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The Journey Archetype In Our Town By Thornton Wilder

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Recommended: Essays on archetype in literature

In every book, there are archetypes. Archetypes are defined as “A typical character, an action, or a situation that seems to represent such universal patterns of human nature” (literarydevices). Archetypes are basically the character’s personality and trait. In the play Our Town by Thornton Wilder, the character Emily goes through the journey archetype. The Journey Archetype helps the character understand themself or society better (literarydevices). In Act III of the play, Emily goes back in time to her twelfth birthday. In that moment, Emily realizes that no one appreciates life in the moment.
The journey can be done in two ways; physical or emotional. The type of journey that Emily went through in Our Town, is an emotional journey. The reason why it’s an emotional journey instead of a physical journey is that she is going back to a memory. She is not traveling anywhere to accomplish a mission. Instead, she is going back in time to her twelfth birthday. She is watching the memory to get one last glance on what life is like. While she is watching this memory she says, “... I love you all, everything. -- I can’t look at everything hard enough” (Wilder 105). The reason why she …show more content…

After Emily came back from traveling through time to her twelfth birthday, Mrs. Gibbs asked her if she was happy on that day. She said that she was; then after she went back in time, she realized that she wasn’t as happy as she thought. “Were you happy?’ ‘No… I should have listened to you. That’s all human are! Just blind people” (Wilder 109). This shows that Emily realizes that it’s not only her who doesn’t appreciate life, but it’s everyone else. People just go day to day motions thinking “It’s just another day,” and it’s not positive. They don’t think about how happy that they should be that they have another day to live. Some people are not fortunate enough to live another

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Soames is still seen full of interest regarding the lives of those around her. She does not dwell on the misfortunes, but instead focuses on the positive aspects of life (“My, wasn’t life awful- and wonderful.” Act III). Mrs. Soames recalls Emily’s accomplishments, such as her wedding and graduation. When Emily insists on returning to the world of the living, Mrs. Soames advises her against it, as she knows that Emily will be disappointed and hurt.

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Not only that, as Homer becomes a popular figure in town and is seen taking Emily on buggy rides on Sunday afternoons, it scandalizes the town and increases the condescension and pity they have for Emily. They feel that she is forgetting her family pride and becoming involved with a man beneath her station. Even though Emily is from the high class family, it does not mean that she is living up to the pleasant lifestyle. As a matter of fact, she is actually living a gloomy and desolate life, which is essentially the opposite lifestyle expected for Emily's rank in society by the townspeople. Although Emily once represented a great southern tradition centering on the landed gentry with their vast holdings and considerable resources, Emily's legacy has devolved, making her more a duty and an obligation than a romanticized vestige of a dying order.

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