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Wisdom, Mystery, and Dangerous Knowledge:
Exploring Depictions of the Archetypal Sage in Young
Adult Literature
IAN PARKER RENGA
WESTERN STATE COLORADO UNIVERSITY
MARK A. LEWIS
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY MARYLAND
The archetypal sage character is a common, though relatively unexplored, character in young adult
literature (YAL). Employing a sociocultural, constructivist understanding of archetypes, we unpack
features of the sage through an examination of three sagacious characters: the Receiver of Memory
in
The Giver,
Haymitch Abernathy in
The Hunger Games,
and Anatov in
Akata Witch.
Our analysis
reveals how these characters are each marked with physical or behavioral abnormalities, are isolated
from society and its institutions, and possess dangerous knowledge of eros
(The Giver),
power
(The
Hunger Games),
and identity
(Akata Witch).
They are also depicted as standing in sharp contrast to
other, more typical teachers in the intimate relationships they form with students and degree of
vulnerability they display. All of these characteristics, we argue, might explain the appeal of the sage
character in YAL, as well as its curious absence from our common understanding of K-12 teachers
and curriculum. Indeed, we see these characterizations of fictional teachers as raising interesting
questions about sagacious mentorship and wisdom in schools.
The sage character, while ubiquitous in fantasy and young adult literature, is arguably less explored
than other archetypes like the hero or trickster (Wilson, 2013). Even so, as Joseph Campbell (1949)
suggests, “there is an atmosphere of irresistible fascination about the figure that appears suddenly as
a guide, marking a new period, a new stage, in the biography” (p. 55). We agree that there is
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Wisdom, Mystery, and Dangerous Knowledge
26
something appealing and enduring about the sage character. From Albus Dumbledore to Haymitch
Abernathy, adult mentors, fulfilling the role of the archetypal “sage,” are a staple of many popular
novels in the young adult literature (YAL) genre. These characters often seem mysterious, possessing
great power and wisdom that reveals itself as they guide an adolescent protagonist across the
threshold from the presumed innocence of childhood through the perils of adulthood (Mayes,
1999). For example, Katniss Everdeen in
The Hunger Games
(Collins, 2008) relies heavily on
Haymitch Abernathy for learning how to survive the arena and how to act in public spaces so she
might garner tributes. Without his committed support, the reader is led to believe, Katniss’s chances
of winning the games would be slim. Such mentorship in of itself is not problematic and is arguably
necessary and even lacking for many young people. Yet, it raises some issues that warrant
investigation. Here we employ archetypal inquiry, which is useful for cross-examining characters and
relational dynamics for common motifs reflective of a shared ontology (Mayes, 1999, 2003). Our
interest is in understanding how sagacious mentorship is depicted in YAL and what messages these
depictions may be communicating to teachers and young readers about mentoring relationships,
forbidden knowledge, and who has and is slated to receive such knowledge.
We begin with a review of scholarly treatments of teachers in YAL, which reveals little explicit
discussion of the sage despite its frequent presence in the genre, followed by our critical youth studies
perspective on adolescent-adult relationships. We then present our sociocultural, constructivist view
of archetypes, followed by an articulation of the sage archetype as framed by Joseph Campbell and
others. Our analysis of the sage characters in three texts—the Receiver of Memory in
The Giver
(Lowry, 1993), Haymitch Abernathy in
The Hunger Games
, and Anatov in
Akata Witch
(Okorafor,
2011)—confirms certain aspects of this adult role and leads to intriguing insights about what we refer
to as
dangerous knowledge
and the challenges of incorporating sagacious teaching within
contemporary schooling.
LAUDED AND DENIGRATED: TEACHERS IN YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE
From the faceless teacher in
Peanuts
to Mr. Holland and his opus, teachers play many roles in
popular culture texts, represented in a range of positive and negative ways. YAL probably has even
more teachers due to the age of the protagonists that headline these stories. However, teachers in
YAL have received surprisingly little scholarly attention. Most of this scholarship aims to identify
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“good” versus “bad” representations. In particular, Alexander and Black (2015) analyze the teacher
as a cold assessor administering high-stakes testing, while others show that there are wonderful
teachers in YAL—such as Mrs. Baker from
The Wednesday Wars
(Schmidt, 2007) who builds
personal relationships with her students to support their learning, and Mr. Franka from
Sleeping
Freshman Never Lie
(Lubar, 2005) whose English language arts expertise and pedagogical content
knowledge allow him to successfully engage students—that work as facilitators that meet high
standards of teaching (Boche, 2016). However, these latter teachers are often foiled against poor
teachers—such as the considerate Mrs. Scott as compared to the aptly-named authoritarian, Mr.
Stern, in “Geraldine Moore the Poet” (Bambara, 2003), and the community-building, supportive
Mr. Freeman as compared to the extremely unprofessional Mr. Neck in
Speak
(Anderson, 1999)—
in order to highlight how the “good” teachers build positive relationships with students who then
flourish under their guidance (Cummings, 2011; Rodríguez, 2016). Employing a Foucauldian
framework, Wolosky (2014) examines how discipline and discipleship works in the Harry Potter
series. She shows how the disciplinarian, such as Professor Umbridge, worries over power and
control, thereby silencing students so that they can internalize theoretical knowledge given to them
by the teacher. On the other hand, the professors, such as Albus Dumbledore, who build
discipleship amongst the Hogwarts witches and wizards foster inclusivity through inquiry, discovery,
and collaboration. Similarly, Gruner (2009) identifies several teachers and mentors in speculative
fiction—from the Harry Potter series, the Tiffany Aching novels, and the His Dark Materials series—
that either employ humiliation tactics to curtail student thought and action, or employ a form of
experiential learning in which students apply theory in authentic practice.
In terms of mentorship relationships, Beauvais (2015) explores how class and giftedness
function in Roald Dahl’s
Matilda
(1988). She hints at the notion that giftedness could be considered
a magical property in that a child is bestowed the trait similar to how magic is bestowed upon
protagonists in fantasy fiction. She considers classism as part of a process that inequitably identifies
middle/upper class students as gifted, and these students are chosen, and often liberated from the
tedium of normal schooling, by great teachers. Relatedly, Atwood and Lee (2007) demonstrate how
the lack of a mentor teacher in prep school literature—particularly,
A Separate Peace
(Knowles,
1959),
The Chocolate War
(Cormier, 1974), and
Good Times/Bad Times
(Kirkwood, 1968)—can
ultimately lead to the destruction of youth. Such analysis reinforces the commonsensical
understanding that youth need adult guidance in order to lead healthy lives. Others (Lewis, Petrone,
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& Sarigianides, 2016) show how adolescent-adult relationships depend on the views of youth that
adults hold. More positive, healthy relationships occur when adults understand young people as
capable and knowledgeable, rather than incomplete and rebellious. Such understandings of youth-
adult relationships have a long tradition in Western society, as Davis (2011) shows it was present in
Louisa May Alcott’s juvenile fiction. Alcott’s stories also promote an experiential approach to
education, which maps onto how sage characters tend to lead their protégés.
In summary, most of the scholarship examining representations of teachers in YAL
highlights great teachers who excel in working with students. These capable teachers, however, often
exist in the same pages with poor examples of teachers as a way to show how certain approaches to
education, curriculum, and student relationships are more effective. However, this body of work
does not seem to identify the roles or types of teachers that populate young adult fiction (the
exception is Cummins [2011], who uses Peter McLaren’s taxonomy ranging from the liminal servant
to hegemonic overlord to entertainer). Our analyses of the sage character contributes to the
scholarship by taking a close look at how this type of teacher is both represented and the types of
relationships such teachers build with their students.
ADOLESCENT AGENCY IN AN ADULT WORLD
By establishing dependent adult-adolescent relationships, YAL could lead readers to assume that
adolescents
need
and
should expect
a wise adult to have a master plan for them. These dependent
relationships rely upon various adult characters, such as avuncular substitutes for a lost parent (see
Sommers, 2008, for an extensive definition of the avunculate), or with teachers, as discussed
previously, or with sages, the focus of our work. From a critical youth studies perspective, this
assumption reflects a commonsensical understanding of adolescence as not only a time of
development, but also that adults should want to monitor and control adolescent growth so that
youth progress slowly and leisurely toward adulthood (Lesko, 2012; Talburt & Lesko, 2012).
Further, it re-inscribes the adult-adolescent binary in which the adult is always dominant in the sense
that adults are viewed as better decision makers, for example, and “adulthood” is preferred.
(O’Loughlin & Van Zile IV, 2014; Tilleczek, 2014). In line with this work, we follow a critical youth
studies agenda (Best, 2007), employing components of a youth lens analysis (Petrone, Sarigianides,
& Lewis, 2014), in our attempt to find moments in which this binary can be complicated to
demonstrate the multifaceted aspect of relationships built between youth and adults, particularly
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recognizing the connection between power and knowledge and identifying how this connection
manifests within interpersonal relationships.
In this vein, we selected texts that would be categorized as fantasy fiction, which, due to the
nature of the genre, provides a unique opportunity to subvert normed binaries and relationships.
Although literary scholars have concluded that, in the end, YA fantasy stories tend to remain
conservative in their messages about adolescence, gender, and sexuality (James, 2009; Trites, 2000;
Waller, 2009), the sage-protégé relationship seems to be a place in which commonsensical notions
of adolescent agency can be disrupted. With the goal of examining such a possibility in mind, we
take an asset-based view of youth in that we view them as productive members of society who have
agency in an adult world and contribute as much to an intergenerational relationship as the adult.
For example, similar to how James (2009) describes how adolescent protagonists in “dead-narrator”
stories have to both look back to what they once were while living and look forward to a new
existential reality, we understand the adolescent protégé to be grappling with negotiating a tension
between who and what they once were before meeting their sage mentor and what they must do
going forward upon receiving the sage’s knowledge.
ARCHETYPES AS SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONS
We assume a sociocultural, constructivist perspective of learning (e.g., Lave & Wenger, 1991;
Wertsch, 1985) and consider narrative as central to how people construct and convey particular
understandings of the world (Bruner, 1991; Gottschall, 2012; Hardy, 1975). We also see storytelling
as essential to how teachers construct and renegotiate what counts as valid professional knowledge
and ways of being in the classroom (Clandinin & Connelly, 1996; Doecke, Brown, & Loughran,
2000; Witherell & Noddings, 1991). In light of our constructivist perspective, we base our analysis
more upon an archetypal framework originating from the humanistic anthropological tradition
(Armstrong, 1975) than from the Jungian psychoanalytic tradition, though we are indebted to both
in our effort to define and make sense of the sage character.
Archetypes, as we define them here, are sociohistorical artifacts interwoven within the “webs
of significance” (Geertz, 1973, p. 39) spun by humans over centuries in an effort to share and shape
understandings of self, society, and being. In previous work, we have discussed the systemic
dimension of such cultural webs using Charles Taylor’s (2002) notion of a
social imaginary
that
normalizes social structures through narrative (Lewis & Renga, 2016). We see archetypes as similarly
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reflecting normalized roles emerging from humanity’s attempt to navigate a tension between a
common history, notably our evolution as social and communal beings, and our culturally-specific
construction of that history. Like many others, we are moved by how experiences of child-rearing,
mentorship, and aging appear to evoke cross-cultural themes captured in stories that can seem
consonant with one another, as Joseph Campbell (1949) famously showed of the mythological hero.
Even so, we do want to keep cultural particularities in mind, as well as power differentials that may
render certain interpretations of archetypal stories (i.e., the Western psychoanalytic lens) as
seemingly more valid than others.
THE ARCHETYPAL SAGE
Drawing mostly from Jung, scholars have highlighted and explored the implications of a number of
archetypes, including the mother, trickster, and shadow, among others. Our focus in this paper is
the sage archetype. As noted in the introduction, the sage is a common feature of many popular
stories, especially those in the fantasy genre. Dominque Wilson (2013) helpfully distinguishes the
sage from other mythological characterizations—e.g., shaman, priest, prophet, magician—of the wise
man or woman. All of these forms, she observes, are similarly portrayed as having wisdom and thus
appear as guides to the story’s protagonist. The sage, however, tends to be more aloof and often
serves as an arbiter between the daily comings and goings of the world and matters of greater spiritual
or moral importance. As Wilson explains,
In some ways the sage’s ability and willingness to watch and wait sets him outside the rhythms
of everyday life, according to him an almost timeless character whose moral stance and
virtues are enhanced by his enduring patience and benevolence. (p. 53)
While the image of a mysterious figuring waiting and watching in the background is compelling, the
sage archetype does not make for a great stand-alone story.
Indeed, the sage character shows up primarily as a supporting archetype, usually in
relationship to the mythic hero. The hero, arguably the best known and most studied archetype, is
above all a vehicle for societal change. She starts her journey by hearing, often ignoring, and then
finally heeding a call to engage in what Joseph Campbell (1949) calls the “mystery of transfiguration,”
in which “[t]he familiar life horizon has been outgrown; the old concepts, ideals, and emotional
patterns no longer fit” (p. 51). This need for change becomes evident to the hero as the sage pokes
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holes in her understanding of the world, leaving her with no choice but, in Clifford Mayes' (2003)
phrasing, "to seek a newer world by seeking a higher wisdom" (p. 106). The hero's desire to pursue
this world may be strong, but her vision of it and what it will entail is limited. The sage offers clues,
but can come across as puzzling given the challenge of conveying a narrative of such scope and depth.
Having access to more than just the present moment, the sage situates the hero in a broader story
arc—connecting her to a much larger narrative that will live on, unfolding over generations, even
when the hero and her contribution fade from memory (see, for example, Obi-Wan’s understanding
of the enduring battle between the Light and Dark sides of the Force in the original
Star Wars
[Kurtz,
Lucas, & McCallum, 1977] film). Campbell observes how, as the hero starts her journey, she can
take comfort in the righteousness of her cause even though the road ahead seems terrifying. And the
hero must proceed without assurance of continual guidance; the sage might or might not show up
when assistance is most desired. The danger, in other words, must be confronted alone.
Often depicted as old or haggard in appearance, the sage is typically presented as carrying
the burdensome wisdom of experience from quests completed ages ago (Mayes, 2003), a living
repository of what could be called
dangerous knowledge
. Campbell’s analysis of heroic stories reveals
how the sage typically offers two complementary pieces of knowledge: 1) clarity regarding the danger
ahead and 2) how to thwart that danger. Perhaps most significantly, the sage is also privy to the
inherent danger of inciting societal change, or what Campbell describes as “the unlocking and release
again of the flow of life into the body of the world” (p. 40).
Additionally, Jack Graham (2013) suggests that our hunger for an elder archetype reflects our
desire for knowledge that has hitherto been locked away and rendered largely inaccessible to most
people. Our tendency to embody this locked knowledge in someone wrinkled or carewornshows a
common assumption that acquiring such knowledge requires time, experience, and sustained,
thoughtful engagement with difficult aspects of the world. It also reveals our assumption that lacking
wisdom is a characteristic of young people, who must face life's challenges in order to pass out of
childhood (Mayes, 1999, 2003). As our myths suggest, we are inclined to believe that full possession
of this dangerous knowledge is the provenance of our elders, and such possession is what
distinguishes someone as a sage from merely someone who is old.
Relying upon these theoretical perspectives and grounded in previous scholarship on teacher
representations in YAL, we set out to highlight and study the sage character in YAL. This required
identifying texts with such characters, teasing out their involvement in the plot, and then considering
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similarities and differences in their representation. The following questions guided our analysis:
1. How are sage characters depicted in select YAL texts?
2. What is the dangerous knowledge each sage possesses?
3. What is the nature of the sage’s relationship with the young adults in their care? How
does it compare to other teacher characters depicted in the YAL texts?
4. What are the potential implications for teachers, students, and schools?
SELECTED TEXTS
Many popular books read by young adults contain characters resembling sages. For this examination,
we chose to focus on books intended for a young adult audience with a young adult protagonist.
Despite the fact that sages are mostly limited to fantasy and science fiction texts, we wanted to ensure
some diversity within the genre (e.g., more than Tolkein-style fantasy) and diversity in the sage
depictions given how such characters are not always bearded White men with pointy hats like Merlin,
Dumbledore, or Gandalf. We also wanted our sample to include more than White authors,
protagonists, and cultural settings. With these criteria in mind, we chose to analyze Lois Lowry’s
The
Giver
, Suzanne Collins’s
The Hunger Games
, and Nnedi Okorafor’s
Akata Witch
. The first two,
written by White, U.S. women, are set in dystopian futures; the third was written by a woman of
color born in the U.S. to Nigerian parents and takes place in present day Nigeria. One of the texts
features a male protagonist (
The Giver
), while the others feature female protagonists, one of whom
is Black (
Akata Witch
). The principle sage character in each is a man, though
Akata Witch
features
a sage who is identified as an African American male; the book also introduces readers to multiple
sages, including a woman who is African and afflicted with severe scoliosis. The primary sage-protégé
relationships we focus upon in our analyses are the Receiver of Memory and Jonas in
The Giver,
Haymitch Abernathy and Katniss Everdeen from
The Hunger Games,
and Anatov and Sunny in
Akata Witch.
SAGES AND THEIR MENTORSHIP RELATIONSHIPS
To make sense of the sage characters in the texts, we independently addressed our research
questions while reading the books and then discussed our responses, noting the areas of overlap and
difference in our respective observations and interpretations. The resulting analysis reflects a
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33
synthesis of the key points that emerged from these discussions. We address the first three research
questions here on the representations of the sages, and consider the fourth one in our discussion of
the implications of our analyses.
THE APPEARANCE AND KNOWLEDGE OF THE SAGE
Each of the three principle sage characters identified in the books fit the mythological trend of having
their possession of special or uncommon wisdom marked by notable physical and behavioral
attributes (Graham, 2013; Wilson, 2013). But each bears this mark in a different way. In
The Giver
,
the Receiver of Memory acknowledges to Jonas that he looks old and tired, but he claims that the
job has aged him. Unlike others in the community, the Receiver, now the Giver of Memory to Jonas,
is worn down by a lifetime of carrying the burden of human memory without the ability to share or
discuss those memories. He is eager to be rid of his burden, though a failed effort with an earlier
protégé has him anxious, which only adds to the weight he carries. By comparison, Anatov in
Akata
Witch
is described less as being old than as physically distinctive, and we sense a timelessness in his
demeanor. He is tall, very tall, and also regal.
When Sunny’s friends first take her to see him, they enter his thatched-roof hut and her
impression is described as follows:
A man sat in a throne-like chair on the far side of the room. When he stood up, she gasped.
He was the tallest man she had ever seen—taller than any Maasai or American basketball
player. He was light-skinned with short brown bushy dreadlocks and a small gold ring in his
left nostril. (Orkorafor, 2011, p. 47)
In the common expression, Anatov appears larger than life. This description is apt given his capacity
to situate life in a larger cosmic narrative, a common characteristic of the sage. But Okorafor adds
an intriguing twist to the corporeal presentation of the sage, opting to focus attention on abnormalities
or bodily deformities as the source of special juju. Anatov’s tallness, like Sunny’s albinism, is a source
of power in the Leopard world. Similar to the Receiver, his special designation is burdensome in the
sense that it affords him an unvarnished view of the world and what he considers its flawed and
misguided inhabitants. Such a view is also shared by Haymitch Abernathy in
The Hunger Games
,
who has no mystical powers, but has witnessed untold horror firsthand in the murders he committed
to win the games and then in the years spent watching District 12’s impoverished, malnourished
tributes brutally disposed of by more able contestants. He is described as middle-aged and unshaven,
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neither old nor physically deformed, but always drunk and wreaking of wine. When we first meet
him at the selection ceremony in District 12, Haymitch “appears hollering something unintelligible,
staggers onto the stage, and falls into the third chair” (p. 19). As Collins describes him, the man wears
his misery and its dark pit of wisdom in his slovenly appearance.
By their physical descriptions alone we might suspect that each lives in isolation, a castaway
struggling to fit in. And indeed they each are isolated in the literal sense, living alone on the outskirts
of their respective communities as is common with mythological sages (Wilson, 2013). The Receiver,
Jonas finds out, is confined behind locked doors in the Annex, a small wing of the House of the
Old. His secretary assures Jonas that the locks, nonexistent elsewhere in the community, are to keep
out potential distractions. The main room of the Annex has flourishes like unique, wooden furniture
and is filled with thousands of books, uncommon in the community. We learn that the Receiver has
a female partner, though when she grew old she went to live with the Childless Adults. Even when
present, there was immense emotional distance between the couple as he was forbidden from sharing
his memory knowledge with her and had to revel in the joys and suffer the agonies alone. Anatov
also lives alone in his hut, behind old-West style swinging doors, with visitors required to enter the
one marked “out” to signal the wise man’s belief that his spiritual intellect encompasses the wider
world. Like the Receiver, he has contact with other “elders,” but these are sages like himself who also
exist on the periphery. He refers to them as friends, something neither the Receiver nor Haymitch
claim to have. Finally, Haymitch’s isolation in particular is made more acute by his living immersed
in Capitol society where he is surrounded by the very people who created his suffering and persist in
not only ignoring it but also celebrating it annually during the Games. After winning the Hunger
Games he was given a big, fancy house in the Tribute Village in District 12, though he is the only
contestant from his district that has ever won the games, so he would live alone if he chose to dwell
there.
The physical isolation of the sage is complemented by their living outside of prescribed
norms and institutions (Wilson, 2013). For Anotov this is reflected in his being both a Leopard
Person living outside of traditional society and its laws and systemic institutions (like racism), and in
his being a highly advanced sorcerer who can leverage his revered status to move across Leopard
communities. Haymitch possesses a similar freedom of movement. He can enter the Capitol, and is
no longer beholden to its oppressive rules governing the districts’ production of goods and services.
As a victor, he is now expected to counsel the new contestants from his district, though there are no
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expectations that he take it seriously. If Capitol leaders had him killed, they would risk jeopardizing
the institution of the games and its promise of clemency and special privileges for the victors. The
Receiver is also afforded special privileges by virtue of his distinguished position in society. As Jonas
learns shortly after his assignment, the role exempts him from the community’s many stringent rules:
he is allowed permission to ask questions, be rude, and to lie to fellow members of the community;
he is no longer required to discuss his dreams with family and can forgo taking daily medications,
including the pill that all adults take to suppress sexual desire; finally, he can never apply to be
“released” or euthanized by the community. The Receiver of Memory must suffer his burden until
death arrives unbidden.
The reason for this isolation from society becomes evident when considering the knowledge
each sage possesses—knowledge of danger and also knowledge that would be dangerous if possessed
by the general public. All three have experienced the perilous path that their protégés must tread.
Only the Receiver seems willing and able to provide his student with close guidance, but even then
we see how Jonas must endure his emotional challenges unaided when outside of the Annex and
the community. Per the rule, Katniss must, of course, face the killing fields alone while her guide
curries favor with wealthy Capitol residents so they will send her crucial supplies, like salve for a
wound. Anatov is blunt about his role in educating his young charges with respect to the dangers
ahead:
You will learn about yourselves from me… And I’ll send you out there into the world to catch
your lessons. Fear? Get used to it. There will be danger; some of you may not live to
complete your lessons. It’s a risk you take. This world is bigger than you and it will go on,
regardless. (Okorafor, 2011, p. 119)
As with other mythological sages (Campbell, 1949; Mayes, 2003; Wilson, 2013), he can see the
larger arc of history and, while committed to his students, he is not committed to eliminating the
risk. Anatov also promises to provide knowledge of the self, which we see in his teaching them
about the special identities accessible to Sunny and her peers as Leopard People. This knowledge
of identity seemed qualitatively different from the erotic knowledge offered to Jonas by the Receiver
and arguably less central to Jonas’s story. Likewise, while Katniss could be seen learning about
identity and
eros
, knowledge of these domains was arguably overshadowed by Haymitch’s insistence
that Katniss gain knowledge of power to save her life and eventually fight the Capitol. Indeed, as we
illuminate below, the sages in each text tended to provide their young adult protégés with one form
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of dangerous yet vital knowledge.
Identity knowledge in
Akata Witch.
We learn that, in an intriguing twist on Ralph Ellison’s (1952)
portrayal of Black Americans as invisible to their White countrymen, Anatov grew up in the U.S.
and experienced the frustration of being treated like a foreigner in his own land on account of his
dark skin. The problem was compounded by his immense tallness and magical abilities. Presumably,
he could not avoid being seen and, using Ellison’s term,
bumping
into those who would prefer he
remain unseen. He indicates to Sunny and her peers that moving to Nigeria allowed him to feel
accepted, though more importantly it afforded him the agency to embrace his many contradictions
and to define his identity.
In the same pivotal scene where he forewarns Sunny and his other students of the dangers
that lie ahead, Anatov draws the students’ attention to the latent power in each of the qualities
considered troublesome in non-Leopard society. He pushes them to see how prejudice, coupled
with the human tendency to scorn differences in others, deprives most people of wise insight into the
processes of being and becoming. This goes for the divinely anointed Leopard People, too, whom
he says are still fallible even though they are “the most confident people on Earth and beyond”
because of their capacity to embrace uniqueness (p. 113). He then proceeds to call out each of their
so-called deformities and to reconstitute them as a foundation for the cultivation of a strong Leopard
identity. Sasha and Chichi, he observes, are both troublemakers who are always on the move, so
much so that they would be marked with psychological labels (like ADD) and overmedicated in
traditional schools. Their gift, he observes, is incredible memory that increases their pace of
perception as well as their frustration over the relative slowness of others. He then turns to Orlu,
noting the boy’s dyslexia and how the boy’s teachers had treated it as something of which to be
ashamed; but he argues that this presumably negative trait is actually a boon as it gives him a powerful
juju for undoing and dismantling the logic of spells cast by evildoers. Finally, he helps Sunny to see
the profound implications of her albinism, an affliction that positions her between worlds White and
Black, earthly and spiritual. Sunny, he observes, has the remarkable ability of sustaining co-existing
identities.
In the text, the central importance of identity knowledge is perhaps best evident in the mask,
or spirit face, signifying a Leopard Person’s true self. Sunny’s spirit face, indicative of her albinism,
is “the sun, all shiny gold and glowing with pointy rays” (p. 93). Anatov helps Sunny to discover her
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spirit face; though she has to work alone to practice calling upon it at will (see Trites [2000] on how
adults often attempt to control adolescent bodies). Such faces are treated as sacred and so personal
that they should not be shared with others. When Orlu catches a glimpse of Sunny’s spirit face,
Chichi admonishes him for looking at her as if she were naked. For Anatov’s protégés, knowledge
of the self is emerging and the challenge of living with and within competing identities is only just
becoming apparent. In their adventure they learn how to leverage the quest for identity to build
friendships, change others’ perceptions of them (for example, Sunny shows a group of boys that girls
can play great soccer, too) and defeat evil. But despite their mentor’s sagacious warning, they become
overconfident in themselves and inflate each other’s egos; this leads them to believe themselves
capable of performing dangerous and restricted juju, which threatens to sever their friendship and
almost derails Sunny’s efforts to acquire the powerful sage Sugar Cream as her special mentor.
Indeed, over time Sunny and her peers come to appreciate not only the role they play in other’s
identity projects but also how the pursuit of such projects can impact others for better or worse. Such
social dimensions of identity construction, they come to learn, present the most confounding
challenges in coming to fully understand who one is and is becoming.
Erotic knowledge in
The Giver.
During their initial meeting, the Receiver of Memory explains to
Jonas his educational task thusly: “[M]y job is to transmit to you all of the memories I have within
me. Memories of the past” (Lowry, 1993, p. 97). Jonas assumes he is referring to his own memories,
but the Receiver indicates that he means memories of the whole history of the world. He goes on to
explain that he sits alone reliving these memories for the sake of acquiring wisdom to direct the
community’s Elders in making difficult decisions that could disrupt the blissful ignorance sustained
through Sameness. As one example, he recalls how the community approached him about a plan to
expand its population size; after accessing painful memories of resource depletion and starvation, he
advised against it. The Receiver acknowledges the huge burden of his role, which he compares to a
sled going downhill, gathering a frightening amount of momentum. Jonas doesn’t understand the
comparison, so the Receiver transmits the first memory—of snow—by placing his hands on the boy’s
back. The transmission is zero-sum, with each memory acquired by Jonas being forgotten by the old
man. Significantly, Jonas does more than take the sensory details of each memory; he also takes its
emotional imprint as well, notably joy, pain, and desire. After receiving his first memories, the boy
begins to have dreams that awaken in him a sense of longing for imagined futures and the possibilities
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Wisdom, Mystery, and Dangerous Knowledge
38
awaiting just over the horizon. As Lowry describes Jonas’s experience of this sensation,
He was left, upon awakening, with the feeling that he wanted, even somehow needed, to
reach the something that waiting in the distance. The feeling that it was good. That it was
welcoming. That it was significant. (p. 112)
This experience of
eros
, or “passionate desire” (Garrison, 1997, p. 1), begins forging for Jonas
attachments to people, places, and situations along with attachments to values he had only known as
intellectual abstractions. His heart thus switched on, he is presented with powerful insights but also
enormous challenges.
Jonas
feels
the memories he is given, which stirs his desire. Indeed, memories occupy our
imagination as embodied perceptual knowledge of the world, felt impressions of particular
experiences that we then yearn to replicate or avoid (Renga, 2017; Smith, 2009). Aroused by his
feelings, Jonas begins to entertain possibilities in ways others in the community cannot. As he sees
past the Sameness, he increasingly desires to make choices, such as what color tunic to wear. But the
Receiver prompts him to consider the dark side of choice and free will and the dangers of making
the wrong choices. He shows the boy extremely painful memories resulting from human foolishness
and arrogance, like death on the battlefield. Sharing such memories brings the Receiver some
comfort. It is a comfort that will be denied to Jonas once the Receiver passes, a dim future taking
shape as the boy yearns to discuss the vast, turbulent, yet engaging emotional world with those he
loves. Over time, Jonas comes to understand that the real burden of memory is not the erotic
knowledge itself but the community’s injunction on sharing it and sharing in it with others. In a
poignant illustration of the ecstasy and agony that awaits him, the Receiver gives Jonas his favorite
memory of a warm family gathering; flushed with joy, Jonas returns home and asks his parents if
they
love
him, to which they correct him on his use of a vague, ambiguous, and vacuous term like
love. To open up his family and community to love, Jonas risks severely disrupting the calm and
predictability of a world devoid of desire.
Power knowledge in
The Hunger Games.
A former winner, Haymitch knows how the Hunger
Games are played and the importance of adhering to the rules of political spectacle, where symbolic
language and drama are strategically employed through the media to shape public opinion (Smith,
Miller-Kahn, Heinecke, & Jarvis, 2004). He projects a cynical view of the whole system, but is
nonetheless keenly aware of it and the power of the Capitol’s state-run news broadcasts for
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Wisdom, Mystery, and Dangerous Knowledge
39
maintaining a rigid social hierarchy and obedience from Panem’s peoples. Haymitch begins his
mentorship with a lack of confidence in his protégés, mainly because he has seen so many fail. His
initial skepticism gives way to interest once he realizes that Katniss possesses not only hunting skills
but also a captivating steeliness that is likely to win converts to her cause. The unassuming Peeta,
too, shows signs of a hidden strength and romantic side that could play well to the crowds. In a
pivotal scene, Haymitch and his charges size each other up on the train ride to the Capitol. Over
their first breakfast, Katniss asks her mentor for advice and he wryly replies, “Here’s some advice.
Stay alive” (p. 56). He then laughs, and Peeta slaps the glass of wine from his hand, shattering it on
the floor. Haymitch retaliates by punching the boy in the jaw, prompting Katniss to thrust a knife in
the table to keep the man from taking another drink. Instead of escalating the confrontation,
Haymitch sits back impressed. Seemingly convinced of their potential to shoulder the burden of his
knowledge of power, he agrees to stay sober enough to guide them if they heed his advice
unequivocally.
From there, Haymitch starts their education in how to leverage the Capitol’s vast resources
to increase their advantage in the Games. When Peeta goes to ice his bruise, for example, he tells
the boy to leave it visible to show his toughness to the public. The sullen sage, we learn, is a master
of deception. His drinking is undoubtedly an effort to drown his sorrow, but as the story unfolds
Katniss begins to see that it also gives the impression that he is incompetent and therefore dismissible
as a threat to the Capitol. One of his first pieces of advice for her is to avoid resisting the Capitol’s
makeover team, who will mold her appearance for presentation to viewers. He knows it will annoy
her, though he also knows the advantage of a compelling first impression. Resistance, he signals to
her, needs to be exhibited wisely and purposefully. Indeed, his primary lesson for Katniss is that the
public will only provide gifts to contestants that connect with the viewing audience. Spurning their
desire for such connection will only hurt her chances.
Able to see the Hunger Games in a larger narrative of oppression and control, Haymitch
knows that the Capitol’s use of imagery to manipulate truth is its primary source of power, which
makes it its primary weakness. Image is everything. At one point, he expressly forbids his charges
from revealing their most lethal talents as they train for the Games. Following this advice, Katniss
hides the fact that she’s an ace with a bow until a private audience with the Gamemakers, whose
apparent ambivalence prompts her to defiantly shoot an arrow expertly into their suite. She is thus
awarded the highest mark of the twenty-four contestants, an honor that will ensure interest among
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Wisdom, Mystery, and Dangerous Knowledge
40
the Capitol’s powerbrokers but also ensure attention from her fiercest opponents in the arena.
Haymitch sees potential in the image of strength Katniss projects. But it is an image she struggles to
embody as someone loathe to self-promotion. Haymitch works to develop her knowledge of how
power operates in a world of pageantry and spectacle. To be likable as a rebel, he shows her, she
must sustain a productive tension between hostility and hopefulness in the heroic portrait she
presents to the public.
The ultimate deception that Haymitch orchestrates is Katniss’s romantic relationship with
Peeta, an act that she struggles with but which endears her to Capitol viewers. The appeal, he
understands, reflects the viewers’ smoldering desire for redemption in the face of impossible odds
and, as Katniss will learn later, a growing distaste throughout Panem for the Capitol’s oppressive
social order. Haymitch thus notes with approval how Katniss and Peeta held hands as they were
paraded before the Capitol. “Just the perfect touch of rebellion,” he remarks (p. 79).
From then on he insists that they build intrigue in the nature of their relationship by always
sticking together and showing small but tantalizing signs of mutual fondness. The strategy takes on
special significance in the Games when Katniss nurses a wounded and feverish Peeta back to health
in a cave and the two of them kiss for the camera. The Capitol audience is so smitten with the young
lovers that their fortunes in the Hunger Games increase dramatically; more significantly is how the
lovers’ defiance of the Game’s sacrosanct rule of one-remains forever alters the institution of the
Hunger Games and the Capitol’s projection of omnipotence.
TEACHER-STUDENT, ADOLESCENT-ADULT RELATIONSHIPS
In hero tales throughout history the sage provides one-on-one mentorship to the hero. In all three
texts analyzed, this dynamic of an intimate mentor-student relationship is evident. In
The Giver
, the
Receiver spends hours alone with Jonas passing on the memories and discussing their erotic and
emotional meaning and implications. Haymitch is ostensibly responsible for guiding both Katniss
and Peeta as they enter the Hunger Games, but early on he sees more promise for success in
Katniss’s strength and ferocity than in her partner’s docility and compassion. In fact, he pushes her
to play to the Capitol viewers’ fondness for romance by urging her to demonstrate loving affection
for Peeta so she might save his life. Finally, Anatov provides mentorship to the four friends in
Akata
Witch
, though each is eventually taken under the wing of one of four highly advanced sorcerers;
toward the end of the book Sunny must prove herself worthy of mentorship by the revered sage
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41
Sugar Cream, a frail but immensely knowledgeable woman hunched over by severe scoliosis.
Additionally, the types of relationships are based upon the particular views of the adolescent
protégés these sages hold. These sages clearly view their students as highly capable of achieving the
goals and overcoming the obstacles set before them. For example, early in his tutorship, the Receiver
gives Jonas intense emotional memories because of his surety that Jonas will be able to understand
the impact of such memories. Similarly, once Haymitch sees potential in Katniss, he sets high
expectations for her training and success in the Games. Anatov provides the most autonomy for
Sunny and her peers, as he sets them off to complete tasks with the confidence that they will be able
to use their camaraderie and varied skills to overcome the dangerous obstacles each task involves.
In these ways, the sages in these texts view the youth under their tutelage through an asset-based lens,
which differs from the pejorative deficit-based lens that many adults view adolescents (cf. Lesko,
2012).
The sages are not the only educators portrayed in the texts. Parents play a small but crucial
role in each story. Katniss, we learn, was initially taught hunting and outdoor survival skills by her
deceased father. Sunny’s parents are successful professionals who constantly hound her, police her
actions, and even abuse her to keep her on the straight and narrow path. Of the three protagonists,
Jonas’s parents’ educational impact is perhaps the most visible and significant to his story arc.
Significantly, they are not his birth parents, and received Jonas from the Elders to raise in accordance
with the community’s strict guidelines. In this way, they are more like stewards or guardians who
look out for his emotional well-being and offer support and guidance. They are, like every other
member of the community, servants of the greater good and their concern for their children is less
about providing loving nurturance than policing the children’s adherence to the rules. The fact that
the Receiver has little interest in directing his behavior is something that Jonas must overcome so
they can openly discuss the memories—something crucial for his education.
Similar to the parents, professional teachers depicted in
The Giver
and
Akata Witch
seek to
control and explicitly direct the children and young adults in their care. The teaching approach in
both books is didactic, with an education amounting to the direct transition and acquisition of
knowledge and skills. Students in
The Giver
, for example, are expected to read and memorize the
rules for their new occupational roles. In both stories, teachers use corporal punishment to correct
student behavior. A key difference between the sage and the teachers in these stories is the kind of
knowledge being conveyed by each. Teachers mostly provide skills for professional work and expect
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Wisdom, Mystery, and Dangerous Knowledge
42
the memorization and application of information that is rather inert. Knowledge provided by the
sages is much richer. At one point Jonas tells the Receiver that his teachers are very knowledgeable.
The old man replies by claiming that his teachers “know nothing,” to which he adds,
Oh, your instructors are well trained. They know their scientific facts.
Everyone
is well
trained for his job. It’s just that … without memories it’s all meaningless. They gave that
burden to me. (Lowry, 1993, pp. 132-133, emphasis in original)
The Receiver possesses a key for unlocking the meaningfulness of the facts, notably their emotional
and erotic valences. Anatov and Haymitch similarly possess important keys for converting
information to wisdom in ways that typical teachers do not or cannot. These other teachers, in
contrast to the sage characters, clearly view the young protagonists with a deficit- based lens.
Finally, it is noteworthy that all three sages demonstrate a degree of vulnerability not found
in the other teachers depicted. They exhibit a casualness that stands in stark contrast to the detached
professionalism of the teachers (for more on this contrast, see Mayes, 2003). This is especially
evident in
The Giver
where the overbearing state requires complete acquiescence to and habitation
of its prescribed occupational roles. Even the Receiver’s radical knowledge is confined to his role.
Such rigid professional rules are intended to maintain order and control of students, something of
little interest to the Receiver or the other sages. Of course, the sages also seem uninterested in
caretaking and assuming responsibility for their charges well-being, something that is certainly a
concern of parents and teachers. Rather, the sages tend to rely upon an experiential learning rather
than a rote or didactic approach to the education of their protégés, even when that approach puts
their charges in direct danger. This again demonstrates their relative lack of concern for surveillance
and control that often dominates teacher-student, adult- adolescent relationships in contemporary
schooling (O’Loughlin, & Van Zile, 2014). The sages also guard their vulnerability and only reveal
it once they decide a young person is worthy of mentorship. Such vulnerability appears to be crucial
to their capacity to convey the wisdom of their dangerous knowledge. Jonas, it seems, needs to see
the Receiver’s pain to grapple with the implications of difficult memories; Katniss needs to see
behind Haymitch’s incompetent façade to appreciate the need for her own façade. These three
stories suggest that, if traditional teachers cannot do their job without a veneer of authority derived
from an institutionally sanctioned role, the sage cannot do his job unless that veneer dissolves.
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43
IMPLICATIONS OF THE SAGE ARCHETYPE FOR TEACHERS AND TEACHING
Our analysis of the sage, while admittedly limited by a relatively small sample of texts, offers several
intriguing insights on contemporary schooling and the role of K-12 teachers. First is the allure of the
sage archetype. In
The Giver
, the role of the Receiver is mysterious; most of the community do not
know what he does or why he matters. The mystery creates an aura to the role that is framed as honor
or reverence, but we learn that it actually serves to shield the Receiver from divulging his dangerous
erotic knowledge to the public. The sorcerers in
Akata Witch
are not shunned by society, but they
choose to keep their powerful knowledge a secret out of fear of the havoc it could wreak on a selfish
populace inclined to greed, profiling, and prejudice. And The Capitol maintains a short leash on the
Hunger Games victors, who possess an intimate understanding of weakness and how to exploit it.
The allure, then, might actually be for the unlocked knowledge possessed by the sage than for the
sage himself.
In the real world, as in the three fictional stories, there are powerful forces aligned against the
dissemination of knowledge of power, identity, and desire. For example, efforts by teachers in
Arizona to provide Chican@ students with
precious knowledge
of their Mexican American heritage
and the injustice of racial oppression has been met with stiff resistance from White lawmakers
(Garcia, Urrieta, & Bybee, 2015; Sargent, 2011). Similarly, schools often deny students agency or
complicate their efforts to navigate the complexities of identity construction; while White students
proceed along a privileged ontological pathway toward a cultureless identity (Perry, 2001), their peers
of color are forced to reconcile a personally meaningful and productive racial identity with an
academic identity that is often narrowly defined and unaccommodating to cultural differences
(Grantham & Ford, 2003; Howard, 2003; Nasir & Saxe, 2003). And a robust literature discusses the
resistance to frank and open discussion of unsanctioned desire in public schools given how engaging
stakeholders’ desires risks subversion of dominant norms and destabilization of the systems
maintaining order and control (Renga, 2017; Kelly, 1997; Logue, 2012; McWilliam, 1996; Pignatelli,
1998; Tolman, 2012; Zembylas,
2007).
To allow the sage archetype and its knowledge to inform teaching requires a willingness to
engage with such dangerous knowledge in K-12 classrooms and school communities (Mayes, 1999).
For some that undoubtedly sounds appealing, even necessary; for others, less so. While we find
compelling reason for accepting the sage’s invitation to push the boundaries of knowledge and
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44
reinvigorate schools through the “release again of the flow of life” (Campbell, 1949, p. 40), we suggest
that doing so must begin with earnest and mutually respectful conversation between educators and
the communities they serve regarding such knowledge, how it is viewed, and what barriers—cultural,
religious, historical, etc.—may be blocking or mitigating its dissemination. Avoiding such
conversations could prove problematic. These and other YAL texts affirm what is arguably well
understood by parents and teachers, that adolescents inevitably encounter and acquire knowledge
of self,
eros
, and power as they grapple with, among other things, who they are, who they might
become, their sexuality, and bullying. An honest and wise sage can provide sound, accurate, and
effective guidance, though not necessarily security.
Second, we find it troubling that the sage characters in the chosen texts and most YAL texts,
for that matter, are male. This follows an archetypal tradition of discerning the sage (male) from the
crone (female; Graham, 2013), with the crone often portrayed as using her wisdom for evil or at least
for self-serving purposes (e.g.,
The Giver’s
Chief Elder). It also furthers a paternalistic narrative that
assumes that, to enter public life, children must break from the nurturing mother to receive guidance
from the world-wise father (Mishra Tarc, 2015). By affirming these gender stereotypes, YAL may
convey a false message to young readers that only men can offer wise guidance when it comes to
dangerous knowledge. The fact that the proportion of women teachers declines as one progresses
from elementary to secondary school and into college and graduate school (cf. Ingersoll, Merrill, &
Stuckey, 2014), where one is perhaps most likely to have sage-style mentorship, arguably feeds this
perception.
Finally, depictions of sages in YAL could perpetuate the idea that only special students—
singular, gifted, or anointed individuals like Katniss, Sunny, or Jonas—should expect such one- on-
one mentorship. Campbell (1949) points out that mythmakers throughout history and across
cultures seem hard pressed to accept the possibility of ordinary people becoming heroes; the hero
is thus assumed to have been born special. All three books reinforce this emphasis on exclusivity
and uniqueness as a prerequisite for sagacious mentorship. Such intimacy, they imply, is fantasy—
the very genre that most sage characters are found in YAL. Indeed, U.S. schools have long sacrificed
the closeness of apprentice-style relationships for the sake of efficiency, and have arguably
established a meritocratic Hunger Games whereby students compete to achieve distinction and stand
apart from or even atop the crowd (Labaree, 1997). Finding a wise elder to take a vested interest in
one’s education is arguably a challenge for most youth, and we worry that depictions of the sage in
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45
YAL risks confirming that such relationships are reserved only for the most naturally gifted or most
troubled students.
CLOSING THOUGHTS ON VULNERABILITY AND RISK
Though underrepresented in scholarly discussions of teachers and their depiction in YAL, the sage
is a fixture of many popular novels for young people. Our analysis suggests that such characters are
usually marked as different, live isolated lives, and possess the power of particular knowledges that
are locked away from the broader community. Sages form intimate intellectual and caring
relationships with students and exhibit a degree of vulnerability that is uncommon among typical
classroom teachers. If we were to entertain the possibility of sagacious mentorship in public schools,
we would arguably need to become comfortable with a less efficient system of schooling. We would
also need to allow for unpredictability and uncertainty as students gain greater access and agency to
really engage with the complexities and risks of identity,
eros
, power, and other kinds of dangerous
knowledge. Drawing the attention of teachers and students to the sage in YAL is therefore a risky
proposition. But then, as revealed in the books we analyzed, ignoring the sage and sagacious wisdom
is likely to be riskier.
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Wisdom, Mystery, and Dangerous Knowledge
50
IAN PARKER RENGA
is an assistant professor of education at Western State Colorado University. His
areas of specialization include teacher practice and identity,
eros
in education, and representations
of teachers in media and culture. He has published in venues ranging from
Educational
Studies
to
Science Education
, and most recently edited the forthcoming collection
Sports and K-12
Education: Insights for Teachers, Coaches, and School Leaders
.
MARK LEWIS
is an associate professor of literacy education at Loyola University Maryland where he
teaches courses in children’s and young adult literature, content area literacy, and English language
arts methods. His research examines literary competence, conceptions of youth, and representations
of adolescence/ts within young adult literature. His work has appeared in
English Education, Journal
of Adolescent and Adult Literacy,
Journal of Literacy Research,
and
Middle Grades Research
Journal.
