Archetype

Merriam Webster defines an Archetype as the "perfect example of something." In literature, archetypes represent the ideal forms on which various characters, settings and plots are based.

Readers identify in some way with archetypes because they can recognize something of themself in each one. According to psychiatrist Carl Jung, human beings are born with some stories instinctively programmed in our minds. Joseph Campbell built on Jung's theories to develop the theory of the Monomyth, an archetypal pattern that combines setting, character and plot to create a story structure that is the basis for countless myths and fairy tales.

Archetypal Settings


Some settings reappear over and over again in stories. It may be an island (which may show up as any place that exists in isolation), the woods or wilderness (touching on our natural fear of the wildness of nature), the underworld (Hades, or some other world that lies below), or the homeplace fallen into disrepair (this could look like a delapidated castle or a farm in trouble with creditors). Any setting that reappears in different guises and in many stories can qualify.

Archetypal Characters


Think Star Wars. You have the Hero, the Plucky Sidekick , the Mentor , the Trickster , the Shape Shifter and the Shadow. Each plays an important role in shaping the story and moving the plot. Not all stories have each one, but most stories have a few.

Archetypal Plots


Plots repeat themselves. Most Newbery books feature stories that begin in tragedy, with some sort of great difficulty or loss for the main character (protagonist)  and resolve with the hope for a better future for their main character. Similarly, many stories use the same plot basics, mixing and matching them to create new stories that excite their readers interests.

The Hero's Journey is one example of an archetypal plot, in which an inexperienced protagonist must go on a journey into a new and forbidding realm to discover himself and defeat an ancient enemy, before returning home stronger and wiser than he was before.