Crabs - Archetypal

Crabs, by Peter Carey, does not follow the archetypal structure in the traditional sense; however, it does fit in to some aspects. Crabs does comply to archetypal structure by having a call to adventure (Crabs wanting to have sex with Carmen), crossing a threshold (the drive-in), and the death and rebirth (Crabs turning into a car). Trying to most of the other aspects Crabs into archetypal criticism is like trying to fit an oval peg into a circle hole – close, but it’s not going to fit. You could say that Frank was his mentor, or strict father figure, but both would be loose assumptions. There was no atonement or gift given to Crabs, but he did return changed, though as a car, not necessarily wiser. The manager could be perceived as the helper, but again, that would be a vague description. There was no clear revelation, although, although Crabs did go through trials and failure, as well as growth in new skills, from having is wheels and engine stolen (failure), to repairing the car (new skills). Technically, you could say that Crabs fits into archetypal structure, though very loosely, making it one of the few stories that could be considered non-monomyth, probably due to the fact that the story is so peculiar in the first place.