The Seven Journeys of a Child

By Marc S. Wyffels

An annotated view of the seven archetypes of literature in relation to the principal life lessons for which we all need to educate our children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marc S. Wyffels
• Release date: Nov 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393837138

Marc S. Wyffels

Marc Wyffels is a Master's level clinician who has been a prominent figure in the field of child psychology working intensively with children and families with emotional and behavioral difficulties, with a specialty in Autism. He is currently a counselor and behavioral consultant who has been involved in the area of behavioral health services for nearly 35 years. Marc currently resides in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and has two grown and beautiful children whom he loves and adores. He enjoys reading, watching movies, and being young at heart at every opportunity.

Book preview

CREATING A FRAMEWORK

Increasingly mired in an isolative atmosphere during the Coronavirus pandemic there was an abundance of time to read, research, and reflect on new and different aspects in life. While developing a broader knowledge base and attempting to grasp and comprehend what was occurring in the world; from systemic racism and injustice, social disturbances, police brutality, and lives and businesses being destroyed by a virus that no one could stop, this complexity of circumstances presented an opportunity to ponder and critically examine what new insights that could be introduced to assist children and people persevere through these troubling and difficult times.

Being a counselor and educator working with children, adolescents, and families, there was a desire to put this experience through to a greater use. That’s when, getting further into this endeavor, there was the realization of the notion in literature that there were only seven main contexts, or story archetypes, that have been used as the main framework to conceptualize and convey a story or thought. Now, all stories obviously differ with the characters, settings, and plot twists presented, the fundamental concept was that all types and genres of literature, including books, movies, and social media, could be reduced to these seven main circumstances. This was intriguing, and with continuing to study and indoctrinate a further comprehension of what this idea meant lead to the consideration of what is acquired through life’s experiences, to what could be incorporated with what our children are currently being educated on at home, schools, communities, and churches, and how this concept could be related back to the seven main tenets in literary texts. That became the impetus for this expose on what we need to be teaching and educating our children on, starting at an early age, so that they can learn about life, what it means to enjoy and experience things, and how to negotiate the difficult path that we all walk.

Based on the concepts outlined in Christopher Booker’s[1] epic examination of the substructure within the limited number of plot lines presented in literature (overcoming the monster, rags to riches, the quest, voyage and return, comedy, tragedy, and rebirth), the seven journeys faced by us all, compiled and presented here, have been modified to align more towards a child’s developmental process, point of view of the world, and have taken liberty of personal interpretation of each of these seven archetypes. The life lessons chronicled in this composition are not exhaustive by any measure, however, have been carefully and thoughtfully formulated from personal, educational, and work related experiences; reading; talking with children, parents, educators, and professionals; and with exploring the internet in order to reduce the vast amount of information accessible and extrapolate the core principles for what needs to be taught into a concise