While published more than half a century apart and set in locations thousands of kilometers away, the novels Our Animal Hearts by Dania Tomlinson and The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger both tackle the stories of the unpleasant and difficult coming of age of a conflicted youth. Our Animal Hearts is the story of Iris Sparks, who suffers the difficulties of having to care for her cold and unloving mother, Llewelyna. Llewelyna supplies Iris imagination with a collection of dark and gruesome fairy tales about monstrous creatures that consequently begin to take shape in Iris daily life. Throughout the novel, Iris attempts to navigate and understand her world of family, friends, lovers and spiritual beings, despite her compass of morality and truth seldom pointing her in the right direction. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield, relates the days leading up to his mental deterioration and ultimate downfall. Holden takes the reader on a journey, beginning with his dismissal from prep school and the subsequent depression-filled days he spends in New York, meeting people and seeking happiness, truth, and meaning to life. Through the analysis of Iris and Holdens characterization, it is possible to detect recurring patterns. These pat
terns are called archetypes, and are found all throughout literature. According to the editors of LiteraryDevices.net, In literature, [a character] archetype is a typical character [Â…] that seems to represent universal patterns of human nature (LiteraryDevices Editors). Therefore, this archetype can be understood as a mold or a category that a character is best represented by. Both Our Animal Hearts and The Catcher in the Rye utilize the character archetypes of the unbalanced hero and of the storyteller. The unbalanced hero is usually the protagonist, who has mental or emotional deficiencies (Notes on Archetypes). Examples of these deficiencies are depression or the misunderstanding of society. On the other hand, the storyteller, as described by Ken Miyamoto of the Screencraft blog, is A character that is noted for his or her ability to tell tales [Â…] (Miyamoto); it is a character that is found narrating stories throughout the novel. In both Our Animal Hearts and The Catcher in the Rye, the archetypes of the unbalanced hero and the storyteller portray the characters mental instability which causes them to interpret their lives through a tainted lens and attempt to defeat their respective monsters through or in spite of storytelling.