A common complaint about the YIJC is that "Indy doesn't change from the idealistic kid to the rogue we see in the films" in the YIJC.
I believe, for one, we do see some evolution, the beginning of it. The YIJC cut off in 1920. The films pick up in 1935. A full fifteen years difference.
We know that in 1926, Indy had three major events happen:
1) He got married
2) His wife died
3) He had the turbulent affair with Marion, which cost him his close friendship with Abner, who was a father figure and mentor.
People say "Indy should've changed due to his War experiences." But I believe it was the events of 1926 that fully changed him, and I'll use my own personal experience to tell you why.
My mother was suffering from a terminal illness for years, by last summer she was dying and only a last minute operation saved her life. Thoroughout her decade long illness and the final end of it, where she was confused and unaware of herself a good deal of time, I didn't change. Nor did I change despite emotional and physical abuse, or other traumatic events.
Last year, I met and fell in love with a girl. We got engaged. We had a deep, soul binding connection, so intense it was beautiful. Despite having numerous women before her, many loves, I feel she and I are each other's soul mates. I understand her like no other, and we click amazingly well. But it was the classic case of the right couple meeting at the wrong time in our lives. For many reasons, I pushed her away, and I lost her last month. Given the way it ended, it could be forever, or it could be where we meet again in another ten years when we're ready for it, like Marion. That loss has changed me utterly, more than any other event in my life. It's changed my point of view on women, on relationships (where before I was Mr. Lover Boy, now I'm much more cold and casual about it all), on the future, on the idea of fate, even questioning the idea of God. It's transformed me utterly into a much more detached, much less emotional and mushy person.
Love alone did that. Heartbreak alone. Not traumatic life or death events. Not personal injury or scary happenings. Just pure heartbreak.
Maybe, in Indy's case, it was the same. As the films show us, Marion was Indy's "one". Perhaps the intensity of their affair, it's highly bitter and likely nasty end, combined with the death of his wife just months before, is what finally broke him and turned him into the Indy of the films.
I believe, for one, we do see some evolution, the beginning of it. The YIJC cut off in 1920. The films pick up in 1935. A full fifteen years difference.
We know that in 1926, Indy had three major events happen:
1) He got married
2) His wife died
3) He had the turbulent affair with Marion, which cost him his close friendship with Abner, who was a father figure and mentor.
People say "Indy should've changed due to his War experiences." But I believe it was the events of 1926 that fully changed him, and I'll use my own personal experience to tell you why.
My mother was suffering from a terminal illness for years, by last summer she was dying and only a last minute operation saved her life. Thoroughout her decade long illness and the final end of it, where she was confused and unaware of herself a good deal of time, I didn't change. Nor did I change despite emotional and physical abuse, or other traumatic events.
Last year, I met and fell in love with a girl. We got engaged. We had a deep, soul binding connection, so intense it was beautiful. Despite having numerous women before her, many loves, I feel she and I are each other's soul mates. I understand her like no other, and we click amazingly well. But it was the classic case of the right couple meeting at the wrong time in our lives. For many reasons, I pushed her away, and I lost her last month. Given the way it ended, it could be forever, or it could be where we meet again in another ten years when we're ready for it, like Marion. That loss has changed me utterly, more than any other event in my life. It's changed my point of view on women, on relationships (where before I was Mr. Lover Boy, now I'm much more cold and casual about it all), on the future, on the idea of fate, even questioning the idea of God. It's transformed me utterly into a much more detached, much less emotional and mushy person.
Love alone did that. Heartbreak alone. Not traumatic life or death events. Not personal injury or scary happenings. Just pure heartbreak.
Maybe, in Indy's case, it was the same. As the films show us, Marion was Indy's "one". Perhaps the intensity of their affair, it's highly bitter and likely nasty end, combined with the death of his wife just months before, is what finally broke him and turned him into the Indy of the films.