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.

Conflict and Resolution

The conflict in the story starts when Birdie gets kidnapped in the Caribbean. She is taken to an island called Calista and has to way to contact her family or help. She is all alone with her kidnapper, Nicholas. Birdie realized if she doesn't get off this island then there was a good chance that she would have been murdered. At the same time that Birdie was on Calista, Morgan had stolen her family sailboat and was living on the ocean by herself. She wasn't of age yet so she had to hide from the coast guard or she would get the sailboat taken from her. Morgan remembered that Nicholas had helped out her family once before when they had legal issues, so she went and saw Nicholas and got illegal documents saying she owned the boat and that she was old enough to be on her own.

Morgan realized that Nicholas was holding Birdie captive on the island and went to help her. However, in the attempt to help her she also got kidnapped. With team work and lots composure the girls get free and make sure Nicholas was arrested. Birdie got back to her family and wrote her book that had been her life long goal. Morgan didn't get in trouble for not legally owning her sailboat and she also went back to her family.

Recommendations

Readers that enjoy adventure and suspense would really be interested in this book. The book keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time and a lot of unexpected events happen. The book is easy to read and understand. The chapters are relatively short and the alternating view points make the reader want to get to the next chapter to continue the characters' stories. I thoroughly liked this book and would recommend it to anyone.

Best and Worst Parts

The worst part of the book was the beginning because it started off slow and wasn't interesting. The first couple chapters were all about the girls' families and where they grew up. I thought it drug on for longer than it needed to but at the end of the book I was glad I finished the book.

The best part of the book was the middle and the end. After Birdie got kidnapped the rest of the book was exciting and thrilling. I easily finished the book once it started to get into the adventure of the girls. I thought it was awesome how the two main girls met in the book and how the book was told from alternating points of view. That made it possible to understand where each girl was coming from and how they felt throughout the book.