Archetypes From the Dead Zone by Stephen King
One example of an an archetype in this text is Johnny is an example of a tragic hero. After falling on a hockey rink and blacking out at age 4 whenever Johnny makes physical contact with someone he gets a shock of facts about them such as how old their son is, and other minor facts. This ends up making all contact with other people limited. He has a thing almost an obsession with meeting politicians and shaking their hands. And he shakes hands with a man running for Congress Greg Stillson, he gets vibes unlike any other he's ever experience, the waves are terrible, he can't describe it but it's terrible. He begins to pick up more and more bad vibes from him. Johnny becomes so worried about this political phenom that he tries to assassinate him. While trying to do this Johnny is shot and killed. Yes, killing is never good, but I believe that Johnny hero because whatever he sees is always accurate, and if he saw such bad things that he tried to kill Stillson, he must have been protecting the country's future. And it's tragic for obvious reasons. As it shows at the end he died for what he believed in, "Nothing mattered except for Stillson anymore."
Another archetype in this book is Johnny and Sarah as star crossed lovers. I say this because they dated, and one night while driving home in a cab Johnny gets into a major accident, and is sent into a coma for four years and four years is a long time, and by the time Johnny wakes up Sarah is married and has a kid. Sarah and Johnny had an amazing relationship and were together for a long time and may have even gotten married. This shows that they were meant to be, but it just couldn't ever really happen. As Sarah says on page 204 "I love you Johnny. "I've never stopped.I try to tell myself it was an act of God that split us up. But I don't know."
In this text Greg Stillson represents the Shadow. There a few reasons I say this, one is that he never really gets spoken about in depth but is always lurking there in the shadows off to the side. He is always somewhat there in Johnny's life, whether it's making him feel uncomfortable, plaguing his brain, or just being watched by him. He's a very odd political person as he's extremely unusual, such as wearing a construction helmet to every speech or throwing hot dogs to his fans. Something about him is off and shady, but it is just unclear what. This shows that he is a shadow because it's unclear what but he is messing with Johnny, who is the protagonist.
The example of the scapegoat in this story would be Walt. I say this because, yes, he is married to Sarah but she and Johnny got broken up unfairly and of course when Johnny is out of a coma she obviously has feelings, and a wave of remorse. Walt sees this and is saddened but there isn't anything he can do because Johnny and Sarah had to break up for all of the wrong reasons. Also, he isn't doing so well with his business and is losing money.This shows that for things that aren't his fault his life is struggling to remain good.
Overall, there were many different archetypes in this book and each person of the main characters fit into one of them. This was an amazing book overall and taught me many lessons such as you should fight for what you believe in and others as well.
