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Anansi Boys

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Neil Gaiman, as a writer, very much enjoys taking classic tales and folklore, and translating them into the modern era. The general public has seen it before in his work,with such novels as “American Gods” and “Good Omens”, catching on and finding a very large audience. However, it is his novel, “Anansi Boys” that is debatably his most successful at reinventing the myth for the modern era. Gaiman realizes that in order for his story filled with iconic figures in folklore to make tangible sense, he would need to adapt and mold the archetypes of folklore to fit within the modern world. This becomes a fine line however, in that he could not warp the story beats past recognition, otherwise the audience would have no idea what he was going for. Due to this, everything that makes a classic story is there. Despite all the fantastical situations our hero, Charles, encounters in this strange new world of gods and fables, the story at its core is still a classic “chosen one” narrative structu
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The Night Circus

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Often times in high fantasy and in fairytales, complex moral situations are presented to the protagonist to figure out on their own terms. Usually, these moral conundrums come to the young protagonists as a result of outside or familial drama that proves to be out of their control. They are not the root causes of these problems, however they must deal with and resolve the issue nonetheless. The demons of parental or authority figures are left to the new generation to deal with. This scenario can be seen in classic pieces of work such as Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” , however, can also be observed in contemporary pieces of literature, such as “Harry Potter” and, more recently, Erin Morgenstern’s 2011 novel, “The Night Circus” .  “The Night Circus” follows two young Magicians, named Marco and Celia, who are unknowingly thrust into a dangerous game of life and death by their mentors. Celia is involved by her own biological father, Hector Bowen, a very practiced magician who mak
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The Hobbit

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In “The Hobbit” , the main character, Bilbo, is whisked away by forces seemingly beyond his control and does not generally follow the elements of the classic journey of the hero. We do not learn much of his lineage, and around his small neighborhood, he does not have an intense reputation about him. However, another character Thorin, follows this journey more closely. Upon his introduction to the novel, we see that he has great expectations placed upon him by his surrounding company. Upon killing the Dragon known as Smaug that was guarding the treasure he deemed as rightfully his, Thorin begins to exhibit greatly selfish behavior. Through his journey, we see inklings of a fall from grace, however these suspicions are brought to the forefront when he flatly refuses to help those that he has negatively affected in his journey, even though they ask of him only the bare minimum. This goes in contrast with the archetype of the hero’s journey, that says that when the hero has his battle he w
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Witches

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    “Akata Witch” by Nnendi Okorafor, is a young adult novel set in Nigeria, that follows the story of a young girl named Sunny. One day, Sunny discovers that she belongs to a group of people known as “Leopard People”, people with supernatural abilities and powers. Through the course of the novel, she works to discover her true heritage and powers, while fighting against an evil that threatens the fate of the world.  As the novel progresses, the reader is able to see different archetypes of the “Witch” character and how they affect the life of the main character. Immediately, we see that Sunny is othered by her community for being a black albino woman. Her classmates sneer, belittle, and bully her for no other reason than the fact that she is different. Before even learning of her magical abilities, it is already widely rumored that because of the way she was born she must possess a type of great power, a fact backed up by the fact that when her friend ChiChi first begins to spri
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The New Weird

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"Weird" in this sense, refers to a subject that the general population perceives as taboo or unexplainable. Often times, the subject matters of the “New Weird” involve mind-bending and logic defying events of the supernatural being dealt with by the main protagonist. Something in their world has significantly changed and this change challenges their world view to the point where, even despite protest, they can not help but uncover the truth behind the phenomena.  In “Annihilation”, the reader follows a character only known as “the Biologist” as she is sent out into a mysterious new region known only as “Area X”. The choice here to follow the Biologist specifically brings a new perspective to the work, as rather quickly, we see her try to apply her previous knowledge of biology to the world surrounding her, only for this knowledge to fail her. When trying to explain a wall of organic, seemingly plant-based lifeforms to her party, she says, ‘“Some sort of fungi,’
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"Kwaidan" Response

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Often times, before one reads a story, they approach the work expecting to see certain genre tropes that they themselves are already familiar with. When reading a story about superheroes, it is expected that the protagonist and antagonist will face off in an epic battle. When reading a murder mystery story, the reader expects to read through how the killer was able to get away with their crimes for so long, and to find out their identity. In general for all stories, it is expected that good will go against evil, what form these two forces take depends entirely on the scope of the novel. However, these assumptions and tropes can vary greatly depending on regional and cultural differences.  For instance, the assumptions of Western and Asian horror differ greatly due to their cultural values. In Western gothic horror stories, often times the misfortunes and events unfolding are due to the main characters own mistakes or dark past. Exemplified in Mary Shelly’s, “Frankenstein” , the cre
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Frankenstein and Gothic Literature

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Mary Shelly’s classic Gothic Novel, “Frankenstein” contains a variety of different references to Gothic Literature, and is among the best works of fiction to consume when analyzing the Gothic thanks in part to the novel’s use of various tropes of the genre. Immediately upon beginning the book, the reader is welcomed to the desolate, unforgiving, and completely isolated environment of the North Pole. Isolated environments are a common trope of the gothic novel, as these kinds of places serve to cut the main characters off from receiving help in their struggles.The protagonists are often alone with their thoughts, forced to confront their own minds and struggles with morality.  More specifically in the context of the time period, the North Pole represented a fantastical region of the unknown. Very little had been recorded of the area, and for all the average person of the time knew, it was a land of great mystery and intrigue. In the book, the ship of an explorer known as Robert Walt
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