Annoted 3

Summary:  The reading for this week, explained each other archetype in detail, and how each archetype is useful in creating a story and what each archetype brings to a story and how they are important to stories.  The threshold guardian’s dramatic function and purpose in a story is to test the hero in the story.  The hero must pass by the threshold guardian by overcoming the obstacle put in place by the guardian in order to finish the mission the hero set out on. Next Vogler talked about the Herald. The herald is known as the spark that sets off the war, they issue a challenge to the hero and also notify the audience that a change and adventure is about to occur.  The herald gets the story rolling and motivates the hero.  Another, archetype is the shapshifter, the shapeshifter is an unstable character, usually of the opposite sex of the hero or a hero romantic interest, that changes constantly from the hero’s point of view.  Usually in stories the shapshifter is also called the femme fatale, the woman as temptress or destroyer.  Another archetype is the shadow.  The shadow’s purpose is to destroy or defeat and sometimes kill the hero.  The shadow is usually seen in the hero’s enemies, or appears in the villain in the story.  One other archetype is the Ally.  The ally can serve a variety of necessary functions such as companion, sparring partner, conscience, or comic relief.  The ally’s true purpose in stories is to humanize the hero.  Lastly, there is the trickster.  The trickster’s function in the story is to cut the big egos down to size and bring the hero and audience down to earth.  The trickster can either help the hero or villain or even be the hero, such as in the turtle and the hare. 

 

Reaction: The reading really explained how each archetype is important to a story and why it is necessary to know what each characters function is, which allows, me the audience to understand the story and also me the author to help my audience understand the message it want to send to my audience.   This reading pieced everything together and really explained some stories, I would never have thought of certain characters like the turtle mentioned in the trickster section as a hero, with out the description from the book I would never had thought about that simply children’s story in that way.  Vogler made it so that each archetype he talked about fit together and helped explain why stories make sense, if these archetypes were not talked about and analyzed it would much harder for myself to sit and write a story.  Vogler showed me what elements a story needs to make the audience understand and enjoy to story. 

 

Reflection: When I look back on the Indian Camp story I think about what archetype fits with each character, and I had a hard time placing an archetype with the unborn child’s father.  Also, I believe that if the uncle was the father he is the villain, but I also seeing god being the villain for causing the woman to have such a long and hard labor.  As for the little boy I think he fits with the archetype of the ally, I think that the threshold guardian and herald was the woman giving birth, the birth was the obstacle and the spark that set off the war.  I really feel that a character identifies with a different archetypes sometimes depending on whom the audience is and who the narrator is.  If a little boy was narrating the story of Indian Camp almost like he was telling his friends what he saw and how he helped his dad to the friend he little boy would look like the hero. 

Question:

1. What is the difference between the threshold guardian and the herald?

2. These are not all of the archetypes, the author decides which to use does he have to use all of these in order for the story to flow smoothly or can he use completely different archetypes?

3. Not every reader or audience member is familiar with these archetypes, I wasn't before, does that make if harder for the author to get his message across and harder for me as an audience member to follow the story?