The Scapegoat Archetype

[frost_indri]

No: HPFGUIDX 89925




Janet:
<snip>
> I think that's one of the reason the whole Harry Potter series is 
so 
> appealing to so many age groups: J.K. has a good grasp on 
universal 
> archetypal themes.
> 
> Thoughts?

Frost:  
  Actually, for me it is that she doesn't stick with the archetypes. 
Yes, a lot of the characters have similarities, but they often break 
free of them.  If she stuck through with archetypes (which is a 
dumbing and destroying plague upon fantasy writing) we wouldn't be 
here arguing about who (or what) Snape is, or whether or not Harry 
will be good or evil, or live or die or be destroyed.  We wouldn't 
be so suspicious of Dumbledore, we would know that Ron was always by 
Harry's side.  

   I think that the archetypes pervade our society.  When we see a 
hero, we expect the good buddy that will stick through thick and 
thin. We expect there to be a mentor, we expect a nemesis.  I think 
JKR has all of those in the books, but then she takes it and makes 
it her own.  Snape fits no archetype that I can think of, and I 
think he is a extremely post-modern character.  Harry is not, as Dr. 
Zipes puts it, the perfect male role-model. His boy-scout days are 
over, as we can see with his unreasoning and selfish hate of Snape 
at the end of OoP.  He thinks that he'll never forgive Snape.  What 
does he have to forgive Snape for?  Snape responded to Harry's plea 
the only way he could, considering how dangerous his Order work is. 
(not that we really know WHAT it is, just that it's required of him 
to hide his membership, and what side he is on.) It was because of 
Snape's actions that Harry and the DA members were rescued from 
certain defeat. (In essence, he called in the Calvary).   And now 
Dr. Zipes' "perfect" Harry hates him, because he needs someone to 
pin Sirius's death on, and he can't accept that something's don't 
have blame, or that sometimes everyone is at fault.  
    Archetypes aren't people.  Archetypes are symbols. Harry is not 
a symbol.  This isn't a morality play.  This isn't an allegory.  
There is no Red Crosse Knight who comes charging in on his white 
horse to face the dragon Temptation.   If ever there were archetypes 
in the story, the characters wore the robes awkwardly, with the 
sleeves slipping off the shoulders, and their respective shields 
dragging on the ground.  By now I think they have rather lost them. 

In summery of my statement:  Yes, there is a loose framework of 
archetypes, but what is there is a mere ghost of those archetypes: 
insubstantial not effecting the "real" world.