The Don Quijote and Sancho Panza archetypes are archetypes for many societies. The Don Quijotes play their archetypes in societies and the Sancho Panzas play their roles.
Those who are considered the Don Quijotes of variety societies, based upon either a physical model, an intellectual model or a metaphysical model play their roles.
The Sancho Panzas, based upon either a physical model, an intellectual model or a metaphysical model play their roles.
We find these models in almost every film, almost every book we read, certainly in Western civilization. Very seldom do the Sanchos get to play to Dons or the Dons the Sanchos.
In the movie The Tall Men, for example, with the great actor Clark Gable, who gets to play the "Don." The Mexican who "loves his master," and we must use this phrase gets to play Sancho.
Suppose I were to write a version of The Tall Men, where the Mexican gets to play the "Don" and the gringo gets to play Sancho. I assume that people would understand this movie. Some people would understand it and applaud as a great Mexican version of a classic movie. Others would be outraged. How dare Sancho play Don while Don plays Sancho. How dare I reverse these archetypal roles.
Especially if I found a gringo looking just like Clark Gable and a Mexican looking just like the Mexican in the movie.
Now if I could find a Mexican who looked exactly like Clark Gable and I must say there are many hand Mexican men who are as handsome or more handsome than the great Clark Gable. I've even met African American men, because of the history of slavery and because of the intermingling of races look exactly like this great hero.
What am I saying?
I have talked of stereotypes. There are also archetypes, which are not necessarily stereotypes, but they are very similar.
We have stereotypes and we have archetypes. For example, you have the stereotypical leader, and the archetypal leader. You have the stereotypal hero and the archetypal hero. Sometimes these are the same, sometimes they are different.
Sometimes people play stereotypical roles in the movies. Sometimes they play archetypal roles.
In The Tall Men, as just a sample among many movie samples, Clark Gable plays both a stereotypal and an archetypal role. The Mexican plays both a stereotypal and an archetypal role.
Jane Russell plays both the stereotype and the archetypal role as the female love interest of Clark Gable.
The name of the Mexican, by the way, is Juan García, an actor in many Mexican and Spanish movies including El Love Feroz and El Mexicano which I learn from imdb.com. Some of these movies he is the star, other movies he gets to play Sancho among Sanchos. He probably plays many stereotypal and archetypal roles in these movies also.
An archetypal according to most dictionaries is "the original pattern or model," the prototype. Archetypes of course have a higher status than steretypes. Archetypal heroes have a higher status than stereotypal heroes. Nevertheless it's very easy for archetypes to become stereotypes and stereotypes to be confused with archetypes.
However, along with stereotype, add archetype to your vocabulary, and when watching movies, reading books or reading "the real world," note what are stereotypes and what are archetypes.
