The Shadow of an Archetype

by Simon Blevins

Many heroes have become redundant in their archetypal nature, yet some are unique and break past these roles. Shadow, from the American Gods, appears to be a classic hero with a touch of antihero. Shadow is a newly freed convict trying to return home after years of incarceration.

Upon his release he discovers that his wife is dead. In an attempt to escape his past and find work he embarks on an epic journey through which he explores a world of forgotten Gods struggling to survive in America.

What makes him unique is his incredible maturity.From the start of the story he is a polite individual with a strong control over his anger. This maturity would be less surprising with a stagnant hero; however, he changes a great deal throughout the story.

Shadow starts his adventure with a vague, indirect denial of the world and a lack of closure with his wife's death. His inner change is epitomized when he is hung from the world tree in a sigil to Oden. During this time Shadow looks inwards and comes to terms with his existence. He then rejects the deceptions of the world when he opens the trunk of the car. In the epilogue Shadow cuts the last of his earthly ties in preparation for a death that won't come, concluding his inner change. His development through the story might appear subtle yet it is monumental, I urge any fiction lover to accompany Shadow through the American Gods.

The Hero and Her Burning Skull of Fire

By: Maria Bhadra Kali Little, March, 2015

Diptych-329153453 by MiloNeuman

The story of Vasilisa and Baba Yaga, in the adaptation, "The Doll In Her Pocket: Vasilisa the Wise," from Clarissa Pinkola Estes' book, Women Who Run with The Wolves, is a great and empowering tale of a young woman’s heroine’s journey.

• The story includes several significant and well-known archetypal characters.
• It masterfully blends in lessons and values gained through Vasilisa’s hero’s journey.
• It follows the hero’s journey steps and pattern flawlessly.

WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT

This story is essentially about a girl learning to listen and trust her intuition, and inner guide. Vasalisa transforms from being too kind, naive, and overly accommodating to her abusive stepmother and stepsisters, to discovering her own personal strength, and inner worth after an audacious adventure through the eerie woods, and the several tests given to her by the horrifying, and ever powerful Baba Yaga; the wild and ferocious supernatural forest guardian woman, who possesses the ever burning skull of fire.

Vasilisa's journey takes her from her home with her unkind superficial family, to the woods with Baba Yaga. Her pocket doll (which represents her intuition/inner guide) a gift from her long dead but nurturing mother, leads her to master all of Baba Yaga's impossibly tedious tests (if she had failed it would result in her death and eventual consumption by Baba Yaga) and return home with the skull of fire. In the end, the skull burns the eyes out of her cruel and cowardly relatives when they stare into its flame.

THE LESSON

This tale reminds us to be kind, but not to lose sight of our own wisdom, personal integrity, and the value of listening to the inner self. Also, it reminds us of exactly how powerful inner sight and wisdom is, as represented in this ancient Russian fairytale, by the ever burning skull of fire, whose light will turn all fraudulence to ash.

WHY READ THIS BOOK? OR AT LEAST THIS STORY

Estes analyzes several different fairytales or stories from different cultures around the world, some of which were taken by the Brothers Grimm and turned into common fairytales we know today. The reason Estes' interpretations and ideas around the stories are so important is that she is looking at the roles of women and how their power has been stripped away from society and its stories. She wants the feminine to be reclaimed by all women and society. She looks at archetypes and really takes apart each story piece by piece in an engaging and accessible manner; she brings to life versions of common stories that may have never been heard or properly understood.  

Louis and Lestat: Villains, Anti-Heroes, or Heroes?

by Shadow Dove

Louis was the main character in Interview with a Vampire, and his distaste for his maker, and the way he spoke of him was maybe part of what made Lestat seem like such a villain. At one point early in his new life as a vampire, Louis had this to say about Lestat “And all the time, he belittled me and attacked me for my love of the the senses, my reluctance to kill...and would taunt me with sealed lips when I asked about God or the devil” (Rice 37). It was made very clear that the two were developing a great distaste for one another, and Louis had a suspician that he had only been given the “dark gift” as it is later reffered to, for his plantation and his wealth.

So just because Louis is not as bad as Lestat, does this make him a “hero” or does he rest in the place of “anti-hero” like so many other softer natured Vampires? According to Richard Wilson's article “Anti-Hero: The hidden Revolution in Leadership and Change”, the Anti-Heroes “are inherently sensitive to other people and aware of the limitations of their own knowledhe and skills. It is this sensistivity to themselves, others and the wider world that forms the basis of the Anti-hero” (Wilson 15). This definition clearly fits Louis, he is very sensitive to other people, in fact for many years he refuses to feed on human blood and feeds off of animals instead.

Furthermore, when we look at an excerpt from the Hero's Journey Outline, featured in “The Hero's Journey Outline The Heroine's Journey/ Archetypes 'The Memo That Started It All' by Christopher Vogler 'a Practical Guide to Joseph Cambell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces' by Christopher Vogler”, Vogler describes a hero as “the person who goes out and achieves the great deeds on behalf of the group, tribe, or civilization” (Vogler 1). So although Louis has good intentions and is sensative to the plights of others, he does not by any means have a journey in which he is fighting a cause that serves a “group, tribe or civilization”.

It would appear that by both Wilson's and Vogler's definitions that Louis indeed fits the Anti-hero model. Bleeding heart and all!

Now, Lestat, oh Lestat, what a misunderstood soul indeed. There is no question in my mind that he does not transend from Anti-Hero to Hero, and in fact many times, by his own will, fits quite comfortably into the roll of Villian. However in the second book in the Vampire Chronicles: The Vampire Lestat you see his humanity quite plainly when he is speaking to Armand, an ancient vampire whom he has recently encountered “'You know it was the damnedest luck!' I whispered suddenly. 'I am an unwilling devil. I cry like some vagrant child. I want to go home'” (Rice 242). You have to understand that he had been given the “dark gift” by an ancient who then lept into a fire killing himself, without any explanation of how to live as a vampire, and upon meeting Armand, Lestat had hoped to find answers, but he found none. Instead he learned only that in the words of Armand to “Live among men, and the passing years will drive you to madness” (Rice 201). So perhaps his disapointment and loneliness is what drove him to be villainous, and although he had his moments of making you feel like he could be an Anti-hero, he definitely does not fit into the category of Hero, by any standard that I have found so far. However, I find a fondness for him nonetheless....not only because he is a vampire, but because he is so completely torn between two parts of himself, and I can relate to that. The only difference is that he surrenders to his darkness, and that is what makes him a true Villain.

The Soul of Weaponry

by Leroy Martinez

Contemplating the soul of weaponry is capitalization upon fear that motivates each and every one of us. The Iron Man is an archetype that has been defined in our society through movies and stories. The hero's journey of self transformation models from higher development from mythology and this is a way that humans were believed to think. 

There are many different ways to think about the Iron Man persona and why it is bred into our society as a developed sense of the human being. Industrialization and modernism have changed the way we believe to think, developing us into futuristic human beings. But the gladiator and warrior still linger in all of us in one form or another. This now affects the mainstream population at large. Mindless violence, warlike violence and authoritarian personalities. This was some kind of inhumanity that humans should have conquered in this day and age, but it seems that we are going backwards in time to barbarian ways. Peace is hard work and killing is the coward's campaign as we see in our present day society. Give a soldier or cop a gun and they will us it. 

Heroism comes in many forms and there is an alternative to violence. Iron Man's heart is at the center of this story and is an emerging machine consciousness which is tension between self and persona. Are we afraid that creation will replace the creator? It takes a dramatic event in one's life to make them reflect on what they have become through imperfect, biological, and emotional turbulence.

Sequential art is a part that may give us some insight into our own personal reality. "With great power come's great responsibility," it says in Spider Man. Yet humans still don't know how to contain this.  Take, for example, the ongoing problem of killings and the Albuquerque police department. Worlds of imagination can be useful to give us great insight to the actions that we might take, for instance in The Iron Giant by Ted Hughes is a great example. This is an extraordinary action of humanity by an Iron Man (machine) to save the world by not using his weapons of mass destruction but uses his heart and mind to save the world. This is the possible world that we all want to live in, the perfect world of love and peace.

The Obstacles in a Hero's Journey

By Eliana Lerman

   

What Makes a Hero
A person or fictional character is not considered a “hero” unless they go on a hero’s journey. One can not simply go from point A to point B with no obstacles and retrieve the “treasure” and still gain the same recognition as someone else who faced multiple obstacles and maybe even death, before they successfully completed their journey and returned with the prize. A hero can be a real world hero such as Martin Luther King, or a fictional hero such as Superman. Though the two are vastly different, both types of heroes go through similar stages in their journeys.

Obstacles, Threshold Guardians, and Archetypes
There are often many different people or events that stand in the way of the hero from reaching the goal or treasure. Based on Vogler’s version of the Hero’s Journey, Archetypes are recurring patterns of human behavior, symbolized by standard types of characters in movies and stories. Although there are allies and mentors, the shadows, threshold guardians, tricksters, and shapeshifters tend to be more involved with the hero. The mentors give advice and then tend to disinvolve themselves from the hero’s actual journey. Allies are normally on the outskirts of the journey, fighting whatever other threats they can to protect the hero. On the other hand, the “bad guys” are constantly trying to stop the hero from completing his or her journey, and creating obstacles to do so. Without the obstacles that prevent the hero from an otherwise pleasant and easy journey, the hero would not be considered entirely heroic or brave.