Archetypal Lens
Reading "Scarborough" by Catherine Hernandez Through a Archetypal Len
July 14 2021
The book “Scarborough” by Catherine Hernendez is regarding a diverse low-income community which are always living their lives in different forms of ideologies. This book exemplifies its plot through numerous forms of different perspectives. The people living in the community of Scarborough all have their ways of what a lifestyle should be like; entailing them to eventually relate to one another. I will begin to express my thoughts on this novel through an archetypal lens. While reading this novel, I came across the various perspectives in which community residents captivate, but in all, two have stood to me. The two are Bing's journey to success and Cory unveiling the hidden villain captivated inside him.
The first Scarborough residents’ ideology was Bing, a gay Filipino boy, who was going through his journey to find his true self. He lives with his mother Edna who is very caring and somewhat understands that his son is gay from what she sees in how he presents his feminine identity. Bing’s mother still loves him and wants him to feel accepted. Bing is afraid to come out to his mother and convey to her his true identity and his fears of feeling accepted in society. An example from the novel which supports this is when Sylvie who is Bing’s best friend was getting ready for the play. Sylvie’s mother was applying lipstick and this attracted Bing to also apply lipstick. Sylvie's mother reacted unpleasantly and responded “Another time. Not here.” (Hernandez 20). This indicated how hard it is for Bing to express his feelings towards his sexual identity in public. Another scene that supports indicate Bing’s hardships in his sexual orientation was when Bing and his crush name Hakim were together alone in the cave seeking shelter due to harsh weather conditions and almost were close enough to kiss each other. While Bing was enjoying the moment he forgot that “I almost died in the arms of the boy I love”(Hernendez 24). Bing had feelings for Hakim but did not ever show due to the invisible boundaries in society accepting different identities of individuals. In all, Bing knew he had his mother's love to support him and accept him for who he is.
Moreover, The villain is someone who tries to be the hero, someone who disagrees with the hero. In this book, Ms.Hina is seen as a very nice, and caring teacher where many kids look up to her. Whilst Laura is about to go home, her dad comes to pick her up, he sees his daughter being hugged by Ms.Hina which angers him. Cory said, “I don’t want your food box. I don’t want you hugging my kid” (Hernadez chapter 27). However, Ms. Hina offered to all the parents, not just to Cory. Cory thought she was pitying him that's why she gave it to him even though he and his daughter enjoyed eating those. Cory refused and instead declined the offer and made a commission about it. This shows how Cory doesn't like someone who is not the same race as him being around him or her daughter.
Overall from an archetypal lens, such ideologies of people who are outsiders are a common pattern that is very typical and never-ending since people from the same community, same race, and culture tend to carry their culture, ideologies, and beliefs with them wherever they go. Based on what I have stated earlier, Bing being an individual who didn’t like his default sexual orientation feared to fit in society, and Cory being the particular person while unveiling the villain inside him.
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