Mental Library: Archetypes

Hello, heroes, mentors, and villains.

Today, we are talking about archetypes.

Archetypes are things that are found throughout literature and mean the same thing (almost) every time you find it. For example, there are archetypal colors (red=danger,etc.), archetypal themes (good v. evil etc.), and archetypal characters (damsel in distress, sidekick, etc.). Also, take note that any of these can be flipped to deliberately mean the opposite of what they're supposed to mean.

Here are some basic ones:

Characters:

Damsel in Distress: The helpless woman who is saved by the man. Sleeping Beauty and Snow White are examples of this.

Hero: The person who goes on a journey. . . which has many specifications. I wrote a post about the archetypal hero's journey here. Example: Harry Potter

Mentor: The person who teaches the hero. Example: Dumbledore

Villain: The person who is against the hero. Example: Darth Vader

Themes:

Light v. Dark: This is self-explanatory. An example of this is in Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series.

Coming of Age: This is when a character moves from childhood to adulthood.

So many more archetypes exist, but you'll have to look into them on your own. :)

Happy New Year!

Spruce Nogard

Attributions: 
https://pixabay.com/en/harry-potter-warner-bros-1132332/ 
https://pixabay.com/en/snow-white-princess-prince-933491/
https://pixabay.com/en/star-wars-darth-vader-cult-space-1204193/
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/harry-potter-and-the-sorcerers-stone-j-k-rowling/110003632
https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Rising-Susan-Cooper-Cober/dp/B002WXOQ5I/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1480800949&sr=1-8&keywords=the+dark+is+rising