There are many Archetypes within this novel. For example, Baby
is the child/innocent archetype. The child archetype is usually dependent on others
for support and guidance. Baby looks to the adults in her life for help however
she never gets any. She doesn’t have any proper support systems therefore she has
to learn to take care of herself at a very young age. Mary, Isabel, and Janine
are all Mother/caregiver archetypes in this story. Each one of these women made
an impression on Baby. Baby desperately wanted a mother figure in her life. She
needed a person to show affection towards her and do simple “mother things”
such as making her meals and getting her ready for school. At the end of the
novel Jules decided that it would be best for Baby to go live with his cousin
Janine for a while. Baby described the moment when she first saw Janine and
said, “Then Janine stepped over and squeezed me hard. I could feel my heart
beating when she hugged me against her, but now it felt fine.” (O’Neill, 330). Baby
immediately felt comfortable with this woman. Considering the book ended after
Baby moved to Janine’s house I assume that was the “happy ending” and this is
the kind of home that Baby has been waiting for. She finally got her mother
figure and was still able to keep her connection to Jules because she moved in
with a family member as opposed to foster care. A mother and a child are two
very common archetypes. The way they act in a novel is typically dependent on
whether or not the two have a good relationship. A mother without a child or a
child without a mother usually creates an issue. And you need conflict in order
to write a good novel. A third archetype in this novel is The Ruler. I would
say that Jules is a good example of this archetype. As the novel progressed he
became more and more cruel and controlling. Every time he believed that Baby
was doing anything even remotely wrong he would get very angry. He didn’t want
to be made a fool of in anyway and he wanted to keep his power. This caused his
and Baby’s relationship to deteriorate. It was hard for them to be close when
they thought so poorly of each other and couldn’t get along. There are more
archetypes that were displayed in this novel (and more characters that fall
under the archetypal categories that I mentioned here) however I believe the
ones I mentioned were the most important. This story had a lot of conflict and a
lot of that conflict was created from poor communication, family dynamics, and
power imbalances. The archetypes help me relate these characters to ones that I
have read about in previous stories. Over all I really enjoyed this book
despite some of the upsetting content. The book was very interesting and well
written.
