# Reading > General Literature >  Archetypes of "To Kill a Mockingbird"?

## SokrSk8nboi

Can anyone give me 10 archetypes in the book "To Kill a Mockingbird"?

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## Sitaram

Do you mean Jungian archetypes?

Of course, we all know (or, at lease most of us know) that Boo is an archetype of Jesus.

Yes, I know it is difficult to believe, but are a very few are still resistant to a truth which most hold to be self-evident.



http://www.cs.umbc.edu/~evans/TKAM.h...+a+Mockingbird

Jem and Scout embody the ideals of youth and the naivety of innocence, while Tom Robinson with his withered arm symbolizes the crippled powerlessness of the black community. 


For example, the archetypal character of the crippled man symbolizing a crippled society can be perceived in the character of Benjy Compton in William Faulkner's tremendously symbolic novel The Sound and the Fury; Benjy, who is severely mentally challenged, has no concept of time and is preyed upon by vulturous members of his world, including his black care-giver and his older brother Jason. Benjy represents Faulkner's conception of the decaying Southern gentility; that the sense of time is skewed (with its emphasis on the conservative old ways and the antebellum morality, the South, like Benjy, is living in a mixed world of past and present which is largely responsible for its failure and decline) and that its fate is beyond its control. Harper Lee's use of Tom Robinson is very similar: the arm, destroyed by a cotton gin (possibly symbolizing the damaging mechanization of modern society), represents the black communities' lack of power and strength; however, all is not negative: Tom has a fundamental morality and a strong sense of integrity and empathy, and it can be implied that the community he represents does also. Benjy Compton and Tom Robinson are both examples of the same archetype: the individual who stands for an entire select citizenry. 


Lee also uses some other standard archetypes of characters. Atticus Finch, the father, at once embodies the character type of "wise man", or "sage"; this character is seen in various works from Owl Eyes in The Great Gatsby to Don Juan Matus in The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Castaneda to the immortal character of Sherlock Holmes in A. Conan Doyle's tales; Atticus also fills in the traditional "hero-warrior" roles (especially in the scene with the rabid dog and the scene where he defends the courthouse from the lynch mob) which is typified by such diverse models as Beowulf, Santiago in Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and Tom Jones in the eponymous book by Henry Fielding. From a Mythological standpoint, To Kill a Mockingbird contains vivid archetypes of several universal characters. 


Some archetypal plots include The Quest, The Search for Self, The Initiation, and The Epic. The main plot archetype used in To Kill A Mockingbird is that of The Rite of Passage. Both Jem and Scout undergo an odyssey which entails a loss of innocence but rewards them with experience and knowledge as well as access into the world of maturity during their meandering journey towards adulthood; their rite of passage is completed by their survival of the attempt on their lives by Bob Ewell. Having survived that, and confronted the moral evil of the town successfully, as well as Scout's mature realization that Arthur Radley is a bashful human being and not a monster or a "malevolent phantom" (TKAM 8) as she had supposed him to be, the rite of passage is complete. This plot is used very frequently, from The Catcher in the Rye where Holden Caulfield makes his way on an odyssey through New York City, to Stephen Daedelus in James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man where Stephen, in his rite of passage, rejects religion and gradually accepts his role as an artist. This theme is intensified in Lee's work because there are two main characters who undergo separate transformations during their journey. Like A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man, Jem and Scout swerve from the traditions and values of their communities (Stephen turns away from organized religion, while Jem and Scout reject racism and injustice), and like Holden, Jem and Scout stand up for the cause they know and believe is right (Holden defends the preservation of innocence, while Jem and Scout defend their father's reputation as a "niggerlover" and in supporting him promote the basic rights and humanity of all people regardless of color); this, then, indicates that the archetypal rite of passage is a coming-of-age paired with a discovery-of-self, and is often painful. Lee masterfully constructs the rite of passage tale which adheres to its mythological guidelines and yet is intensely unique. 


Another archetypal theme which Lee slyly references is loss of innocence. However, Lee turns this common subject on its head by inverting it: here, loss of innocence is positive, because the two children gain a positive moral outlook, a tolerance for all races, a humanistic attitude, and a general faith in the underlying benevolence of humanity. This is in contrast to books like William Golding's The Lord of the Flies, John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, or F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, where the narrator, Nick, loses his innocence but gains nothing but sorrow, disappointment, and a more fatalistic outlook on life. Another traditional use of loss of innocence in literature (and perhaps the most important) is to be found in John Milton's "Paradise Lost"; the entire poem deals with the theme of lost innocence. "Paradise Lost" inspects the very first loss of innocence by humankind, that of Adam and Eve when falling from grace. To Kill A Mockingbird inverts "Paradise Lost" in several ways; the two principal characters in Lee's novel learn more about the world in a constructive way which will help them lead their future lives, while Milton's poem ends with two Biblical figures cast out of Eden and facing a new life of labor, hardship, disease, and death. Secondly, Lee structures the plot so that Jem and Scout lose their naivete as a result of uncontrollable outside influences, while Milton blames Adam and Eve's loss on their own internal weakness and pride. So when Harper Lee uses the plotting archetypes she is at once conformist and rebel; while adhering to the rite of passage design, she radically reinvents the way the topic of loss of innocence is dealt with. 


http://www.webenglishteacher.com/lee.html

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## Sitaram

https://lawrencecentral.ltschools.or...typesquest.htm

Examples of Archetypal Characters:



q Mother Goddess 

o Hera/crown/peacock

o Athena/helmet/weaving/owl/olive tree

o Aphrodite/sea foam/shell/dove/myrtle

o Persephone/Narcissus/pomegranate/bat

o Artemis/moon/wild beastsbear

o Demeter/fruits of the harvest/corn, tree of life/sacred pillar, cavern, animals/snake, golden butterfly/double-edged axelabrys, fish, corn)

q Scapegoat 

o The lottery winner in The Lottery 

o Piggy in Lord of the Flies

o Jews in Night

o Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird

q Trickster

q Femme Fatale

q The Magician (Paging Harry Potter fans!)

q Benevolent Guide

q Universal Heropowerful person or god-figure who vanquishes evil in the form of dragons, monsters, and so on to liberate his people from destruction and deathOdysseus



Examples of Archetypal Symbols



q the rose

q the serpent

q the sun



Examples of Archetypal Plot Patterns



q initiation

q the quest

q descent to the underworld

q the most fundamental of these patterns is often said to be death and rebirth, reflecting the natural cycle of the seasons

q the feud



Examples of Archetypal Settings



q the paradisal garden



archetype: From the Greek: arche, meaning "original" or "primitive," plus typos, "form." The term, employed by the psychoanalyst C.G. Jung, has been used in the New Criticism (a literary-criticism movement beginning in the 1920's) since the 1930's to characterize a pattern of plot or character that evokes what Jung calls a "racial memory" (Beckson 19).



archetype: A symbol, theme, setting, or character-type that recurs in different times and places in myth, literature, folklore, dreams, and rituals so frequently or prominently as to suggest (to certain speculative psychologists and critics) that it embodies some essential element of "universal" human experience. 



8. Some psychological definitions to consider:



"Jungian archetypes are like prototypes or molds that each person fills in differently depending on his or her individual experience...There is no limit to the number of possible archetypes: They are as varied as human experience itself. Many take the forms of persons, such as the hero, the child, the trickster, the demon, and the earth mother [the magna mater]. Others are expressed as forces of nature (sun, moon, wind, fire) or animals. They may also occur as situations, events (birth, rebirth, death), or places" (Beins and Feldman 28).



"Jung began to develop the archetype concept during his early work...He studied religious symbolism, mythology, tribal lore, and such occult disciplines as alchemy, in quest of evidence of universal motifs" (Corsini 100).

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## Sitaram

http://www.dramatica.com/community/r...dio_tapes.html

Originally recorded and produced in 1994 as a series of cassette tapes, these audio recordings of Melanie Anne Phillips and Chris Huntley leading an Early Dramatica discussion are now made available for free as downloadable Real Media audio files. The tapes have been broken down into segments to make downloading more convenient. The average length of each segment ranges between four and eight minutes long.

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## Sitaram

This link is a very long page, and a great read/study. Below is just a summary of the archetypes (character types) discussed.

http://www.meta-religion.com/Psychia...archetypes.htm

Addict (Conspicuous Consumer, Glutton, Workaholic--see also 

Gambler) 

Advocate (Attorney, Defender, Legislator, Lobbyist, Environmentalist) 

Alchemist (Wizard, Magician, Scientist, Inventor--see also Visionary) 

Angel (Fairy Godmother/Godfather) 

Artist (Artisan, Craftsperson, Sculptor, Weaver) 

Athlete (Olympian) 

Avenger (Avenging Angel, Savior, Messiah) 

Beggar (Homeless person/ Indigent) 

Bully (Coward) 

Child (Orphan, Wounded, Magical/Innocent, Nature, Divine, 

Puer/Puella Eternis, or Eternal Boy/Girl) 

Child: Orphan 

Child: Wounded 

Child: Magical/Innocent 

Child: Nature 

Child: Puer/Puella Eternis (Eternal Boy/Girl) 

Child, Divine 

Clown (Court Jester, Fool, Dummling)

Companion (Friend, Sidekick, Right Arm, Consort) 

Damsel (Princess) 

Destroyer (Attila, Mad Scientist, Serial Killer, Spoiler) 

Detective (Spy, Double Agent, Sleuth, Snoop, Sherlock Holmes, 

Private Investigator, Profiler--see also Warrior/Crime Fighter) 

Dilettante (Amateur) 

Don Juan (Casanova, Gigolo, Seducer, Sex Addict) 

Engineer (Architect, Builder, Schemer) 

Exorcist (Shaman) 

Father (Patriarch, Progenitor) 

Femme Fatale (Black Widow, Flirt, Siren, Circe, Seductress, 

Enchantress) 

Gambler 

God (Adonis, see also Hero) 

Gossip (see also Networker) 

Guide (Guru, Sage, Crone, Wise Woman, Spiritual Master, Evangelist, 

Preacher) 

Healer (Wounded Healer, Intuitive Healer, Caregiver, Nurse, Therapist, 

Analyst, Counselor) 

Wounded Healer 

Hedonist (Bon Vivant, Chef, Gourmet, Gourmand, Sybarite--see also 

Mystic) 

Hero/Heroine (see also Knight, Warrior) 

Judge (Critic, Examiner, Mediator, Arbitrator) 

King (Emperor, Ruler, Leader, Chief) 

Knight (see also Warrior, Rescuer) 

Liberator 

Lover

Martyr 

Mediator (Ambassador, Diplomat, Go-Between) 

Mentor (Master, Counselor, Tutor) 

Messiah (Redeemer, Savior) 

Midas/Miser 

Monk/Nun (Celibate)

Mother (Matriarch, Mother Nature) 

Mystic (Renunciate, Anchorite, Hermit) 

Networker (Messenger, Herald, Courier, Journalist, Communicator) 

Pioneer (Explorer, Settler, Pilgrim, Innovator) 

Poet

Priest (Priestess, Minister, Rabbi, Evangelist) 

Prince 

Prostitute (see text for extended description) 

Queen (Empress)

Rebel (Anarchist, Revolutionary, Political Protester, Nonconformist, 

Pirate) 

Saboteur (see text for extended description) 

Samaritan 

Scribe (Copyist, Secretary, Accountant--see also Journalist) 

Seeker (Wanderer, Vagabond, Nomad) 

Shape-shifter (Spell-caster--see also Trickster) 

Slave

Student (Disciple, Devotee, Follower, Apprentice) 

Teacher (Instructor, see also Mentor) 

Thief (Swindler, Con Artist, Pickpocket, Burglar, Robin Hood) 

Trickster (Puck, Provocateur) 

Vampire

Victim (see text for extended discussion) 

Virgin (see also Celibate) 

Visionary (Dreamer, Prophet, Seer--see also Guide, Alchemist) 

Warrior (Soldier, Crime Fighter, Amazon, Mercenary, Soldier of 

Fortune, Gunslinger, Samurai)

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