's comprehension of insights or information
gained through extrasensory perception (ESP). In literary works, psychometric
abilities allow characters to reach a person's unconscious state, where their
inaccessible histories and feelings are preserved. It causes an overlap between
the tangible and abstract worlds of a person's memory and experience.
Joe
Hill’s Horns belongs to the genre of dark humor. Hill's literary skills
have blended emotional depth of character with supernatural aspects, allowing
him to receive multiple gothic prizes. In Horns, the writer has used
romance, suspense, mystery, and imaginativeelements to creatively engage the
tale, which is frequently packed with psychometric components. Nora Roberts is
the most well-known novelist to have integrated several supernatural aspects
into her work, including psychic talents such as psychometry and precognitive
capabilities. Her output includes The Circle Trilogy, The Key Trilogy, and
The Death Series, all of which delve into the numerous psychic realities.
Joseph Rodes Buchanan discusses psychometry in his
discourseManual of Psychometry: The Dawn of a New Civilization (1885)
while promoting his scientific research. He compares psychologists with
geologistswho are fundamentally working in the same line. The
psychologistsinvestigate the account of a man while the latteris surveying the
chronicle of Earth. Hestates
The measuring assumes a new character as the object
measured and the measuring instrument are the same psychic element, and its
measuring power is not limited to the psychic as it was developed in the first
experiments but has appeared by successive investigation to manifest a wider
area of power until it became apparent that his psychic capacity was really the
measure of all things in the universe (Buchanan 3-4).
In Philip Roth's The Ghost Writer, the
protagonist, Nathan Zukerman, explores psychometry, by undermining the
intensive manner to establish a relationship with an item that reflects his
goal and anxiety as an author. The object represents an emotional connection
with the owner. These things inspire memories from his history that frame his
current identity.
Psychometric
talents are developed from diversecircumstances, including those caused by
underlying genetic abnormalities resulting from unique evolution. Some
characters have been through traumatic circumstances that have opened
psychometric abilities that allow them to connect with their inner selves
(subconscious and unconscious, as Lacan and Freud define them). Some characters
get their psychic ability via training. Some people have received blessings
from supernatural beings and religious entities via transpersonal connection.
In the novel Horns, Ignatius Martin Perrish, also known as Ig, possesses
psychometric abilities thanks to the otherworldly entity, the Treehouse of
Mind. The Treehouse of Mind symbolizes the Ig and Merrin's love.
Before
the metamorphosis, Ig has a fortunate existence. He was born to prominent
parents who are renowned musicians, and his younger brother is a late-night
television star. Ig leads a respectable and prosperous life in his upper-class
society. He is romantically involved with Merrin Williams, a beautiful and
heavenly person who was his childhood friend. As a Catholic, he has greater
faith in God. He thinks God is almighty, omnipresent, and omniscient. Ig
navigates the crime scene while the devil's horns sprouting from his temples.
He is mentally tormented by the delaying solution of rape and murder of Merrin,
his boyhood dream sharer.
Lee
Tourneau, Merrin's boyfriend's buddy, has raped and kill her. Ig develops the
secret demonic features of the monster that his horns represent. Ig's physical
characteristics reflect the look of typical demon creatures: his horns grow
thicker, he constantly carries a pitchfork to defend himself from diabolical
beings, and his skin becomes a deep crimson after a vehicle fire. He can
perceive the person's terrible character or the mistakes they have made. He has
gotten the horns to seek justice for the death of his lover, Merrin. Horns has
contributed to uncovering the facts behind Merrin's murder. Merrin recalls the
Bible verse "You can't always get what you want, but if you need
something, you usually find it" (Horns, 283).Ig with horns appears to be a
fiend monster, yet he discovers the people's worst ideas about him and
disgusting sexual desires for others. Everyone around him, including his family
members, dislikes him, yet they are in a position to condemn him as the killer
of his boyhood buddy. He is freed as a free man although Merrin's criminal
investigation laboratory had been burnt down by his father to clear his son's
identity. Everyone, even his family members, glances at him as a killer and
shows disdain. Ig has drifted away from his old life and towards
self-destruction.
The
psychometry leads Ig to Plato’s Peripeteia stage. Peripeteia means the reversal
of fortune. Since Ig's transformation into the demonic beast, he has come into
contact with the family members, and those around him have unintentionally
informed him of the truth. It was invisible, and no one could see the horns.
"I always thought there was something wrong with you," admits his
grandma (Horns, 52). Instead of the demonic main character, Ig’s
grandmother's inner monologue represents her as a figure devoid of empathy. His
surroundings don't give away their identities. Compared to the other characters
in the book, he was the least wicked of them all. In the real world, the
fantastical components are quite noticeable.
Ig can
investigate anyone's memory and trauma with the aid of psychometric skills. It
functions as a metaphor for figuring out the enigmas surrounding him. The
transformation of Ignatius Perrish realizes the true nature of others. Plato’s
Anagnorisis, a moment of critical discovery of others. He sees another person
as a touchstone to their innermost thoughts, which reflect his own and help him
grasp how they view Ig. In the broken world, he looks for himself.
Ig's
existence is worthless without Merrin. Like Adam and Eve, Merrin and Ig are
soulmates. From the perspective of God, the creator, their love is more intense
and lovely. In the Treehouse of Mind, their love has been deemed sacrosanct.
However, the seduction of knowledge and experience, like that of Adam and Eve,
whom Satan mentally lured, frequently dishonors their love. "He took the
form of a snake to free two prisoners being held naked in a Third World jungle
prison by an all-powerful megalomaniac"(Horns, 384). The author
comparesthe love of Ig and Merrin and God's offspring Adam and Eve. He has also
introduced them to their sexuality and expanded their nutrition at the same
time. After consuming the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Wisdom, Adam and Eve
acquire wisdom and depart from paradise. Similarly, Ig and Merrin's intimacy
has pressed on the base of the sickly cherry tree behind the abandoned spot in
the shadowy forest.
In
Treehouse of Mind, Ig and Merrindiscover a collection of little sculptures that
symbolize the important figures in their lives, including themselves. Ig uses
his head to push the demon's head away. There are rules in the Treehouse that
Take what you want while you’re here
Get what you need when you leave
Say Amen on your Way out the Door
Smoking is NOT prohibited (Horns, 417).
Merrin wishes to pass away quickly to lessen the
suffering caused by her disease. Ig accuses God of cruelty and judgment after
horns appear on his temples. God put cancer as the first thing that made her
suffer more, therefore the devil and the real murderer are not to blame for her
demise. He misinterprets her desire to have a sexual partner, and God punishes
her for her sinful request by allowing her to die. She has the same type of
illness that had already claimed her sister's life at the time of the murder.
Before her assassination, Merrinwritesa message in Morse code that eloquently
describes her love and suffering. She said that the deepest impulses, dread,
and resentment in the relationship controlled her and characterized her
sister's last month. Every connection that comes into contact with them is
tense with fear.
He adopts the issue of evil philosophy after Merrin's
passing. Until Merrin'spassing, he was compelled to have an unwise conviction
in the church gospel because he is a Catholic. He concludes that there is no
God in the cosmos because of her passing. God exclusively exhibits malevolent
traits toward humanity. God, the creator, is unworthy of the humans he created.
No one is spared from suffering by him. He creates a human being to be a part
of the clumsy scheme. Satan is the first creature to raise a voice against
God about his unfairness in universal laws. The writer compares God with Satan
that
I see God now as an unimaginative writer of popular
fiction, someone who builds stories around sadistic and graceless plots,
narratives that exist only to express His terror of a woman’s power to choose
who and how to love, redefine love as she sees fit, not as God thinks it ought
to be. The author is unworthy of His characters… The devil knows that only
those with the courage to risk their soul for love are entitled to have a soul,
even if God does not. And where does this leave God? (Horns, 259- 260)
Merrinhas
an epiphany and receives everything she desires from God. But most importantly,
Lee has raped and killedher. Numerous religious texts, like the Bible and the
Book of Job, purposefully use the issue of evil. After initially being compared
to God, Satan is compelled to oppose God due to his avarice for the heavenly
world. He uses a Christian demon as a metaphor for himself. Ig represents
himself as a demonic being by the ability to speak with a poisonous snake. To
get Eve to eat a forbidden fruit, Satan in the narrative of Adam and Eve
changed into a serpent. Similarly, Ig uses telepathy to get the poisonous snake
to go down Lee's neck in retaliation for the killing of his fiancée.
Ig
unintentionally crosses over to the Treehouse of the Mind before the
transformational stage, where he sees Merrin and a younger version of himself.
Intoxicated, he sets fire to the treehouse. Ig learns the truth about his
beloved's murder and thanks to the house.
Despite
not helping anybody, God is revered as a human savior. He hasn't said that God
doesn't exist in the cosmos, but he hasn't provided any consolation to those
suffering because of evil. On the other hand, the Devil is ready to help
the people who are likely to sin “The devil is always there to help those who
are ready to sin, which is another word for live. His phone lines are open.
Operators are standing by” (Horns, 260). Ig is slightly moving toward
Hell after a transformation “Ig took his responsibility as a budding young Lord
of Hell seriously” (Horns, 355). He has presented his closest people
with a few offerings. For example, in Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlow,
Faustus makes a blood pact with Mephistopheles to sell his soul to Lucifer. The
devil can state his need for knowledge and pleasure in life. The devil depicts
the universe as infinite and helpless. His need to study cannot be satisfied by
the material world. The Treehouse of Mind, a fantastical notion, assisted Ig in
discovering the true reason for the death of her girlfriend. The novel Horns
incorporates the merging of fiction and reality.
Works Cited
Buchanan, Joseph Rodes. Manual of
Psychometry: The Dawn of a New Civilization, Boston: F.H. Hodges, 1893.
Hill, Joe. Horns.Orion Publishing
Group, 2010.
Roth, Philip. The Ghost Writer. Farrar,
Straus & Giroux, 1979.