Christopher Vogler The Writers Journey
gling to become an individual, and dying. Stories can be read as metaphors for the
general human situation, with characters who embody universal, archetypal qualities,
comprehensible to the group as well as the individual.
THE M O S T C O M M O N A N D USEFUL ARCHETYPES
For the storyteller, certain character archetypes are indispensable tools of the trade.
You can't tell stories without them. T h e archetypes that occur most frequendy in
stories, and that seem to be the most useful for the writer to understand, are:
HERO
M E N T O R (Wise Old Man or Woman)
THRESHOLD GUARDIAN
HERALD
SHAPESHIFTER
SHADOW
ALLY
TRICKSTER
There are, of course, many more archetypes; as many as there are human qual
ities to dramatize in stories. Fairy tales are crowded with archetypal figures: the Wolf,
the Hunter, the Good Mother, the W i c k e d Stepmother, the Fairy Godmother, the
annaabi.ee 
