Setting Archetypes
ARCHETYPAL SETTINGS
1. The River – Almost any source of water will focus on the importance of life. Without water there is no life. A journey on or down a river is often a metaphor for life’s journey or a character’s journey, especially if the river is shown as a road or means of travel – pulling or pushing a character through changes. (Twain’s Huck Finn) Rivers can also be a metaphor for the passage of time (Big Fish) or the stages of a human life (creek, roaring river, sea; or the crossing of the river Styx in Greek myths). Since rivers are often used as political borders or boundaries, crossing one may be seen as a “passing over” or a decision that cannot be taken back. In Africa, and thus African literature, rivers are the largest sources of income and commerce and so have additional meaning leaning toward the source of life and morality and the where the fight for good and evil happens.
2. The Garden – In ancient times, across many cultures (Sumeria, Greece, Rome) the garden was seen as a place of earthly delights. Often stories about young love had couples meeting in gardens. Gardens came to symbolize love, fertility and the female body – until the spread of Christianity. With increased teachings of the Bible the “garden” (Eden) became a symbol of an eternal, forbidden paradise. The walled gardens of later Christian art show the Madonna/Virgin Mary figure with baby Jesus protected behind the garden walls, which implies that garden walls protected virginity in young women. William Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet manages to blend the old and the new in his balcony scene. Japanese gardens, as in Japanese literature, have a totally different cultural history. Intricate landscaping and water features were used to create a place of harmony for people to find balance in their energies and help to rejuvenate the mind and body. A more modern literary concept of the garden is where a person must “tend” (to the garden and their own business) an orderly place of
1. The River – Almost any source of water will focus on the importance of life. Without water there is no life. A journey on or down a river is often a metaphor for life’s journey or a character’s journey, especially if the river is shown as a road or means of travel – pulling or pushing a character through changes. (Twain’s Huck Finn) Rivers can also be a metaphor for the passage of time (Big Fish) or the stages of a human life (creek, roaring river, sea; or the crossing of the river Styx in Greek myths). Since rivers are often used as political borders or boundaries, crossing one may be seen as a “passing over” or a decision that cannot be taken back. In Africa, and thus African literature, rivers are the largest sources of income and commerce and so have additional meaning leaning toward the source of life and morality and the where the fight for good and evil happens.
2. The Garden – In ancient times, across many cultures (Sumeria, Greece, Rome) the garden was seen as a place of earthly delights. Often stories about young love had couples meeting in gardens. Gardens came to symbolize love, fertility and the female body – until the spread of Christianity. With increased teachings of the Bible the “garden” (Eden) became a symbol of an eternal, forbidden paradise. The walled gardens of later Christian art show the Madonna/Virgin Mary figure with baby Jesus protected behind the garden walls, which implies that garden walls protected virginity in young women. William Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet manages to blend the old and the new in his balcony scene. Japanese gardens, as in Japanese literature, have a totally different cultural history. Intricate landscaping and water features were used to create a place of harmony for people to find balance in their energies and help to rejuvenate the mind and body. A more modern literary concept of the garden is where a person must “tend” (to the garden and their own business) an orderly place of