Hero Archetypes In Nick Gautier In The Chronicles Of Nick Book Series

Hero Archetype

The Hero is one of the most common archetypes. Heroes are great people that do good deeds for the sake of everyone rather than personal gain. As a hero you are someone that people revere and respect. There are a few requirements for a character or a person to be considered a hero. These requirements are:

 A special birth (metaphorical birth)

 Early recognition

 Great deed

 Loss of power (western hero)

 Transform into a spiritual force (eastern hero)

This essay will be to compare characters within movies and/or books to the hero archetype.

My first comparison will be the main character in the Chronicles of Nick book series. Nick Gautier is a teenager in New Orleans with a single mother and a father in jail for murder. He

was conceived in hate and delivered in the home of an Egyptian God, who was posing as a gypsy woman and a friend of his mother.

Nick and his father are both the last two living demons called Malachai, the most powerful and dangerous demon. In all of time, never had a Malachai chosen a human to bare his child. This fact is one thing that has made Nick special from the very beginning. From a young age Nick has been able to see demons and monsters that normal humans cannot. Being able to see things others are unable to made Nick choose … unusual friends. His friends consist of a paranoid, gun enthusiast, cyber genius named Bubba, along with his protégé Mark. For most of his friendship with Bubba and Mark, Nick just assumed that they were fiction lovers because they always talked about zombie, werewolf, and vampire hunting. Eventually when he was sixteen, he was sucked into Bubba’s world of monsters. Him and his

friends, along with a few new recruits, stopped a zombie apocalypse that was accidentally caused by a classmate of Nick’s. Soon after the zombie incident Nick learned of his origin and father’s true nature. This caused him to begin focusing his powers and learning about the world he had been dragged into by his bloodline. After months of creatures trying to kill or capture him for his power. One of the four horsemen of Hell manages to steal his power to try and kill him. With the help of some new friends he manages to get his powers back and fight off his enemy.
My second comparison will be the Norse God/Marvel character Thor from the first movie Thor in 2011.

Thor is the Norse God of thunder, son of the King of Asgard, Odin. When he was born, all of Asgard knew he would be a great leader one-day. When he had grown up, he broke a treaty with enemies of Asgard by trying to earn his father’s favor for being the next king. Thor had traveled to the Frost Giants home planet and attacked their leader, causing him to be stripped of his rank and power. His father also banished him to earth, where he met a love interest. From his interaction with the humans on earth, he learned more about morals and what is right or wrong. Everything that he went through on earth began a change of heart and became worthy of his powers. Even though he earned his power back Thor was still banished from his home. While he was away, his brother Loki was working on a way to get rid of their father and take the throne. Loki had succeeded and hatched a plan to get rid of his brother to ensure that he would not be challenged by anyone. Thor’s close friends traveled to earth in an attempt to warn him of Loki’s traitorous acts. Learning of his brother’s betrayal, Thor traveled to Asgard, challenged Loki and won. With his victory Thor restored his father to the throne and proved that he was now worthy of the

throne.
My third comparison will be Harry Potter from the theatrical version of the story. For Harry the heroic birth and early recognition happened on the same day. When he was still an infant, a dark wizard named Voldemort murdered his parents to get to him. When Voldemort tried to kill Harry something happened that caused the murder spell to backfire. This caused Voldemort to lose a majority of his power. Harry gained the reputation of “the boy who lived”, as well as a scar that marked him as “The Harry Potter”. This also began his nearly two decade war between the two of them, of course Harry had no idea who Voldemort was for eleven years. In his early years as a wizard Harry had met Voldemort a few times, and each time Harry’s scar burned him. The pain was so great he could barely stand, nevertheless defend himself. On Harry’s last year at his wizarding school Hogwarts, an all out war began between Hogwarts and Voldemort’s forces. In the end Harry and his friends defeated Voldemort and his allies, finally freeing both the wizard and muggle (non-magic folk) from Voldemort’s reign of terror.
Within each of these comparisons, I have chosen specific points within the three stories that resemble the requirements for a hero. Sometimes being a hero does not start from the moment one is born. Often heroes are created by certain events that cause them to change their way of thinking. Take Nick, Thor, and Harry for example, each of them has a specific moment in their lives in which they began changing into a hero. For Nick it is the moment he had truly learned what he is and decides not fallow his destiny to destroy the universe. Thor’s change began shortly after he was banished to earth, starting with his interaction with humans. Harry was always a good kid, but he truly started on his journey when the world of magic was revealed to him. One day you can be a nobody, then, something happens that will change your life forever. I hope this paper helps you understand the hero archetype, as much as possible.