Archetypes In My Life

2. Looking at the candle before me, it was hard to imagine that it was made from the tallow of a sheep.

Maternal, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is “of, relating to, belonging to, or characteristic of a mother.” This instinct holds no bond between blood or DNA. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver supplies the perfect evidence for that. The love, commitment and sacrifices made in the novel show how any woman, or any man for that matter, can have “maternal” instincts. Through love, hardships and fate, each character in this novel proves how maternal instincts can be found by anyone, used by most and appreciated by all.

Ta-Nehisi Coates had one clear purpose in writing this novel, Between the World and Me: to teach his son what it means to be a black man. He shows him the fear that young black men feel, the history of slavery and black oppression, as well as his own personal experiences with being influenced by Malcolm X. He also shares with him the joy he feels about getting an education and learning of more ways to be black. He also shared with him the story of Prince Jones’ murder and how his mother’s pride in her son after his death was so important. In this novel, Coates uses the archetype of the journey and the teacher to further his message and bring life to his work.

Their presence or approval is crucial in a child’s development. There is the stereotype that mothers are the nurturing ones. Anita does not play into this as she thinks of her children as the “spineless lot”, “weak creatures with their limp arms and anxious faces”, “jostling rats”, “communists”, and “bitter and unhappy fruits” (Lispector 80). She criticizes them harshly for what they have become and only finds value in her seven-year-old grandson. It is obvious that the father was the supportive role as she describes him as “a good man whom, submissive yet independent, she had respected…given her children and support and honored his obligations”, which displays that the father was not a factor (Lispector 80). Her sons’ wives weren’t spared either as she calls them “feeble and bitter”. How did she become this way? Was her mother this harsh? We may never know, but in some cases, it is the continuation of mothers.

This type of upbringing would lead one to believe that her life would not amount to anything and torn by the fact that she was not residing with her family. However, subconsciously, when she needed reassurance, her paternal mother’s words to her would always surface in her mind, “Sunshine, you’re my baby and I’m your only mother, but you must obey the one taking care of you but she is not your mama”.

Archetypes Explored by Huxley All books carry a type of defiant structure weather that is a place, a character, or lesson. In the dystopian novel by Aldous Huxley called Brave New World, Huxley explores many recurring symbols yet two main distinctive archetypes stood out. The symbol archetype of color and character archetype of the outcast drive the plot of the book. Colors symbolize different meanings such as black representing death or green representing hope.

An archetype is a very typical example of a certain person or thing and is used to primarily convey the idea of the authors point. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, written by Carol Joyce Oates, she uses various types of examples using archetypes to prove the different characters and their situations in their specific life environment. The short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” , is about an innocent 15 year old girl Connie who has a normal teenage life until a strange older guy Arnold tries to enter her life.

Mothers are typically seen as kind, loving, and nurturing, at least in a perfect world, that’s how they are. Rather, in the real world many of us wish that is how all mothers are. Various situations can lead to a woman to be too mothering. It is a factor that transcends real life. This conflict causing dynamic is very prevalent in numerous stories, films, and plays. Two plays where it is shown in significance are Machinal and The Glass Menagerie. In both cases, the actions taken by the mother roles in the shows, resulted in some of the character’s roles ending in unfortunate events of some sort.

She makes being a mother sound glorified as if that is the only thing that matters in a woman’s life. She even goes on to ask herself if she could “ever feel confident and secure in her worth as a woman”(35). It forces the stereotype that women are meant to, and want to, be mothers and have children. On the other hand, in “A sorrowful Woman”, the woman outright rejects motherhood, ignoring or acting cruel towards her child. In one scene, the child is just trying to play with her, and accidentally scratches her.

1. The River – Almost any source of water will focus on the importance of life. Without water there is no life. A journey on or down a river is often a metaphor for life’s journey or a character’s journey, especially if the river is shown as a road or means of travel – pulling or pushing a character through changes. (Twain’s Huck Finn) Rivers can also be a metaphor for the passage of time (Big Fish) or the stages of a human life (creek, roaring river, sea; or the crossing of the river Styx in Greek myths). Since rivers are often used as political borders or boundaries, crossing one may be seen as a “passing over” or a decision that cannot be taken back. In Africa, and thus African literature, rivers are the

As the text states, “the woman under the influence of the mother archetype focuses her thoughts on whether they’ve had enough to eat, whether they are happy, and whether they are warm enough or cool enough

Once there was a woman who told a story. However, she had more than just an entertaining tale to tell. She chose common images that everyone would understand, and she wrapped her story around them, and in this way she was able to teach the people . . .

The mother in “The Other Family”, by Himani Bannerji, has numerous static traits. Perhaps one of her most dominant traits being affection. It is clear various times in the text that she is affectionate when she felt “sorry that she was putting such a heavy burden on such young shoulders” (Bannerji 2). Before, she had also said that she did not want “frighten [her daughter]”(Bannerji 2). She even manifests panic just from thinking of potentially losing her daughter. Her second most evident trait is loneliness. The mother displays loneliness when she sometimes is “unsettled” with the news contained in “letters that [arrived] from home”(Bannerji 1). This could most likely be that the letters may be about certain people or things she misses from

Utopia, according to Google, is defined as an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect. The biggest concept to understand as a person analyzing literature is that a utopia cannot ever exist, there is always going to be flaws and they will often be destructive. In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley uses the utopian society archetype to show that the citizens give up their identity and give into conformity. Through this, Huxley reveals that in any society we assimilate to the social norm of society to be happy, thus compromising our identity for happiness.

From working several jobs at a time to make sure I had everything I needed, she became the reason why I was raised the way I raised. The lesson that “ I should treat everyone like the most important person in the world because I will never know when I might need them” was engraved in my head was owned by my mother. Sometimes she would tell me that she had holes in her socks and I knew it was due to most of her money going towards my private school tuition in order for me to be able to have the best education I could get. My mother is my background, my identity, interest, and talent. She is truly the one that has set me up for success, regardless of how fatigued or overworked she is. She is the person who truly defines who I am and who I have become to this