Archetypes in Literature

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Archetypes in Literature

• The Flood
• The Human Year
• God-Teacher
• The Golden Age
• End of Childhood
• The Metamorphosis

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ARCHETYPE a universal character type, plot
pattern, .
motif, image, or symbol.
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The Flood

• A story that shows decay and destruction, then
  the establishment of a new community.
• Water is a common image it destroys yet saves
  takes and gives life.
• A method of rebirth is often contained in these
  stories. This ark is a recurring detail and
  may take the form of a ship or other vessel.
• This archetype offers hope. The people left
  after the destruction are good people. A new
  society, better than the last, will be the
  result.
• The Flood is often associated with winter, with
  the following spring representing rebirth.

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The Human Year

• This archetype depicts the various stages in a
  persons life, usually associating these changes
  through the four seasons.
• Spring birth, summer youth, autumn old age,
  winter death, spring rebirth.
• Such images are a signal to the reader or viewer
  to examine this stage in someones life.
• Authors and filmmakers consciously or
  unconsciously use the seasons as backdrops for
  the four basic plot types
• - Summer Romance
• - Autumn Tragedy
• - Winter Irony
• - Spring Comedy

5
The God Teacher

• This story involves an individual with great
  knowledge benevolent and charitable, he is
  willing to share his wisdom and teach people the
  answers to hidden mysteries.
• He acts as an intermediary--a bridge between
  humans and a divine power.
• He is a model for human behavior.
• He may take the form of animals, teachers,
  visionaries, political or religious leaders, and
  sport or film idols.
• The God Teacher must ultimately sacrifice
  something of themselves (in early myths they were
  punished for revealing mysteries).

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The Golden Age

• This story presents a kind of utopia (a perfect
  world, place, situation, where people have found
  happiness).
• Stories and films that end with the hero riding
  into the sunset provide a good example.
• All people long for a return to such a time
  often their quest is to restore happiness to the
  land.
• Consider the history of Middle-Earth in Tolkeins
  The Lord of the Rings. Why does Frodo decide to
  carry the ring?

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End of Childhood

• These stories concern the origin of evil, and are
  symbolically represented by the loss of innocence
  and childhood.
• There is a movement away from security and
  safety a rosy outlook on life is replaced with a
  new, sometimes cynical view of responsibility and
  an awareness of aging and death.
• The story may take the form of a new
  experience--e.g., a first encounter with war,
  violence, crime, senseless destruction, or a
  first love.
• The individual usually comes to realize a harsh
  truth and must deal with it.

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Metamorphosis

• A metamorphosis means a complete change. It was
  a word first used by the Roman writer Ovid as he
  collected myths regarding transformations in
  people and nature.
• The idea of change within the universe appeals to
  the idea that all things become one that the
  natural, human, and divine worlds can flow in and
  out of each other.
• Nothing remains fixed or static.
• The stories emphasize that people can change
  within the imagination in reality we may not
  change, but within our minds we can become
  anything.
• The idea of metamorphosis is an expression of
  both our wishes and nightmares. We have
  ambitions to become gods, to conquer death, but
  we fear being reduced to something below human.