Archetypes In The Hero's Tale
Throughout history, myths and stories have been around to help define the way that people and things react with one another in certain situations. These relations create patterns that help to explain why people do similar actions to those of faraway lands that have a completely different lifestyle. These are represented through many stories throughout cultures all across the world. These patterns that we develop are called archetypes. An archetype is defined as “a typical character, an action or a situation that seems to represent such universal patterns of human nature” (Taylor 3). According to the psychologist Carl Jung, mankind possesses a “collective unconscious” that contains these archetypes and these are common to all of humanity. Archetypal
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The three main archetypes that were notable throughout the novel were the mother archetype who was represented by Nirmala; the villain which was portrayed by Ammayya; and Raju as the wise old man. Anita Rau Badami’s novel uses the horrible effects of death and what it does to a family to reveal the character’s flaws and weaknesses. While reading this novel many emotions and feelings are discovered through the usage of archetypes. When an author uses the archetypal approach, he or she selects a universal theme through which to tell their story. Loss and Grief is an underlying universal theme in this novel. This theme is shown as the family learns how to cope with the death of Maya, a very loved daughter, sister, mother and friend. The spark of insight that can come from making a connection between characters in this novel to the archetypes ultimately helps the reader find the essential truth about certain matters in the novel. Using an archetypal approach to literature means that there is a collection of symbols, images, characters, and motifs that evokes basically the same response in all people. To conclude, archetypes are important in this novel because they help to explain why characters have certain traits and it also helps to understand the text better. If the reader applies their knowledge of archetypes while reading the novel, it will definitely help to make the text more understandable and it will also make it a more enjoyable
The three main archetypes that were notable throughout the novel were the mother archetype who was represented by Nirmala; the villain which was portrayed by Ammayya; and Raju as the wise old man. Anita Rau Badami’s novel uses the horrible effects of death and what it does to a family to reveal the character’s flaws and weaknesses. While reading this novel many emotions and feelings are discovered through the usage of archetypes. When an author uses the archetypal approach, he or she selects a universal theme through which to tell their story. Loss and Grief is an underlying universal theme in this novel. This theme is shown as the family learns how to cope with the death of Maya, a very loved daughter, sister, mother and friend. The spark of insight that can come from making a connection between characters in this novel to the archetypes ultimately helps the reader find the essential truth about certain matters in the novel. Using an archetypal approach to literature means that there is a collection of symbols, images, characters, and motifs that evokes basically the same response in all people. To conclude, archetypes are important in this novel because they help to explain why characters have certain traits and it also helps to understand the text better. If the reader applies their knowledge of archetypes while reading the novel, it will definitely help to make the text more understandable and it will also make it a more enjoyable