Archetypes In The Lion King :: essays research papers

Archetypes In The Lion KingJohn berry Edwards Per. 2 4/18/96The Lion King is a story containing many an(prenominal) archetypes. Archetypes atomic number 18patterns or models of literature that reoccur in many stories. In this paper Iwill discuss three of these archetypes. They are the hero, death & rebirth ofthe hero, and the symbolism and associations of water vs. desert. Thesearchetypes can be sight easily and help things come to get alongher.The Lion King has a actu in ally evident hero, Simba. Simba meets many of thecharacteristics of an archetypal hero. Among these is the way that he is taken out-of-door from his home, the fleecelands, and grows up with Timon and Pumbaa. AfterSimba arrives with Timon and Pumbaa, we see real little of his life until he isfully grown. When the film returns to Simba, he soon decides to return to Pride joggle and face his past. He returns to save his kingdom from its desolationcaused by cross and the hyenas, and to restore it to its glory. T he hero of astory commonly goes through about of these events.Simba faces a common archetypal situation, death and rebirth. AlthoughSimba never physically dies, in spirit he does die. The spiritual death ofSimba is when he runs away from the Pridelands into the desert. Everyone in thePridelands thinks that he has physically died. In fact, he nearly does die inthe desert. Luckily, Timon and Pumbaa find him and keep him alive. Thespiritual resurrection of Simba occurs when he returns to his home at Pride Rock.Everyone discovers that Simba is alive. It seems as if he has risen from thedead to them because for such a longsighted time they believed that he was dead. AtPride Rock, Simba returns to his previous life and faces all of his problems.The symbolism of water and desert in the Lion King is very important. pissing often accompanies a change in a story. Water can also be a sign of birthand rebirth. An manikin of water foretelling a change is Simbas lie when hesays that he and Nal a are going to the water hole. They actually visit theElephant Graveyards. This visit causes Simba to get a view of reality, not fromhis sheltered world. When Simba is found by Timon and Pumbaa in the desert,they splash him with water to bring life back into him. Another pillow slip of thesymbolism of water is the rain when Simba defeats Scar and assumes his positionon the dope of Pride Rock.