Garden And Forest Archetypes In Films

Imagine you are entering a garden. You take in the aroma of the air and feel the serenity as the environment affects you. Now imagine you are stranded in a forest. You look in all directions feeling lost and anxious about what might happen next. As you can see, settings that appear within a story can help us determine how a character must feel. This falls into the category of an archetype. An archetype is a reoccurring symbol in literary work. There are many examples of garden and forest archetypes in literature and in films. A garden can represent faith along with innocence. A well-known example of a garden is the Garden of Eden from The Bible. In the book of Genesis, God creates a garden for a man and woman, Adam

God had told them that each tree is “pleasant to the sight and good for food.” All of the trees in the region were beautiful and bore many fruits. In the middle of the garden, God placed the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge. Everything was centered around this, and it embodied faith and innocence. The man and woman were purposefully put in the paradise to experience bliss, to live, and to prosper. A forest can symbolize a state of madness and hopelessness. In the movie The Hunger

Games, Katniss is forced to participate as a tribute in an annual game that takes place in a forest.

Because of this, she is required to face the horrors that people and wild creatures are capable of bringing. Katniss explains that “inside the woods there are added concerns like venomous snakes, rabid animals, and no real paths to follow.” For example, Katniss hunts for animals and that serves as her main food source. While doing this, she risks getting sick or even dying from the possible viruses an animal might carry. Katniss justifies this by deciding that the risk of dying from starvation far outweighs the risk of possibly eating tainted meat. Another added danger is the absence of guidance. Each direction looks almost exactly the same making it