Archetypes in Literature The Flood The Human Year God-Teacher The Golden Age End of Childhood The Metamorphosis

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

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.

The Human Year  This archetype depicts the various stages in a person’s 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 someone’s 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

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).

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 Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings. Why does Frodo decide to carry the ring?

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.

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.