1. Archetypes Learning Targets:
Students will be able to list common archetypes.
Students will be able to define archetype and write about its impact on a work of literature.

2. What are the similarities of these characters?

3. What are the similarities of these characters?

4. What are the similarities between these stories?

5. Group Discussion Questions
Why do so many stories share a similar plot?
Why do so many different characters in stories fit into a type like ‘sidekick’ or ‘hero’ or ‘evil villain’?
How does culture shape this?

6. Archetypes Theory Definition
Archetypes are universal (1) motifs, (2) character types, and (3) plots that appear in literature, movies, oral tradition, myths, etc. across all time and all* cultures.

7. Plot (Situation) Archetypes
The Quest
The Fall (from high to low standing)
The Rebellion
Loss of Innocence
The Creation Story
The Initiation
The Task
Nature vs. the Mechanical World
Good vs. Evil
Coming-of-Age
The Unhealable Wound
Death and Rebirth
The Ritual
Cinderella (Rags-to-Riches)

8. Example: Cinderella (Rags to Riches)

9. Cinderella (Rags to Riches)

10. Cinderella (Rags to Riches) and Syncretism

11. Character Archetypes The Hero The Temptress The Mentor
The Reluctant Hero
The Sage
The Warrior
The Sidekick
The Star-Crossed Lovers
The Friendly Beast
The Bully
Evil Incarnate (The Dark Lord)
The Mad-Scientist
The Outcast
The Trickster
The Fallen Hero
The Initiates
The Damsel in Distress
The Scapegoat
The Betrayer
The Wanderer
The Unfaithful Lover
The Innocent One (pure soul)
The Earth Mother

12. Archetypal Motifs
Water: purification, cleansing, source of life and sustenance
Fire
Desert
Sunrise
Darkness
Being Dirty
Sun/ Stars/ Moon
Dreams
“Donning” of Armor
Colors:
Red: blood, anger, passion, violence
Gold: greatness, value, wealth
Green: fertility, luxury, growth
Blue: peace, serenity

13. Archetypes… So what? Why might archetypes matter?
Talk with a neighbor and be ready to share:
Why might archetypes matter?
How can archetypes help us understand literature?

14. Archetypes… So what?
Archetypes appear in stories from all cultures across all of recorded history. Psychologist Carl Jung suggested that this means that there are certain universal thinking patterns and understandings that are common among all peoples.
Jung hypothesized that part of the human mind contained a collective unconscious shared by all members of the human species, a sort of universal, primal memory. This posits that the stories we tell and characters who inhabit them are biologically predetermined?
It is the universal part of the definition that is
important

15. Task
With a partner create a poster for your assigned archetype(s) that:
Label the archetype
Can be read from 10 feet away
Provide a description
List 3 common examples
Has a colorful drawing

16. The Mentor
The Fall
B. These individuals serve as teachers or counselors to the initiate archetype. Serve as role-models or motherly figures often. They teach by example the skills necessary to survive the journey or quest archetypes. C. Dumbledore, Gandalf the Grey, Ultima
B. This describes a descent from a higher to lower state of being, an experience which might involve defilement, moral corruption, or loss of innocence. This fall is often accompanied by a punishment, such as an expulsion from paradise. C. Adam & Eve, Oedipus in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Lear in Shakespeare’s King Lear

17. Symbolizes: loss of innocence, poverty, loss
Motif: Being Dirty
Symbolizes: loss of innocence, poverty, loss