Archetypes of "Born a Crime"

Halfway into the novel, Trevor starts turning away from having Apartheid as his main focus and starts developing the characters that played a huge role in his life for the readers. The second half of the novel focuses on him as an individual, his family, and especially his mother Particia, his stepdad Abel, his first crush Maylene, and his troublesome friend Tom who played crucial archetypal roles in Trevor's life. 

The Women Behind Trevor's Current Success

The most crucial character in Trevor's life was his mother Patricia. For the first few chapters of the novel I made the assumption that Patricia was a Damsel in Distress, but as I kept reading the novel I realized Patricia is nothing like a Damsel in Distress since she doesn't exhibit any weaknesses and is not dependent on anyone. The following quotation shows how Patricia faces her problems without fear and relying on anyone else, “At one point, I had to disown to go off and live my own life -” (Noah 265). As you go further into the novel Trevor's description of his mother reveals that the only appropriate archetypes for her would be The Great Mother and The Continuing Master. The Great Mother archetype is assigned to those who have a caring nature and a strong desire to nurture their child. Patricia who was a single mother was determined to raise Trevor with great care, and love. She was also huge on the idea of “tough love” where she would discipline by beating him. She was not only The Great Mother for Trevor but she was also his Continuing Master. Patricia continuously teaches Trevor about life, people, reconnecting with his feather, survival, and many other things. “She was always giving me lessons, little talks, pieces of advice” (Noah 127). She was the person who shaped Trevor into the charismatic person he is today, she taught him morals and values and taught him all the skills that would make it easier for him to climb the ladder of success. 

Trevor and Patricia also adopted two dogs, Panther and Fufi. Panther was the smart one and Fufi was the dumb deaf one. “We realized that their whole lives the one dog had been telling the other dog what to do somehow. The smart, hearing one was helping the dumb deaf one”(Noah, 97). The relationship between Panther Fufi was very similar to the relationship between Trevor and Patricia. Patricia is similar to Panther, while Trevor is similar to Fufi because Patricia always guided Trevor making sure he was on the right path just like how Panther guided Fufi. And dogs symbolize guidance, protection, faithfulness, and love. All of these traits can be seen in the relationship between Patricia and Trevor, and Panther and Fufis. 

While Trevor's mothers represented the Great Mother and the Continuing Master in his life. His stepdad, Abel represented the Shadow in his life. Abel was the drunk and abusive father figure in Trevor's life. Abel once beat up a colored kid who was bullying Trevor and threatened to kill his father. Trevor realized Abel was a dangerous man and he was “a grown man venting his rage on a twelve year old boy” (Noah 127). Abel would also beat Trevor and Patirica but would apologize afterward and beg them to take him back. On one side Trevor had a strong loving and caring mother and on the other side, he had an alcoholic abusive father. I think these two polar opposite characters in his life gave him something to think about. He got a chance to really dig deep into himself to find out what type of person he was. After realizing his own dark behaviors that embodied Abel he was quickly able to completely shut them down before he became something he despised and forsaken the morals and values given to him by his mother. 

After parental roles the archetypal roles that influenced Trevor's life the most were his first-grade crush Maylene, and his troublesome friend Tom. Mayele who was Trevor's first-grade crush and can be represented as the Shape Shifter as she switches quickly from loving Trevor to loving the most popular kid in class Lorenzo. Maylene's betrayal taught Trevor a very important lesson. That you do not own the things you love. Trevor was very understanding but he was still very heartbroken  “As devastated as I was, I understood why Maylene made the choice that she did. I would have picked Lorenzo over me, too” (Noah 133).

Trevor's best friend Tom can be represented as the Trickster in his life. A good example is when Tom set Trevor up for a prom date with Babiki who did not know more than 3 words of English making it a horrible prom night. Tom is not a bad guy, he is pretty neutral towards everyone but he loves tricking people. Trevor describes him as “A great guy, but f***ing crazy and a complete liar as well” (Noah 164). Another good example is when Tom books Trevor as a Busta Rhymes hype man for jokes and to make some money even though he wasn’t one. 

All 4 of these characters played big roles in Trevor's life even though the roles of Tom and Maylenes were quite short. Patricia taught Trevor everything she knew and gave him life lessons that shaped him into who he is today. Abel was a living example of everything that Trevor never wanted to become, this made it easy for him to search within himself for behavior that embodied Abel and completely shut them down for good. Maylene taught Trevor that you don't own the things you love, but it also bought for insecurities. And finally, Tom taught Trevor to never trust something on sight and that there is usually another side to a story.  

Noah, Trevor. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood. Spiegel & Grau, an Imprint of Random House, 2019.