Throughout the discussion, it is important to continue to connect this discussion with the students’ prior knowledge. For example, every culture has a creation story or tales of superhero characters (Jesus) that connect people with a sense of the divine.
Myth? – Most students are going to associate this with Greek mythology, but every culture has their own set of myths. Since myths are mostly creation stories, they are going to take place in a primordial place, in the earliest stages of life. Because they are other worldly (or new worldly, depending on your perspective) the characters are going to be gods and godlike. These characters serve as the elemental foundations for archetypes Generally the purpose of a myth is multi-faceted: they serve to tell an approved story (by some cultural leader) about common ties; they create a sense of belonging, or togetherness; they teach a lesson (one that everyone can understand) – in this way people have figures after whom they can model their behavior; they give people a sense of the divine
Answers: 4 6 1 2 7 5 3
If students didn’t get all of the previous questions correctly, they got the majority. This demonstrates the power of myth and how pervasive it is throughout the culture. Archetypes Out of the study of myth emerged the study of archetypes, this Jungian belief that there is a collective consciousness that exists, and certain universal characters, places or themes that trigger very powerful, visceral reactions. Reactions that the majority of people, regardless of culture, will all have. People will universally respond positively to the hero, and negatively to the villian. They will go “Awww” when they see a baby and cringe when they see an accident. You can always write a story about a hero’s journey or a rite of passage. Because one of the primary functions of myth is to provide a vehicle with which to tell a culture how to act (or conversely how not to act), it is important the we are able to recognize the lessons instinctively. Consider the previous list, how was it that the students where able to identify the characters without any detail instruction? It is because those characters have appeared in every story they’ve heard since birth. And so it is with archetypes. They are present in every story, movie, etc.