Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Diversity in World Literature Lesson 5: The Tragic Hero
Should identifying a tragic hero be based on a universal definition or a definition based on the morals and values of a specific culture? As part of a study of Things Fall Apart, class members read Sylvia Plath's "Colossus" and then...
Curated OER
The Eight Hero Archetypes
The Chief, the Bad Boy, the Best Friend, the Charmer, the Lost Soul, the Professor, the Swashbuckler, the Warrior. After examining the criteria for each of these archetypes, viewers are ask to generate a list of their own examples of...
College Board
The Departure
Scholars learn about the Hero's Journey as they read Ray Bradbury's "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh." They analyze the story's structure and narrative techniques. Finally, they write summaries of the text's central idea and use their...
Curated OER
Archetypal Images and Polarities
Here is a rather esoteric resource that presents the archetypes found in “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” and would be appropriate for a college-level psychology or literature class, or as a teacher resource. Considered the “world’s oldest...
Curated OER
Forging Freedom
Pupils read the story Forging Freedom by Hudson Talbott about the holocaust. In this holocaust lesson plan, students also answer discussion questions.
Maine Historical Society
Maine Historical Society: The Birth of an American Hero: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Paul Revere's Ride"
Compare the heroic archetype with Longfellow's famous narration of Revere's ride in this lesson. The plan includes a lengthy list of relevant web resources, as well as the text of the poem and suggested activities.