This is another great guest post from Jared Trueheart of Legends Of Men. It’s been one of my favorite sites to read lately and Jared is quickly becoming one of my favorite guest posters. In this article Jared talks about masculine archetypes from fiction that are worthy of emulation. Enjoy.
An archetype is a type of character that fulfills a role in a type of story. In a classic hero’s journey as outlined by Joseph Campbell in The Hero With A Thousand Faces, there are several common archetypes. The hero is a nobody called to action to find the magic sword and beat the bad guys and save the world (or some variation). The wise mentor guides the hero and teaches him how to find the strength hidden within him. The shadow archetype is the villain. The shadow represents more than just a bad person, he represents a bad quality that we have within us and that we should try and eliminate so that we can live a better life just like the hero eliminates the villain to make a better world.
The hero’s journey archetypes can be found in many stories and they are worth examination. But here I present four distinctly masculine archetypes and why they are worthy of emulation.
The Hard-Edged Detective
Dashiell Hammett created this archetype when he started writing short stories about the Continental Op, an operative of the Continental Detective Agency. Before Hammett detectives were portrayed as the stodgy, bourgeois thinkers who wouldn’t get their hands dirty like Sherlock Holmes. Hammett brought the character back home to everyday Americans walking the dirty city streets.
The hard-edged detective is a rough, burly character. He doesn’t laugh much, nor does he seem to enjoy life. That’s because he’s doing the dirty work of society that needs to be done. He’s finding justice in an unjust world and providing some level of revenge for those who can’t find it themselves. There are no wild battle cries from these detectives, just quiet determination.
The most prominent quality of this archetype is the character’s commitment to their job. They do what they do with determination and resilience and pride. When it looks like they can be killed they do not give up, run away, and find another job, which most of us would (reasonably) do. Instead, they see it through to the end thanks to competence, grit, and social intuition.
Suggested Reading: Anything by Dashiell Hammett, but start with either the short stories or The Maltese Falcon
The Barbarian a.k.a. The Noble Savage
If you’re reading this site, or mine, or similar sites it’s because you’re either an alpha male who enjoys the thoughts of other alphas or you want to be an alpha male and you’ve come to the right place. So many of those alpha qualities are indicative of the barbarian or noble savage. They have strength from living a hard life of manual labor. They have so much energy because their bodies are so strong that mundane tasks don’t exhaust any. They have courage because on any given day they face the unknown challenges of the wilderness.
What fuels their strength, courage, and energy more than anything is an abundance of testosterone. You’ll never read that in any story, but we know now that barbarians have much more than your average computer geek playing Call of Duty. The great thing is that when you emulate the noble savage archetype your T levels will rise naturally. It will probably take more action to get your levels where you want them but once they’re there you’ll want to emulate barbarians anyway.
Suggested Reading: Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, watch the film Apocalypto
The Passionate Warrior
Warriors are common to many stories. They’re nothing special. The Passionate Warrior is a certain type of warrior, one worthy of emulation. What makes them so worthy is why they fight. What causes these warriors to dig so deep into the well of their souls to unleash a torrent of righteous fury on their enemies?
Perhaps the most famous passionate warrior is Achilles, from The Iliad. The death of his best friend causes him to don his armor and fight their enemies. Achilles seeks revenge for the death of his life-long friend. This is a noble purpose, worthy of every ounce of energy a warrior can expend.
In The Lord of the Rings, Boromir is another passionate warrior. He’s flawed in several ways, but his fighting spirit is second to none. When he realizes that the enemy is about to get the tool they need to destroy Boromir’s people he sounds an alarm, causing his enemies to pursue him instead of that tool. This is a battle he cannot possibly win, but he fights it nevertheless. Boromir fights valiantly until he is overwhelmed and dies. His purpose was the protection of his people. This is a noble, masculine purpose, worthy of passionate brutality.
Suggested Reading: The Lord of the Rings, The Iliad
Old-Sitcom Dads
Anything past the year 2000 won’t do. Newer sitcom dads are portrayed as bumbling morons. Ray Romano in Everyone Loves Raymond was a lazy momma’s boy who couldn’t satisfy his own wife. These are not at all worthy of emulation.
But older sitcom dads were. We’ll just give two examples here. Uncle Phil from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was a great sitcom dad (and uncle). He was a successful lawyer who became a judge. He never accepted disrespect, but he dealt with it in a way that commanded respect while maintaining healthy relationships with people. When wisdom was needed, he had it. When a hug was needed he wasn’t too proud to give one. His only flaw was his weight.
Andy Griffith from The Andy Griffith Show was another great sitcom dad. He was a local sheriff and competent at his job. When wisdom was needed he had it. When a hug was needed he had that too. When his friends were in trouble he was there, and not just because it was his job to be there. He looked strong even for an older guy. And when there was a crime he was on it, much like the detectives mentioned above.
It’s their fatherly qualities that make this archetype worthy of emulation, even if you’re not ready to be a father yet.
Suggested Watching: Probably the funniest of these sitcoms was Married With Children. Al Bundy, the dad of that show, was a bit of a loser but he was known to punch some people out and he told fat women to lose weight so you decide if it’s right for you.
There are more masculine archetypes worthy of emulation, but these are four of the best.
To read more about masculinity in fiction and film check out Legends of Men at www.legendsofmen.com
