I noticed something very interesting, while looking at the archetypes in Charlotte’s Web. Each of the different character archetypes has a different journey archetype.
The Hero: I choose Wilbur. He is obviously the main character, and the plot center’s around him. He also show’s some the traits of a hero. I also interrupted ‘hero’ to mean ‘hero of the story’ which would mean protagonist. And Wilbur is the protagonist. Wilbur’s journey is that of the loss of innocence. He goes from being an extremely naive young pig to an experienced adult. On his journey, he learns that there is a plan to kill him, his mother grows apart from him, he wins medals, learns vocabulary, and strikes deals. In the end he loses his innocence the most, one he has to cope with the death of his best friend.
The Mentor: This was an easy one. Charlotte is obviously the mentor. She helps Wilbur in SO many ways. She devotes her entire life to him, from teaching him new words, to saving his life. She even travels with him to the fair, even though she has to lay her eggs, and it would be better to lay them in the barn. She asks nothing in return, and she dies alone. Her journey is The Task. An enormous task for sure. She has to save Wilbur by writing in her web. She spends her entire life on this task.
The Shapeshifter: This one was a difficult one. There wasn’t anyone who actually changed ‘sides.’ Indeed there wasn’t even an evil character. The most controversial character however, was Templeton. He easily COULD have been an evil character if not for his love of food which motivates him to save the day. Templeton’s journey is the Quest. He is in search of a meal, and will do anything (or do nothing) to procure one.
This proves the point if my previous essay, which states that the Theme was do what’s important to you. Each of the characters are doing what’s important to them.
pdiddy, i think you should expand just the tiniest bit more on each of your ideas of the shapeshifter, hero, and mentor.
ReplyDeleteJust a suggestion: maybe you should choose one of those ideas, for example Wilbur being the hero. How does everything that Wilbur goes through affect him? Write a bit more on how he loses his innocence.
I really like how you wrote this blog post. I definately agree with you on the point that wilbur is the protagonist, which is a good way to cateragize a hero when in doubt. But I have thought long and hard about the fact, that in a way, Charlotte is more of a "hero", and I put this is quotes because the term hero is used loosely, and I am reffering to the stereotypical hero that saves the day. Wilbur is a hero also i guess. I think the most signifigent example of this is when he sacrifices a portion of his food to Templeton so that he will get Charlotte's eggs back to the barn. When you talk about Templeton and how he COULD have been evil, but he wasn't. I disagree, I think that if the only thing that motivates you to help save someones life is so you can eat their food. You are evil.
ReplyDeletepeter, I enjoyed your responce. I thought you made sure to make it known that you put a lot of thinking in this response.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that I would like to see more of in this response is, as I think Sebastian was touching on. What the archetypes "mean" to this book. you have established very well "who" they are to this book, but I would really enjoy hearing your idea of what these beloved characters bring to the book, why, and maybe they symbolize something. IF you think they do, then i would love to hear about it.
Great Job,
Riley