The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy
"The Falling Woman" is a narrative that explores the journey of Elizabeth Butler, an archaeologist grappling with her identity and past choices. Central to the plot is Liz's internal conflict between adhering to the wishes of a Mayan ghost, Zuhuy-kak, who desires a blood sacrifice to restore ancient power, and confronting her own discontent with the present. The story unfolds over six chapters, weaving in elements of Mayan customs and the belief in understanding one's past to navigate the future.
Liz's relationship with her estranged daughter, Diane, becomes pivotal as Diane seeks answers about her mother's abandonment. The emotional tension escalates as Liz considers sacrificing Diane to fulfill the ghost's demands, reflecting her own struggles with guilt and loss. Alongside the haunting presence of Zuhuy-kak, supportive figures like Tony Baker provide a contrast, grounding Liz in her reality. Throughout the narrative, Liz's psychological battles blur the lines between the past and present, culminating in a profound realization about the futility of sacrifice. Ultimately, the story emphasizes themes of familial bonds, the repercussions of past actions, and the quest for self-understanding.
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Subject Terms
The Falling Woman
First published: 1986
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Fantasy—Magical Realism
Time of work: The mid-1980s, with flashbacks to the 1940s
Locale: Yucatan digs in Mexico, and Berkeley, California
The Plot
The Falling Woman concerns the efforts of Elizabeth Butler (Liz) to achieve self-understanding by choosing between the unknown past and present reality. Liz must decide whether to fulfill the wishes of a Mayan ghost, Zuhuy-kak, who believes the blood sacrifice of Liz’s estranged daughter, Diane, will restore power to an ancient Mayan goddess. Her option is to deny this past world that she cherishes and accept the present world she loathes. Six chapters, interspersed with ones devoted to Liz and Diane, describe ancient Mayan customs and cyclic concepts that emphasize the key Mayan belief that people need to know and understand their past in order to understand their future. Two characters, Diane and Zuhuy-kak, exert emotional and psychological pressures on the central character, Liz, while Tony Baker provides comforting support.
Liz is an archaeologist, lecturer, and writer whose youthful efforts to secure freedom to develop her talents resulted in a nervous breakdown, attempted suicide, divorce, and loss of child custody. At the Dzibilchaltún dig, co-directed with Tony, Liz exists on the psychic border between past and present. Seeing both sides, she simultaneously observes ancient ghosts and modern humans pursuing daily activities. In these ruins, Liz talks to herself, daydreams about the Mayan shadows who ignore her, and reflects that psychiatrists would suggest that these supernatural phantoms are hallucinations, parts of herself projected from her subconscious mind.
A wish fulfillment activates the fantasy plot. Although she laughs at students visions of treasure, Liz expresses her own dream of locating a tomb at the excavation. Later, as Liz sits by the cenote, one ghost stops, stares, and questions her presence. Liz is equally astounded. She discovers that rules of reality are changing and barriers are down. Speech is possible between Zuhuy-kak, dead a thousand years, and Liz. After Liz passes a riddle test, Zuhuy-kak promises friendship and aid in revealing hidden secrets. That night, during her dreams, Liz relives the shadows memories of falling in the waters of Chichén Itzás sacred cenote. At dawn, she finds a partly raised stone, a clue that leads eventually to buried secrets in Zuhuy-kaks tomb.
Exploration of the past continues when Diane Butler arrives unexpectedly. She wants to learn why Liz abandoned her in childhood. As Liz and Diane share separate memories, Zuhuy-kak also tells Liz about her life and insists that Liz sacrifice Diane. To protect her daughter, Liz asks Diane to leave the Yucatan and offers herself as a sacrifice. When the girl refuses, Liz asks Tony, a father figure to Diane, to help guard the girls safety.
The fantasy climaxes as Liz achieves self-understanding. She realizes that her sacrificial abandonment of Diane on her educational altar was just as unacceptable and futile as Zuhuy-kaks desired sacrifice. After Diane and Zuhuykak share this knowledge, all three free themselves of past mistakes. Diane lifts her unconscious mother and the shadow shoulders her dead daughter; both trudge out of the cave. As Diane follows the light of Zuhuy-kak’s flickering torch, she moves toward a future with Liz, one that begins on the bridge at Strawberry Creek in Berkeley.