Archetypes and Stereotypes

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Archetypes and Stereotypes
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How do you feel when you're hanging out with your
best friend? Your funny cousin? Your grumpy boss?

• People affect our moods and feelings every day.
  Characters, who are written to take on a life of
  their own, affect the mood of other characters in
  the story. Authors often model characters after
  people, not necessarily people who have lived or
  are living authors combine characteristics that
  we know to be true in human nature.
• We recognize certain personality types in the
  people in our lives and in the characters in our
  literature.

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We all know someone who is

• a clown
• a romantic
• a hard worker
• a bossy tyrant
• a leader
• These people embody certain characteristics.

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What have you been labeled as?

What are five characteristics of your group?

• How do people decide upon these labels?
• Do the labels represent the individuals fully?

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Archetypes are mental fingerprints revealing the
details of a persons personality

• The archetype tells the reader about the most
  basic instincts of the hero how he thinks, how
  he feels, what drives him and why he chooses both
  his goals and his methods.

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Stereotypes and Archetypes

• Stereotypes are flat
• Based only on surface characteristics

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Archetypes

• Archetypes are rich
• Archetypes are a skeleton on which the author
  builds the flesh and soul of the character.
• Shakespeare used the blueprint of the lover when
  he created Romeo, but he enriched the character
  with unique characteristics, such as his loyalty
  to Mercutio. Characters have many layers, but the
  archetype is often the root of their actions in a
  story.

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Looking for an example?
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Remember . . .

• What the character does is not the defining
  element. The defining element is WHY the
  character does what he does. 
• Any archetype can do anything   the question
  will always be why.
•  Archetypes are not stereotypes they are not
  cookie cutters. They can be considered a
  framework, or even better, a lump of clay of a
  particular color and consistency.