Popular novels and character archetypes.

Yesterday, I finished reading one of my favourite books, Divergent. It was the second time I’d read it, and so I thought of it differently. The first time I read it I was getting to know the story, anxious to guess the next plot twist, and hoping that two characters would get together.

The second time was different. I knew what the characters where like, I knew all the plot twists. And those two characters did get together (YAY!!!!!!!!!). So this time I read Divergent, I spent a lot of the time thinking. This was a reflective read.

I read a lot of books. And I read all kinds of books.

Until recently, eighty percent of the books I read were relatively unknown. I had a knack for picking books that no one had heard of. Therefore, I could never “fangirl”. (Basically screaming and getting hyper over something with someone. In this case books. Note: fangirling isn’t so fun on your own) with someone.

Earlier this year, I read the hunger games. I was crying from an early stage in the book, usually a sign that I like a book, and I stayed up half the night reading it. I read it when it was incredibly popular, and right on the brink of becoming well, what it became, ridiculously famous.

This year I have read a lot of books, as well as writing two of my own. When I love a book, I begin to analyse every detail of it. Then, tonight, I was thinking about a part of Divergent, and a part of Harry Potter, then, I started thinking about what makes books popular, and what popular books have in common.

In Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, Harry decides to sacrifice his life for the people he loves, and goes on a suicide mission to see Voldemort. In Insurgent (the sequel of Divergent), Tris (the main character) goes to the Erudite compound even though she knows they’ll kill her, to protect the people she loves.

In The Hunger Games, Katniss (the main character) is sarcastic and always in a bad mood, as well as being feisty and kind of violent, and not exactly a nice person. In Divergent, Tris is sarcastic, extremely feisty, and also has a tendency towards violence. These are the worlds the characters live in, these worlds are horrible places, and so the characters are a bit…well, how they are. Don’t get me wrong, I love these characters, Tris more than Katniss, but I love them both. Anyway, what other popular books are there? Twilight. I didn’t make it past chapter seven, the storyline freaked me out, I don’t like the idea of a teenage girl throwing herself at a guy who wants to eat her, but that’s just my opinion. Anyway, I’m hardly an expert on twilight, seeing as I only read half of it, but it is my next example. The hunger games; As well as killing people so she can survive, Katniss has two boys fighting over her, well, she does in the sequel. In twilight, Bella has two boys fighting over her. Though I personally prefer Katniss, she can look after herself, and doesn’t actually (or doesn’t think she) need these guys, Bella’s just kind of “I’m going to throw myself off a cliff into the ocean so Edward can come bite me”.

One of my favourite things about Divergent is the lack of love triangle. Well, I love Divergent cos it’s awesome, but that’s one of the reasons that it’s awesome.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, all the most popular novels tend to have things in common.

I think popular books have characters from a certain range of archetypes. Tris has aspects of Katniss and Harry, so people who like those characters will relate to her, and so on. Also, these archetypes are cross genres. Harry Potter is fantasy, whereas Divergent and the Hunger Games are futuristic dystopian, but the character thing comes across in all of them.

In my own books, I can’t find that particular archetype.

Persephone, my main character, is, for a start, not particularly feisty, or violence loving. She’s stubborn, but, at the end of the day, she easily falls into the “nice person” category. She doesn’t really have the Harry/Tris prepared to die to save people they love thing, though she would do anything to save people she loves, so maybe she does have that archetype.

Phoenix, my other main (and favourite) character, has a lot more personality than Persephone.

Phoenix has traits which actually tend to come with lesser main characters. She has a difficult past, (Tobias, Divergent. Well, character that main one gets together with (YAY!) rather than minor character, but not main main character. Okay, I can’t think of other examples, but there are some). Phoenix is smart, that tends to be a female sidekick (I.E Hermione, Annabeth) trait, as opposed to a main character one. Phoenix also is suspicious, has commitment issues, and runs away when she can’t handle things. (Katniss alert! Seriously, going to district two just cos she can’t kill the president and her boyfriend-whose-technically-not-her-boyfriend has tracker jacker venom in his brain.?Okay, understandable).

Also, there are scene archetypes.

In Mockingjay (Third hunger games book), Peeta (One of the two guys involved in the love triangle aspect) tries to strangle Katniss cos his brain’s been messed with with the venom of sci-fi wasps.

In Insurgent, Tobias (The ONE male love interest for Tris) tries to strangle Tris because he’s in a weird simulation caused by all the Erudite (it’s a Divergent thing).

OOOH just remembered another archetype. Percy Jackson from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series has a smart female friend, and a male friend who mentions food on several occasions.

In Harry Potter, Harry has a smart female friend, and a male friend who mentions food on several occasions.

And then there’s setting archetypes.

Harry has to fight the evil wizard trying to take over the world, he goes to magic school.

Percy has to fight the evil titan trying to bring down Olympus; he goes to a magic camp.

Katniss lives in a society which is divided up based on what happens in each section. The government hate her for a reason which isn’t her fault.

Tris lives in a society which is divided up based on personality, and what is most important to each group of people. One of the factions hates her for a reason which isn’t her fault.

Rick Riordon didn’t copy J K Rowling, and Veronica Roth didn’t copy Suzanne Collins. (And I didn’t copy any of them, just thought I’d put that there seeing as I used my book as an example).

Yet these books have similarities.

Are books popular because they’re well written, or because people crave a certain kind of character?