Turning Red's Heroines Journey

 

Turning Red follows Meilin, or Mei, as she discovers that she can transform into a giant red panda. In the beginning of the story, Mei has a falling out with her mother, signifying a separation from the feminine. Her overprotective mother, Ming, discovers her drawings of her fantasizing about a convenient store clerk and proceeds to go and confront him, embarrassing Mei in front of everyone. Mei the next day discovers that she has transformed into a giant red panda which belongs to the feminine side since this ability is passed down to all the female descendants. What’s most interesting though is that this ancestral power symbolically represents the masculine due to separation from the women in the family and this power through a special ritual which seals it into a talisman. I would say that the red panda represents masculine side while the human side represents the feminine even though both could be interpreted as the feminine. I think that her discovering this ability right after having an argument with her mom represents identification with the masculine, specifically after Mei learns that she can use this ability to earn money to buy tickets for a boy band and thinks that this ability is actually useful.

Mei continually lies to her mom about what she is doing while secretly earning money, and she continues to develop her relationship with her friends, which represents the gathering of allies. They realize they still need $100 more, and so Mei agrees to go to Tyler’s birthday party to earn the final portion of their money. I would say this represents the boon of success because how the final $100 would have been the culmination of success if they succeeded, and how it’s actually an illusion of success. So of course, not everything goes to plan. Mei attacks Tyler when he insu
lts her family, and her mom finds out what she has been doing this whole time which leads to her blaming Mei’s friends for leading her astray with Mei not defending her friends. This represents the step awakening feelings of spiritual aridity: death because of the setback that Mei has experienced and the split between her and her friends.

After this situation, it is nearly time for the ritual to begin to permanently seal away her red panda. Her aunties arrive to assist with the ritual, which I would say represents the initiation and descent to the goddess. Her aunties are similar to her mom in how they have sealed away their red pandas, which means that they are associated with the feminine side. Mei also suddenly feels this urge to also seal away her panda even though she initially likes it. This change in heart is the step urgent yearning to reconnect with the feminine. This step could also be when she doesn’t stand up to her friends because she wants her moms approval and won’t endanger the image of her that her mom has. 

Her dad, Jin, doesn’t fully represent the masculine, but I would argue that he is the reason why Mei heals her masculine side by telling her not to be ashamed of her red panda. This step is actually supposed to come after the healing of the mother daughter split, but in this story it makes sense for it to happen before because the next thing that happens is that Mei stops the ritual from completing and escapes to go watch her boy band. Her mom goes berserk and breaks her talisman turning her into this enormous red panda.

They have a fight and Mei and her aunties perform the ritual and send them all into the astral plane. In there, Mei helps her mom heal the rift that occurred between her mom and her grandmother, and consequently between each other. This means that the healing between the mother daughter split actually occurs twice. In the end, Mei decides to keep her red panda unsealed, which means that she has fully integrated her feminine and masculine sides.