Archetypes In Smoke Signals And Arrow Of God

After coming home from teaching, I found Melba coming home with a mysterious car. I had no idea who this car belonged to. I started to question her and panic. I was pacing around the room. I finally found out that this was a white boy’s car who seemed to have saved Melba from a boy named Andy. How are we going to trust a white boy? Who knows, he might have only done this because he wants to accuse us of stealing his car. But then I calmed down because if he had gone to the police, I’m sure someone would have already been here to look for it. I started to question how are we going to get his car back to him without letting anybody see us? He couldn’t be seen in our neighborhood and I wouldn’t dare to be seen in his, especially at night. Melba assured me he would call. We heard the phone ring and Melba rushed to pick it up. After their phone

With the endless variations of myths, each can be set into specific categories. The apocalyptic archetype in particular contain recurring elements that have symbolic significance in the myths. Leeming states,” The apocalypse motif must be seen as closely related to the flood archetype. The apocalypse is a ritual cleansing of cosmic proportions, a large-scale expression of the human fascination with the death and resurrection process” (69 Leeming).

In the film Smoke Signals, Chris Eyre explores the lives of the people of the Coeur d’Alene Reservation through Thomas Builds-the-Fire’s story. Thomas’s story shows how Victor's relationship with Arnold is rebuilt even after Arnold's death, and Victor comes to a place of understanding and forgiveness with his father and the world around him. Throughout the film, the symbolic references of the rez car and the cutting of the hair tie the story together and complement the main themes of life change and renewal, exemplifying the way people work through life's hardships.

Victor Joseph’s portrayal of the classic Native American man is exemplified by Alexie’s use of dialogue, costumes, and flashbacks. For example, when Victor sees Thomas smiling as they ride their way to Arizona he says, “Indians ain’t supposed to smile like that. Get stoic” (Smoke Signals). This example of dialogue reveals how Victor believes a Native American man should present himself traditionally, which strongly contrasts with Thomas’s demeanor and appearance. Victor continues on, saying, “Look at your hair, it’s all braided up and stuff. You gotta free it. An Indian man ain’t nothing without his hair.” (Smoke Signals). Hair design is used to symbolize Victor’s close ties with his ancestral past as a Native American. Additionally, Victor’s comment on hair foreshadows when Victor himself cuts his hair, symbolizing a moment in which Victor embraces his traumatic past by accepting who he is as a person. In a more literal sense, flashbacks are also used to symbolize the trauma that Victor experienced in his direct past - living with an alcoholic father, Arnold Joseph, who abandoned him. However, by the end of the movie, Victor embraces this past through the spreading of his father’s ashes.

Archetypes are universal symbols used in literature to represent fundamental human motifs. In the medieval romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the hero must undergo archetypal situations to succeed in his quest to redeem the honor of Camelot. Gawain embodies the transcendent hero as he further goes into “The Zone of Magnified Power” (Campbell 71) then faces conflict resulting from the threat placed on the society. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight dramatically demonstrates how a single character can play many archetypal roles.

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.

Archetypes are defined as “a typical character, an action or a situation that seems to represent such universal patterns of human nature.” (“Archetype”) The short story “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien is about the internal struggle and the journey he faces after he is drafted to serve the army. The classical hero’s journey archetype is similar to Tim O’Brien’s journey in his short story, “On the Rainy River,” with the exception of the arc length and depth of transformation.

The movie “Crash”, by Director and Writer Paul Haggis, follows 8 ethnically diverse families/ individuals facing the struggle of modern day racism and stereotypes created and faced in modern Los Angeles, California. These individuals take the roles of individuals living their daily lives within Los Angeles, California while facing stereotypes. The cast portrays: 2 caucasian white male police officers, an African American director and his wife, a white district attorney and his wife, a Persian immigrant family, and a Hispanic father whose occupation is a locksmith. The scene chosen from this film involves the police officers (Officer Ryan and Officer Hanson) pulling over the African American Director (Cameron Thayer) and his wife (Christine Thayer) at a traffic stop. This scene establishes two different types of theoretic sociological concepts of Thomas Theorem and cognitive dissonance.

An archetype is defined as an image, story-pattern, character, setting, symbol, or situation that recurs frequently in literature and in life. It demonstrates universal human experiences and associates strongly with readers through a subconscious understanding. In the Epic of Gilgamesh the main character, Gilgamesh, is an example of a superheroic archetypal hero. He took on an epic quest for everlasting life by following the archetypal steps of a hero’s journey. Through suffering due to tragedy, realizing the nature of his quest, seeking help from a mentor, experiencing failure, and returning home with a companion, Gilgamesh’s story followed the situational archetype of a hero’s journey.

In the novel Reservation Blues, most of the characters struggle with their identity at some point. Victor has an especially strong urge to rebel against his Native American heritage, which is apparent in his violent, arrogant demeanor and his obvious problem with alcohol. Victor is tied to his past and has trouble coping with his life as it is, and is in a constant battle with himself, his surroundings, and other people.

Sherman Alexie show how non Native Americans treat Native Americans in court and day to day life.

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.

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

Throughout the film victor expresses how he associated himself into the acculturation model. Victor first claims that people of color get crossed examined all the time in society. Even when picking up the dominant culture

What started as a case of alleged rape, American Crime Season Two follows the lives of those involved in the events leading up to the case and those who were seemingly uninvolved. Each event that led up to and later followed the case gathered new evidence and further complicated the entirety of the season. Creator John Ridley’s ten-part story explores the domino effect of an awful crime across families of all different disciplines. This is a one-of-a-kind, standalone piece, where no one is free of guilt; every action made is another complication to the story. The series covers a wide berth of issues, including race, privilege, and prejudice. These issues play the biggest roles in the depiction between truth and lie and are also a major part of the texts that we have covered throughout the ethnic studies course.