Character Archetypes
Characters- Megan and Tommy
Plot- The two twins, age 10, are playing behind their house in the cornfield and by the
railroad tracks. It becomes dark and they can’t find their way back home before dinner.
It’s a cool crisp fall day in Illinois. Tommy and Megan were outside eating their lunch
and planning their big adventure for the afternoon. Tommy was the more adventurous and
independent of the two so he usually made the decisions without much of Megan’s consent.
He decided today would be a good day to run through his father’s cornfield and keep going
until they reached the railroad tracks. There they could run along the tracks and if they
were lucky enough they could see a train. They finished eating and Megan took the lead. She
began tracking through the massive rows of corn that towered above their heads. Hearing a
train in the distance, she sprinted along calling to Tommy, telling him to race. The two
sprinted through the corn and ran along the train until they were breathing too heavily to
continue. Both of them looked at each other in amazement; They had never chased a train
that far before. As a matter of fact, they had never been that far off the property
without a parent. Megan, being more aware of the approaching darkness, which meant they
had to be home shortly, alerted Tommy of their situation. Tommy complained, “Come on
Meg, we’ve never been here before. Let’s go on a little further.” Megan quickly objected the
idea by pulling Tommy by the arm and dragging him back the way they had come. Before
they had reached the cornfields, it had become dark. The darkness made all the rows look
the same, which caused a debate to which row would lead them directly to their house.
Megan used her instincts and went down the right row, but Tommy went down a different
row, which was about ten over. The twins walked quickly down their rows, occasionally
moving the corn out of the way creating rustling. The overall eerie feeling of being in the
corn in the dark spooked Megan. Matters weren’t helped when she heard Tommy scream in
surprise. Worried for her twin, Megan quickly dashed through the rows to find Tommy
looking at her from the corn and laughing. Annoyed by his idea of a joke, she grabbed him by
the arm again and pulled him until she saw the light of their house. The twins looked at each
other and set forward side by side to explain their tardiness to their mother and try to
escape the consequences.
It was a perfect Indian summer day in Illinois. Megan and Tommy sat together on
their porch eating lunch, eagerly planning their afternoon adventure. They both agreed to
make their way through their dad’s cornfield, that reminded them of a maze, and then head
out to the train tracks. If they were lucky enough, they would be able to watch a train go
by. Megan took the lead and was optimistic about their chances. Dinner time was far off and
their journey has just begun. Tommy was happy at the moment, but would get worried when
the occasional corn stalk would be blocking the pathway, causing them to alter their route.
Megan successfully lead them through the corn and out to the tracks. With no sign of a
train approaching, Megan pulled out her bouncy ball and began to play catch with Tommy.
After a half hour of this, Tommy began to complain that a train would never come. Megan
just smiled and said one would come before they knew it. Shortly afterwards, a low rumbling
was heard and a train appeared in the distance. Excitedly they watched the engine go by and
began to count the cars. After loosing count at thirty, they began to follow the train as far
as they could. As they neared the end of their property, Tommy began to worry about
getting into trouble and the danger of the unknown off the property. Megan was optimistic
and positive that everything would be totally fine. However, Tommy’s fear of punishment
caused him to turn around and start heading back. Megan panicked at the thought of being
left alone and ran to catch up to Tommy. There would be just enough time to get back
before dinner.
Analysis- In this writing journal, we were asked to chose two character archetypes and
write a story that showed which archetypes they were. Then we chose two different
archetypes and rewrote the story with the different characters. This required the
identification of components and being able see paterns in the sense that we first had to
select archetypes and then make the characters clear enough to see a patern to determine
which archetype they were. After the first story was written, we were able to arrange and
classify the seond story in order to fit the new archetypes. It allowed us to connect the
stories together to compare and analyze the differences in characters.