The Great Gatsby : Inverted Archetypes

In the novel The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald descomteratits the idea that people are unable to accept their true reality so they tend to put them self into the a false reality that they believe is true. This idea can be examined through three different literary devices; character, symbol and motif.

With every corner we turn in today’s culture, we become more and more aware of the archetypes that surround us. Archetypes are the works of a typical character, situation, setting, or symbol that can be found in fantasy and reality. An example would be the renowned medieval story Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Pearl Poet. The author permeates the story with situational, symbolic, and character archetypes that illustrate the profound life of Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain was apprehensive of his journey at first, but as time passes, he began to make choices that unveils to the audience the true flawed knight that he was.

     An archetype is a universal symbol. It is also a term from the criticism that accepts Jung’s idea of recurring patterns of situation, character, or symbol existing universally and instinctively in the collective unconscious of man.

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald utilizes many universal and timeless themes to make the novel a classic. He emphasizes that most people lack insight and can not see the truth. To the majority of the society, the reality is an illusion that they create in their minds. The characters, events, setting, symbols and imagery contribute to establishing this theme.

An archetype is described as a very typical example of a certain person or thing. Most archetypes are categorized and then given a mascot of sorts. In the short story Parker’s Back by Flannery O’Conner, we see many archetypes reveal themselves, such as sun, valley, apples, and lightning. Sun is described as hero, son of Heaven, knowledge, the divine eye, fire, life force, creative-guiding force, brightness, and splendor. Examples of this in the story appear when the main character, Parker, realizes his mortality after he is in a horrific accident.

2. What is an archetype? An archetype is something or a figure that typically explains a person or thing.

An archetype is the original pattern or model all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based, also known as a model or first form. In the twentieth century, Swiss Psychiatrist, Carl Jung used the concept of archetypes in his theory of human psyche. He believed that archetypes resided within the unconscious, which resulted in recognizable patterns of behavior with probable outcomes. Throughout history, archetypes have been used to display a message or mood to the audience, and determine the character's position in the plot of the story. Just like a hero is an archetype for bravery, a devil is an archetype for defeat.

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald employs the use of characters, themes, and symbolism to convey the idea of the American Dream and its corruption through the aspects of wealth, family, and status. In regards to wealth and success, Fitzgerald makes clear the growing corruption of the American Dream by using Gatsby himself as a symbol for the corrupted dream throughout the text. In addition, when portraying the family the characters in Great Gatsby are used to expose the corruption growing in the family system present in the novel. Finally, the American longing for status as a citizen is gravely overshot when Gatsby surrounds his life with walls of lies in order to fulfill his desires for an impure dream. F.

An archetype would be known as a universal symbol, may be a character, a theme or even a setting. In the story Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, the knights of Camelot get confronted by a mysterious figure known as the Green Knight. The Green Knight proposes a challenge on a New Year’s Eve feast for Camelot’s leader or bravest man. Gawain accepts this challenge in which he has to complete to obtain Camelot’s honor. The Green Knight presents himself as a threat to Camelot because of the way he presents himself and his request. Throughout the poem of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, the reader can conclude how a single character can play many archetypal roles.

What is an archetype? An archetype is a universal symbol, may be a character, a theme, a symbol or even a setting. (Literary Devices, 2016). Archetypes can be used to describe different types of people. People can be any type of archetype good or bad.

Archetype refers to a generic version of a personality. Archetypes are continually present in folklore and literature for thousands of years, including prehistoric artwork. The identification of archetypes in literature is to primarily find the behaviors and characteristics of the main protagonist, it is important to discover the ambiguity of how the traits change and develop throughout the rising

Archetype Essay An archetype is a character seen throughout literature and different cultures with the same traits. A trickster has many of the following traits: the ability to disguise oneself, helpful, clever, traveler, acting sneaky, and more. These are some of the traits Jack Sparrow possesses in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean. Jack Sparrow was able to disguise himself in the movie.

Archetypes There is not a person or character in any movie, television show, or text that does not belong to a certain archetype. An architype is an image, situation, or character type that recurs frequently and evokes a strong association in the reader. Shakespeare highlights a variety of different archetypes throughout various plays. In one of the widest spread and well-known plays written by William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, architypes are embraced throughout the play through characters such as Puck, Queen Titania, and Nick Bottom.

In one point in our lives, we complete a quest or a journey. It may be physically or emotionally, but we all go through one. An archetype represents a universal human experience; archetypes act most commonly in the great forms of literature, little do people know that archetypes occur in our everyday lives. We mostly notice archetypes in the medieval romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and in the fiction The Hero with a thousand faces these heroes go through many archetypes in order to complete quests; also, he possesses many different archetypes during his quest. Gawain’s succession of trials leaves the hero, like Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner, a “sadder but wiser man.”

Archetypes are used in literature to portray a certain meaning, that helps create a better and more meaningful story. The archetypes used can be embedded in the characters, symbols, or even rituals involved in a story. These archetypes can help give deeper meaning to the story by giving a underlying reference to concepts that are used over and over again in literature throughout history. When an author uses an archetype in his or her writing, they link it to many other stories that use that same archetype. Some do this for a reason, to give an underlying meaning, to symbolized something of importance, or even just to make their story more interesting. Many readers may not notice the underlying archetype, but sometimes the author uses them because he or she knows that the reader will.