Situational Archetypes
1. The Quest- Buddy is called upon to find his birth father by Santa. Santa thinks that it is a good idea for Buddy to finally know that he is an actual human being and not an elf. Buddy runs in to many obstacles along the way, such as: the raccoon that attacks him, his father refusing to see him, when he goes to jail, when he works in the mailroom, when he is rejected by his future girlfriend, when Buddy and Michael fight off a team of bullies in the park with snowballs, and when Santa's sleigh crashes. The apotheosis of the quest is when Buddy gets Jovie and Walter to believe in Santa (Walter finally gets off of the "Naughty List"). Buddy's boon is the snow globe that he is given right before he starts on his journey. The snow globe helps him find his way to New York City/his father. As a result of this, Buddy goes back to the North Pole, and he has a son with Jovie.
2. Initiation- Buddy's initiation is when he finds out that he is not an elf, and that he is actually a human being. He is in shock because he has been living the life of an elf for 30 years, and never knew that he was different from any of the other elves. His status changes because he now believes that he is someone else, who has a bigger quest to accomplish, and that is finding his father Walter Hobbs in New York City.
3. Father-Son Conflict- This archetype is reversed in this movie. Instead of the son disliking the father at first, the father dislikes the son at first. Throughout the movie, Walter Hobbs starts to believe in Buddy more and more, and he starts to love Buddy more and more as a son. Before the end of the movie, Walter and Buddy embrace. This shows that Walter finally loves Buddy, and he finally believes in what Buddy wanted him to believe in all along, and that was Christmas.