Archetypes

In the book Deep, Birdie Sidwell can be grouped into the hero and seeker archetypal categories. She is a hero because she wants to leave her community to discover something exciting so she can write an extraordinary book. She doesn't really do anything heroic like Hercules, but she survived through a kidnapping that makes her an unordinary hero. She is also a seeker because she wants to go out into the world and find something atrocious and gruesome so she can write her story.

Morgan would be considered a seeker and an orphan. She decides to leave her parents, which makes her an orphan, and goes out to sea alone trying to cope with her sister's death. In some ways she could also be considered a hero because she saves Birdie in the end of the book. She went out of her way to rescue a complete stranger. I think that is a very heroic action.

The book's archetypal setting includes the sea and an island. The sea archetype represents chaos, strangeness, disruption, and is unpredictable. The story follows these descriptions exactly. The sea is where Birdie got kidnapped and Morgan faces chaos when her sister dies out at sea. The island archetype represents separation, lawlessness, and craziness. On the island Calista, in the book, Nicholas is keeping Birdie held hostage and away from society including her family. Nicholas also deals with illegal documents, and by the end of the story Birdie realizes that Nicholas is crazy.