The Nurturer of Men

In Wee Small Hours, Don meets up with a jogging Miss Farrell who is wearing a Bowdoin shirt. The shirt is quite prominent during the scene. Since Mad Men never arbitrarily puts anything out there, I looked up Bowdoin.

I was struck by the fact that the image on Bowdoin’s official seal is a sun. This is certainly no accident given the use of the sun as a major motif in Mad Men.

From Bowdoin’s website:

The origin of the sun on the Bowdoin seal has been widely debated. Some believe the sun was chosen due to Bowdoin’s location: the easternmost college in the country at the time of its founding. More likely is that the sun was selected as a symbol of truth and enlightenment, and to represent the rising sun of knowledge and the light of learning. The seal was created in 1798 by Joseph Callender of Boston and remains unchanged to this day.

The original lyrics to Bowdoin’s Alma Mater “Raise Songs to Bowdoin.”

Rise sons of Bowdoin, praise her fame,
And sing aloud her glorious name;
To Bowdoin, Bowdoin lift your song,
And may the music echo long
O’er whispering pines and campus fair
With sturdy might filling the air.
Bowdoin, from birth, the nurturer of men,
To thee we pledge our love again, again.

When first transfixed by Miss Farrell’s Maypole dance and after what he characterizes as  their “chance” encounter on the road, Don seems to have attached an almost supernatural significance to her presence. His attraction to Farrell seems motivated by a longing for something Don’s current life isn’t providing. Admittedly, Miss Farrell is a little nutty. But so is Conrad Hilton, whose obsession with the moon would seem to place in him direct contrast with Miss Farrell.  Coinciding with the solar eclipse from 723, as Don’s relationship with Hilton was beginning, he didn’t seem as interested in Farrell.  In effect, the moon that was Hilton blocked out Farrell’s sun.  However, the eclipse ends as Don’s relationship with Hilton sours.  Don has two clear paths.  He could stay with his established (and safer) life as Don Draper of Sterling-Cooper or he could take a risky venture into the uncharted wilderness of growth Miss Farrell represents. Of course, his first experience into that world, as arguably represented by Doug and Sandy in 723, ended badly.