Vogler Reading: Archetypes

Vogler Reading: Archetypes

Summary:
It is in this section of the reading that Vogler delves deeper into the Hero’s Journey in regards to people that influence his journey and what significance each of them have. The archetypes that we see in every fairytale, screen play, novel, etc… are all extremely similar to one another despite each stories differences and uniqueness. Carl G. Jung describes archetypes as “ancient patterns of personality that are the shared heritage of the human race.” It is important to not think of archetypes as definite roles in a story but instead of characters that are put in place to try to achieve a certain outcome. Through the universality of archetypes it is able for everyone to connect with and relate to these roles that can be seen in all cultures. There are many archetypes that appear in stories, however, the basic and most common are the Hero, Mentor, Shadow, Herald, Shapeshifter, and Threshold Guardian. It is by meeting and interacting with each different archetype in a story that the hero learns, grows, and creates a “complete human being.”

Reaction:
The idea that heroes teach us how to deal with death is an idea that I’m not sure I fully agree with. It is possible that in a very elementary and farfetched way a hero in a story could give some insight into death; however, death is not something that can be understood that easily. The three ways that the book explains death, by surviving it, being reborn afterwards, or dying, didn’t provide me with enough reasoning as to how heroes show us how to deal with death. I thought it was extremely interesting that the Mentor is often symbolic of a parent and could be filling in for the absence of a parent in the hero’s life. It is evident that someone with advice and answers is needed to help guide us at certain points throughout our lives, and parent or not, without them we would find ourselves lost at many moments. I am not completely sure that I understand exactly how an anti-hero comes to be. In the introduction Vogler talks about how the reader must identify and sympathize with the hero, and it seems unlikely that many people could identify with a villain.

Reflection:
This section of reading brought me to thinking about the short story we read last week, “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” I thought about each character and what archetype they might fit into and whether or not the Misfit could really be called a hero. By the end of the story the reader begins to feel a little sympathy for the Misfit but I am unsure if he holds all of the necessary qualities to be considered a hero in the story. The Grandma could be said to fill the role of the Mentor as she is talking with the Misfit and trying to guide him into doing the right thing and not kill them. I was also brainstorming about my own personal narrative as I was reading about the different archetypes and all of the possible places you could go with them. It was fun to try and match things like a Mentor’s gift with something in my story that I had to earn and that helped me move forward in my journey.

Questions:
-How exactly does the anti-hero theory work? Can someone who has committed a crime or performed an atrocious act really become a hero in the eyes of the reader?

-I thought the whole idea of a Hero’s Journey was for them to learn and grow… how can there be catalyst heroes then?

-How can a hero already have an inner mentor? Does everyone and it’s merely a matter of finding it within ourselves?