It’s time for everyone’s favorite bookish dating game, Elite Bookish Singles. Take a look at the single’s ad below and make a guess at who it is in the comments. A brave, ancient hero who tends to anger gods with his cleverness (like putting the eye out of a cyclops) seeks a beautiful and patient woman who … More Elite Bookish Singles [6]
Once again, in addition to character archetype this week, I’ve also included an allusion. This time it’s to the patter song “Modern Major General” from The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert & Sullivan. This song is a great example of irony – one would expect the major general to be well versed in military tactics, … More The Literary Stick No. 10: Educated Stupidity
Another character archetype for you: the friendly beast. These are animals who help the hero along on his quest. The also demonstrate that Nature (capital N) has the hero’s back. I wanted to include Donkey from Shrek saying, “I’m making waffles,” but my Donkey looked like… well, let’s just say it was awful and leave it … More The Literary Stick No. 9: Furry Friends
Here’s another character archetype for you: the friend that becomes an enemy (or the enemy who becomes a friend). This one is pretty straightforward. At some point, someone the hero thought they knew betrays them. OR, at some point, someone the hero thought they knew actually helps the hero out. Rather than give you a … More The Literary Stick No. 8: Frenemies
The Literary Stick No. 7: Damsel in Distress? So two things are happening in today’s comic. One: I’m telling you about the character archetype of the damsel in distress. And B: I’m also giving you an example of an allusion. Let’s start with the damsel in distress. In old old literature, she’s essentially a girl … More The Literary Stick No. 7: Damsel in Distress?
One of my favorite archetypes is the archetype of the hero’s journey. Many parts of the hero’s journey overlap with the description of the hero, so I combined them (loosely) together. So here’s what you need to know about heroes (and you can apply this to SOOO many stories that aren’t dystopian action/adventure. Seriously. Take … More The Literary Stick No. 6: The Hero (and the Journey)
The Literary Stick No. 5: Daddy Issues This archetype is the conflict between father and son. The conflict often comes from childhood separation – the son does not grow up with his father and thus feels abandoned by him. He also tends to be closer to his mentor figure than he is with his father. … More The Literary Stick No. 5: Daddy Issues
Here is a situation where context is super important. When an archetype (whether it be nature, or number, or color) could stand for more than one thing, what’s occurring in the story (as well as a reader’s prior knowledge) determines how that archetype is interpreted. Where have you seen snakes in literature?
My favorite literary thing in the world is a good allusion. This week’s carpool-drawn stick figure cartoon is about Eve. Please excuse the poetic license. And Mr. Ames’s class, hope this helps with your reading of Flowers for Algernon. Originally posted on http://literarystick.tumblr.com
Back when I taught 9th grade, I used The Lord of the Rings movies to teach symbol and archetype. It was beautiful. That is, until a student of mine came in on a Monday after we’d talked about nature archetypes. He said to me, “Miss, you ruined movies for me.” I responded, “What are you talking … More The Literary Stick No. 2: Birds
