Words Against Tyrants

This paper aims at using Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung’s collective unconscious and archetypal theories to interpret the archetypes of characters, natural scenes and themes.

In the book, the Truth About Stories, Thomas King sheds light on the power of stories. King explicitly enforces that one must take caution in the way he or she tells a story, since it will shape one’s thoughts, decision-making and future (2). Through the use of literature, King weaves his way through native history, anecdote by anecdote, informing his readers about the importance of storytelling. “Stories are wondrous things,” the author writes. “And they are dangerous.” (9). To prove this, King mentions two creation stories; the differences in these stories is the way in which they are told. The first is a famous native story called, “the woman who fell from the sky”; this story is told in a complex, persuasive way (10-20). This story discusses a society emphasizing the value of cooperation as the animals work together to create a better world (21-22). The second story, a Judeo-Christian biblical story, describes a Western Capitalist society. It is told in a historical, punitive and direct fashion, underlining a society of boundaries and punishment. King highlights that storytelling is not just simply telling a story, rather it is how the stories are told. King uses these particular stories to show how different stories shape people’s perspectives, which impacts their ideas, thoughts and decision making. Therefore he addresses how sensitive storytelling may be, for once a story is told, it can never be taken back (10). This is true in all realms of life, cautioning

Carl Jung applied the term “archetype” to literature because he realized that all people share similar experiences in their respective cultures. Authors use archetypes so readers can relate to the characters in their stories; such is the case with the characters in Little

Rudolfo Anaya, author of “Bless Me, Ultima”, uses an analogy of a lake during one of his interviews. He states that the top of the lake is the story and as you go deeper into it, you discover several important symbols and archetypes. The archetypes he uses connects the audience to the “the collective memory” and “connects us to every human being who has ever existed”. Archetypes help authors develop their stories and/or novels with characters that symbolize something meaningful. People often can relate to certain books because of author ’s uses of archetypes.

In almost any story, whether novel or poem, lies a hero. Depending on the path, a variety of archetypes usually accompany the hero. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines “archetype” as “the original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies.” Joseph Campbell’s A Hero With A Thousand Faces introduces the common archetypes often found in various pieces of literature, explaining “The parallels will be immediately apparent; and these will develop a vast and amazingly constant statement of the basic truths by which man has lived throughout the millenniums of his residence on the planet,” in his preface to the 1949 edition. To summarize, after learning of the different archetypes found in a story, one

Carl Jung, an analytical psychologist, stated that “archetypes are a tendency or instinctive trend in the human unconscious to express certain motifs or themes” (“Dreams, Health, Yoga, Mind & Spirit”). In the play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams, Williams uses many archetypal images and personas, such as the tragic hero or the stern father figure, to convey the overall complexity of the plays many themes and characters as a way for the audience to connect with and recognize the familiar structures and personas seen in everyday society and family.

Jung defines archetypes as, “Universal images that have existed since the remotest times. As a figure that repeats itself in the course of history wherever creative fantasy is fully manifested” (Jung, 7). Regarding the idea of archetypes, Northup Frye was a prominent theorist who contributed to the study and progression of archetypes; he applied Jung’s theories about collective unconscious, archetypes, and primal images to literature. Through Frye’s proposition of four mythoi type plots, “He formed a strong basis for four major genres that associated with each season of the year: comedy (spring), romance (summer), tragedy (fall), satire (winter)” (Frye, 45). According to Carl Jung the goal of humanity is to achieve individuation, the goal is to reach a state where the unconscious is known and integrated into the conscious mind. It is collective in nature from our human ancestors, predisposed human ways of perceiving, responding and reacting.

A key to understanding his writing, says author Tom Robbins, is a knowledge of Greek myth. A particular influence on him is the life and work of Joseph Campbell, author of several books on mythology (Hoyser and Stookey 9). Campbell, in turn, owes influence to the insights of analytic psychologist Carl Jung. Jung recognized the patterns within myths --- throughout the world and across all cultures -- of characters, situations, and events, and identified these recurring images as archetypes (Harris and Platzner 40). Campbell

Literature is a work of art that is constructed with the fundamental purpose of conveying meaning and messages to readers. Although the idea that is expressed is decided by the author, its underlying messages can be interpreted in various ways by different readers. Literature often explores the gap between reality and imagination. Such an examination can easily lead to a false sense of reality, which promotes the oversimplification of life at a great cost. By oversimplifying reality, people may turn a blind eye to issues that need to be addressed for the sake of social justice. Often times, facing reality is despised because it may create problems that individuals are unable to solve. This is important to note because literature has the

In the article “Archetypes and Patriarchy: Eliade and Jung” by Mary Jo Meadow, archetypes are based off of the concept that “Jungian archetypes are a distillate of human experience. Over the ages individual human beings have had similar experiences, some of which are difficult to conceptualize. The human mind tends to express symbolically that which it poorly understands intellectually” (188). Therefore, in myth and folklore it is found that archetypes hold characteristics based off of tales told throughout history. In doing so create standard images of the archetypal characters.

The traditions of storytelling have long been used as a means to impart wisdom and life lessons to others. One of the most effective ways in which this is done is through the use of archetypes. While it is possible to look at these images in a general way, one may also focus an analysis on a single tale. In this way it is possible to explore the particular images used and their significance in a given situation, (often a coming of age rite of

As the era of literature slowly declines, the expert critiques and praise for literature are lost. Previously, novels were bursting at the seams with metaphors, symbolism, and themes. In current times, “novels” are simply short stories that have been elaborated on with basic plot elements that attempt to make the story more interesting. Instead of having expert critical analysis written about them, they will, most likely, never see that, as recent novels have nothing to analyze. Even books are beginning to collect dust, hidden away and forgotten, attributing to the rise of companies such as Spark Notes. An author deserves to have his work praised, no matter how meager and the masses should have the right to embrace it or to reject it. As

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.

In this story we encounter storytelling as a means of saving your identity, your relationship with your family, and perhaps even your life—which means that, in a sense, you are saving a world. The British-Indian author Salman Rushdie (b. 1947) had to go underground after the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses in 1988. The book was considered blasphemous to Islam by the fundamentalist government of Iran, which issued a death warrant against him. He says that he reached a point where he was so distressed he wasn’t able to think of any stories to tell. But he worked himself out of his depression, and Haroun and the Sea of Stories, a book for children and other

Many literature works have been written in different periods and eras and many great writers and film makers have been there to ensure that art is appreciated all over the world. The content and themes that are contained in these literature works are still applicable and exists in the current societies that we dwell in. The major themes of human sexuality, the various religions of the world, the segregation of human in terms of race or gender and the effect of power when it is totally imposed to human beings. Various encounters face man in his day to day activities and this can be portrayed through writing the events in books or either by acting in theatres. Taking us back to time, the writers are able to make the younger generation familiarize