According to psychologist Carol Pearson, all of us have archetypes within our psyches. My primary archetype is orphan. According to freedictionary.com Orphan means:
1. A child whose parents are dead.
2. A child who has been deprived of parental care and has not been adopted.
3. A young animal without a mother.
4. Lacking support, supervision, or care.
When we think of orphans we think of sad lonely children with no hope or future, who are always trying to find someone, who can give them happiness. An orphan is a child that has lost both of his or her parents. The orphan is a metaphor for something that is very deep inside us, something that makes us feel lonely and don’t give us normal life. And only after we let this thing out, we can start normal life.
We always have feeling of sympathy to orphans, because they are sad and lonely and they are trying to find happiness, because now one cares about them (That how they are used to think). I think it is a negative thing, because knowing that this person is orphan, you already have some feeling of pity. And that feeling is not always the right one. The positive trait is that orphans are usually good people and they value many things that others don’t.
After reading the book “Coraline” by Neil Gaiman, I realized that there are a lot of archetypes there. Some of them are: Miss Spink and Forcible are wizards when they read tea leaves, Old crazy men is a protector, who warns Coraline about the door, the black cat is a mentor; the children in the closet can be see as guides, because they give Coraline advice one urge her to flee from this place and look thought the stone (Chapter 7): “Flee! Flee, while there’s still air in your lungs an blood in your veins and warmth in your heart. Flee while you still have your mind and your soul” (85). And of cause the mail character – Coraline. I see her in many archetyper. First of all as a hero and explorer and, second of all as an orphan. She is yang and love to explorer. She is intelligent, curious and courageous. She is not taken serious because of her young age. So Coraline is look like me in some ways, because she is lonely all the time and her parents don’t have time for her, so she feels sad and lonely.
Even after she feels lonelier, because her parents were taken by her other mother. Although the other mother claims to be a good, real mother to Coraline , she is still alone and doesn’t want to accept her other mother. This is displaying some of the characteristics of the orphan archetype.
So I see my archetype active especially in Chapter 3, when Coraline is home all along and no one are there for her. Her mother doesn’t coming back and she had left Coraline on her own. I can say that during the whole book Coraline is always on her own, she has conversation with only some people, because for the majority of time she is on her own: or in her own house, or in the other house in her other room or even when she is exploring, she always do it by herself:’ Coraline put on her blue coat with a hood, her red scarf, and her yellow Wellington boots. She went out” (13).
Knowing my archetype helped me like a reader to understand the book better and deeper. I can see the main character more brightly and I can understand what she feels and what feelings are driving her for actions. For example, when she is willing to save her parents - she will do everything and will try every chance to do it in order to find them, because she is very lonely without them and she doesn’t want that kind of life. And being a young girl she is afraid of a lot of things, but because she needs her parents she is exploring dark rooms and weird things. Being an orphan I can see that in myself as well, so it helps me a lot in understanding the book.
I think that others who knowing about my main archetype can understand the story better as well. Because they know me and the way I behaved, they know how I feel, so in the same way they can see this story deeper and more colorful, because they have a good example already –me.
Before this class I really didn’t know my archetype, so in many cases I was reading books and didn’t really was understanding many things. So I think that knowing archetypes and especially your own will help us to understand the literature and characters. I started reading in different way. For example, Coraline’s story, I read it with more deeply understanding, especially the main character - Coraline. She is an orphan archetype, and so I am .So I understood her and her actions like I will do the same. For example, she rather to find her parents than return home without them. Because she was very lonely without them, so she ricked herself in order to find them. And I realized that I would do the same thing, and we are very similar. I can see how she was suffering and surviving.She is just like me.
Also knowing archetypes help us to see the main character from different sides. Like Coraline, she is also an archetype of the explorer when she seeks to find her parents and the souls of the tree children. She is also embodies the altruist archetype, because she sets out to find her parents despite the danger of herself.So being altruist helped me to understand how she sacrificed and gave to others. So knowing archetypes help us to read the literature differently and helps us to understand the characters.
The knowledge of archetype is very useful and can help you in many ways to understand this world and things around it better. It can help you to become more aware of this world, and everything that is around you. It gives you opportunities to make better choices in your live.
Archetype can also help you to realize your potential in life and face with who you really are. My archetype helps to transform my view of this world to others and help me realize creativity and effectiveness. “Coraline” by Neil Caiman helped me to understand my archetype in different way.
