Analysis of Archetypes in She’s so Dead to Us by Kieran Scott

Imagine coming back to a town where everyone hates you. In the novel She’s so Dead to Us Ally Ryan moves back to her hometown after her dad lost several individuals money. Ally quickly discovers that her old friends, known as the Cresties, are no longer her friends. Her friends now despise her and want nothing to do with her. Ally finds herself in a quandary and must decide what she is suppose to do when she falls in love with a boy who is expected to hate her? This novel centers around Ally’s life and the hardships she has to face. The author uses the archetypes: star crossed lovers, mean girls, a search for identity, a disappointing father figure, and the setting of a high school to help portray this story.

The first archetype that is seen is star crossed lovers. Star crossed lovers depict two people who fall in love despite all the conflict and other forces. driving them apart. In the novel She’s So Dead to Us, Ally Ryan falls in love with a boy named Jake. Jake is wealthy and is part of the Cresties. Jake has been influenced to believe that someone like Ally is not intended nor befitting for him, especially since Ally is friends with the people who are known as the weird kids, but also known as one of the Norms. Jake is new to the school so he does not know what happened with her dad. Jake takes the time to get to know Ally and ends up realizing that Ally is nothing like how her old friend group portrays her. Jake also falls in love with Ally. Sadly, they must hide their relationship from everyone because they fear what will happen if anyone finds out and worry what will happen if the mean girls know During a party, Jake says, “Was Ally there yet? Were they actually being nice to her?”. This reveals that Jake cares about Ally, but he is also conscious of the fact that he cannot show he cares or the Cresties will figure out that they are together. This archetype is also seen in Romeo and Juliet, High School Musical with Troy and Gabriella, and Jack and Rose from the Titanic. Star crossed lovers' archetype helps the reader understand how the people in the relationship have to overcome their struggles to be together even when outside forces are telling them not to.

Throughout the novel, Ally is on a search for her identity. The search for identity archetype is when a character is on a journey for their own identity and who they are. In the novel She’s So Dead to Us, Ally Ryan moves back to her hometown. Before she left, she was living in a mansion and was very wealthy until her dad lost their money and many of their friend's money, only to leave When she moves back, she has to find a new life, find out where she fits in, especially since her old friends now have a lot of animosity towards her. Ally tries to find new friends in the Norms, which she does, but it is not the same. Ally has to figure out how to survive without living in a materialistic world. Ally no longer has the luxury to use her house anymore to make friends or lavish things to draw them in.. She now lives in a townhouse with her mom and is embarrassed for anyone to find out. Ally needs to adapt to a life where some will judge and belitle her because of her father;s bad choices, and constantly remind her Ally goes through an exploration of herself and who she wants to be now that she has lost everything. This archetype is also seen in Moana, Ratioutie, and Po from Kung Fu Panda. The author helps show this archetype by showing conflicts in the story and relating it back to before she became poor.

A high school is categorized as a setting archetype. In the novel She’s So Dead to Us, the high school setting is a substantial part of the novel. The high school is where Ally first encounters the Cresties again, since she moves back. The high school helps represent the many conflict and endeavors that come along with it. In the novel, Ally faces most of her obstacles and the many pressures that are a part of the high school experience. It also shapes and exposes the time when Ally was apart of the Backslappers club. The Blackslappers was a club that helped motivate the soccer team and each girl gets assigned a boy. Of course, Ally got assigned Jake, which is when and where their romance began. It was the beginning of the season and Ally states, “The memory made me feel sad, so I trudged over to a bench near the back of the growing crowd and hunkered down”. This statement lends a hand in understanding that Ally does miss her friends, because the memory was of them cheering on the boys before she left at one of their games. Ally’s time during high school also helps represent her growth and ability to conquer everything that gets thrown at her. The high school setting archetype is also shown in High School Musical, Clueless, and 13 Reasons Why. The author uses the high school archetype to illustrate the hardships in Ally’s life.

Just like any high school, there are girls that are not so kind and many consider mean girls. In She’s So Dead to Us, the Cresties are known as the mean girls, not just to Ally, but everyone. The Cresties constantly badger people and instigate new drama. They make up lies to tell people what they want to hear or turn people against each other. Specifically to Ally, they act like they are friends with her, but then ditch her by telling her to go to the opposite place of their location They lie to her and makeup slander about Jake to try to and upset her, even though they have not disclosed their relationship. The Cresties even put stuff in Ally’s front yard to make her mom have to pay a fine, since they know she does not have money. They even go to the extent of setting her up to get in trouble with the police and Ally has to do community service as a punishment.

On one occasion, they invite Ally to one of their birthday parties stating they would behave be civil because of Jake, but they play a video of her dad working at a meat shop to embarrass her. Towards the middle of the book, Ally says, “Her lips screwed up in disgust as she looked me up and down. I felt nauseous as the memory of the night swirled through me”. The Cresties brought up a previous relationship with Jake, which upset Ally, as they knew it would. In this quote, it shows how evil they are by doing everything just to spite Ally. The mean girls' archetype is also shown in Mean Girls as Regina, Legally Blonde as Vivian, and High School Musical as Sharpay. This archetype helps the story come together because it helps establish some of the conflicts in the story. It also validates why Ally struggles with her new lack of wealth and her fear in disclosing her relationship with Jake.

The character archetype, the disappointing father figure, is very prevalent in She’s So Dead to Us. Ally’s father disappointed not only her but all of their friends. He promised them that if they gave him money he would invest it to make more than they originally had. Instead of doing what he promised, he lost all of it. It made everyone have a burning hatred towards him and his family. He fled from his family and his town. No one, not even his family knows where he went. This forced Ally and her mom to get up and move their life since they had no money. Ally was devastated after this happened, especially since she did not get to tell her friends goodbye because they were so angry. Her father made the children have to adapt to a new lifestyle, which they are not familiar Unfortunately, the children put the blame on Ally, since it was her father. They never forgave Ally and continually blamed her for his poor judgement. it. A disappointing father figure is also seen as the insane father in The Shining, the abusive father in I Could Only Imagine, and the horrible father in Matilda. This archetype helps the plot by setting up a new conflict and reasons behind everything is happening.

The use of star crossed lovers, a disappointing father figure, a search for identity, mean girls, and a setting of a high school archetypes all helped shape the plot of the novel. It built the story by adding realistic conflicts, to a fiction novel. It drew the reader t in by describing what Ally was tackling in her life and how well she coped The author allowed the reader to see and feel the different feelings and conflicts through Ally’s eyes and influenced the reader to ponder the idea of what would happen if it was real. She’s So Dead to Us allows readers to be in the past and present and depicts many issues that many readers can relate to and understand Without the archetypes, this novel would not read the same nor have the same impact or influences on the reader.