ABOUT HERO ARCHETYPES
♥Scroll down to view more information and see examples of all the hero archetypes♥
At one point there were twenty-eight manifestations of hero. That’s right, twenty-eight!
Since then, they’ve been whittled down, first by Carl Jung, then by Carol S. Pearson, and most recently by Tami Cowden. The bottom line is that most heroes are complex and embody multiple archetypes. A Wanderer may also be a Bad Boy. A Chief may have a bit of Sage in him. Nothing in life is straight-forward, and that’s true of fiction, as well.
People are layered.
People are unique.
People are individuals.
So are heroes.
In order to understand heroes, and create one of your own, you must first understand that a hero is on a journey, one through which he will experience change and growth. He will, in essence, undergo a transformation of the soul. In order to take a hero on such a journey, you must first understand who they are and where they come from. Only then can you create plausible and meaningful change for your hero.
So what kind of heroes are there? Christopher Vogler, in his book The Writer’s Journey, says that there are Willing Heroes, and Unwilling Heroes (those who fight the journey until they can’t fight it anymore). There are Anti-Heroes, or the Wounded Hero. This is someone who society doesn’t understand, but with whom we, the reader, can sympathize. There are Catalyst Heroes and Loner Heroes and Group-Oriented Heroes.
Heroes types, it seems, abound.
And so do the universal archetypes they are often classified under. Here’s an overview of each, along with examples from television and movies, some of which have been adapted from books. None of these heroes exist in a vacuum within the archetype. That is to say, they are layered and complex, just like real living people. But each hero, just like each of us, has roots in one archetype and branches that spread into others.
Click on an archetype to learn more about it. (You can also check out Archetypes for Leading Ladies - The Women They Love)
**Note: Names for Hero Archtypes based on Carol S. Pearson and Tami Cowden
***Beverly Medos’s rebuttal to categorizing heroes into archetypes: Read it.
Everyone loves a good hero, but what do readers, agents, editors, and writers love most? Join us as we delve under the covers and find out!
