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Examples Of Archetypes In Avatar

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Archetypes are characters, symbols, and situations that represent universal patterns and symbols in human nature. These symbols and patterns appear in countless pieces of literature and media. The 2009 film, Avatar, written and directed by James Cameron, is a modern-day prime example of a hero’s journey also containing many character and symbolic archetypes. Avatar is a science-fiction in which humans have drained all of earth’s natural resources and have been searching exoplanets and their moons for vital materials to sustain the human population. The protagonist and hero, Jake Sully, is sent to a moon of the gigantic exoplanet Polyphemus named Pandora, which has a poisonous atmosphere and hostile native species, but holds a valuable metal, unobtanium. There he has to take his twin brother’s place controlling an avatar in the Avatar Project, a system of mind controlled bodies made up of cross-bred human DNA and the DNA of the natives. In his Avatar form, Jake is accepted into a tribe of the natives known as the Na’vi. Though his mission …show more content…

The initiation is when the hero enters the “special” or unknown world and goes through a series of trials leading up to the supreme ordeal, which is usually the climax of a story. During the initiation the characters are further developed and more characters and symbols may be introduced In the main plot of Avatar, the initiation is when Jake begins crossing over into Avatar form with his human mentor, Grace Augustine, and gaining the trust of the Na’vi. In the initiation stage of the Na’vi subplot, , Jake is accepted into the Na’vi people and Neytiri is assigned as his mentor. Jake begins to learn the ways of the Na’vi and begins to gain their trust. The initiation stage is important because it challenges the hero and both shapes and develops his or her character. Almost every story centered around a developing character has some degree of an initiation

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