John Berry Edwards Per. 2 4/18/96 The Lion King is a story containing many archetypes.

Archetypes are pat terns or models of literature that reoccur in many stories. In this paper I wil l discuss three of these archetypes. They are the hero, death & rebirth of the hero, and the symbolism and associations of water vs. desert. These archetypes can be noticed easily and help things come together. The Lion King has a very evident hero, Simba. Simba meets many of the c haracteristics of an archetypal hero. Among these is the way that he is taken a way from his home, the Pridelands, and grows up with Timon and Pumbaa. After Si mba arrives with Timon and Pumbaa, we see very little of his life until he is fu lly grown. When the film returns to Simba, he soon decides to return to Pride R ock and face his past. He returns to save his kingdom from its desolation cause d by Scar and the hyenas, and to restore it to its glory. The hero of a story c ommonly goes through some of these events. Simba faces a common archetypal situation, death and rebirth. Although Simba never physically dies, in spirit he does die. The spiritual death of Simb a is when he runs away from the Pridelands into the desert. Everyone in the Pri delands thinks that he has physically died. In fact, he nearly does die in the desert. Luckily, Timon and Pumbaa find him and keep him alive. The spiritual r esurrection of Simba occurs when he returns to his home at Pride Rock. Everyone discovers that Simba is alive. It seems as if he has risen from the dead to th em because for such a long time they believed that he was dead. At Pride Rock, Simba returns to his previous life and faces all of his problems. The symbolism of water and desert in the Lion King is very important. W ater often accompanies a change in a story. Water can also be a sign of birth a nd rebirth. An example of water foretelling a change is Simba's lie when he say s that he and Nala are going to the water hole. They actually visit the Elephan t Graveyards. This visit causes Simba to get a view of reality, not from his sh eltered world. When Simba is found by Timon and Pumbaa in the desert, they spla sh him with water to bring life back into him. Another example of the symbolism of water is the rain when Simba defeats Scar and assumes his position on the th rone of Pride Rock. The rain symbolizes the rebirth of the Pridelands. They go from the desolation that Scar brings to the prosperity that comes with Simba. On the other hand, the desert is symbolic for spiritual defilement and desiccati on. This occurs on Simba's flight from the Pridelands. He loses his spirit, an d spiritually dies. There is many cases of archetypes of characters, situations, and symboli sm and associations in the Lion King. This paper discussed several of them. Th ey included the heroic qualities of Simba, the spiritual death and rebirth of Si mba, and the associations of water and the desert in the story. These archetype s are very important to the story and help give the viewer a better understandin g.