ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Archetypal literary criticism

Archetypal literary criticism is a way of looking at stories to try and understand what they mean. It’s a way of looking for patterns or symbols that the writer might be using to tell the story. People who do this kind of criticism look for things like characters, images, ideas, and settings that tell the story in a deeper way than just what’s on the surface. They might look for things like common characters, like a hero or a villain, or common settings, like a castle or a forest. They might look for common ideas or images, like a journey or something that is repeated throughout the story. By looking for patterns like these, its possible to get a better understanding of what the story means and what the writer is trying to say.