Who turns on our Hero instincts?

 

In looking at what sells and what does not

in the collectibles market, characters rank as follows in terms of popularity – little girls, little

boys, old ladies, old men, female teens, females 30 to 50, and last of all men 30 to 50.

The closer they are to us in age, the less we are inclined to find them appealing.

The psychological basis for this is probably that since

most collectibles buyers are aged 30 to 50, little

children inspire instinctive protective

responses.

 

Our peers, on the other hand,

inspire a sense of competition for resources,

and if the characters are strangers, and men rather than ladies

(especially if these men have no women with them), they will be even more threatening.

The exception here is the character as 'Hero', where the man is seen as a valuable ally by men,

and a potential/fantasy mate by women (Elvis, and other subject-as-hero plates).

 

Old people, though, are more appealing –

they are little physical threat, and have a dual aspect on the plus side -

partly as characters needing our help and protection, but also as kindly characters

able to offer advice, wisdom, and

little treats.

 

Children and older people are often very

effectively combined in storylines in collectors plates - Hersey's 'A Gift for Grandpa',

and 'Granny's Cottage', for example; Bradford Exchange's The Blacksmith; or many of the Rockwell plates in the

States. Our emotional reaction to this is of a different kind - again instinctive

(since it conveyed great evolutionary advantage)

-         a warm feeling of approval and charm

at seeing someone large helping someone small, and even

more dramatically, someone small helping someone large

(the 'little helper' archetype is one of the Hummel

figurines’ favourite themes).

 

The animal kingdom also

offers 'dependent' and 'ally' archetypes: kittens inspire parental responses

(see Three Little Kittens!), dogs and working horses fill the 'ally/helper' roles.

Show a small child offering food or help to a

smaller creature, and you have a winner.

Have the same small child feeding a large, gentle carthorse, and add her

slightly larger sister offering a reassuring and loving arm around the shoulders

as she does it, and you release a

veritable flood of parental, social approval, and admiration for bravery instincts

(see Hersey's blockbuster 'Granny's Cottage').

 

 

 

 

Or simply plant a small bush next to a bigger tree, so its branches reach down towards it... and check your feelings about the perceived relationship.

 

 

 

Smallness may also be an aspect of ‘kinderschema’ – the physical features which turn on our parental responses to babies and small children. And a spin-off may be our fascination with all things miniature – from thimbles to dolls houses, train sets to stamps.

 

But in what other ways do we recognise who is running the show?

Above and Below…

Further on we look at the Hero recognised as a Dreamer (the quest for internal objects), the Striver (the quest for external objects), in dismay at meeting an Obstacle, and in Joy at achieving the Treasure.