The Innocent is a personality archetype that illustrates the capacity of human hopes and dreams. Focused on grand visions of a future that could be, the Innocent is hopeful and starry-eyed. Firm believers in the inherent goodness of the world and of other people, they are fond of beauty and long for heroic quests.

Background

For those of us just seeing this series for the first time, I'm writing a series on using Pearson's personality archetypes (affiliate link) in storytelling. This profile, of the Innocent, is the third of twelve entries in this series, following the Destroyer and Orphan. You might also be interested in my earlier series on the Hero and Hero's Journey and the Nemesis.

If you just want a quick recap or introduction, here's the gist: archetypes are recurring patterns that have proven to be pretty universal. They're cognitive schemes that allow us to examine behavior and narratives in light of a coherent whole. That makes them valuable tools to audiences and storytellers, since they make stories authentic and lend them meaning.

Understanding the Innocent

The Innocent is full of spirit and hope. They're powerful in that way, and in a certain sense nothing would get done without the Innocent there to help it happen. They want similar things to the Orphan; safety, security, and protection. Their ideals are different, however, in how they form.

The Innocent harbors a vision of utopia that can be dangerous to them. To venture for a moment into the realm of commentary, the Innocent seems to be our society's guiding star. They believe strongly that anything can be accomplished, and they often believe that they even know the way to do this.

That can make a very heroic figure. We like people who have visions.

The problem is that the Innocent lacks what we'd also want in someone who's in power, which is the capacity to see the negative. Where the Orphan often cannot see the positive, the Innocent doesn't comprehend the barriers ahead of them or the consequences of their actions.

The Innocent as Hero

The Innocent is the idealist who can set out to change the world. They're not quite in the same vein as a Destroyer, who is willing to sacrifice, or the Sage who seeks universal Truth and a better way of life. Their plans are more vague, but they are no less noble and the Innocent commits to them no less fully than any other person.

Perhaps the best and most heroic part of the Innocent is that they are, unless truly corrupted by a fall, entirely bereft of ill-will. Their grand visions seek to improve everyone, to give everyone a better world.

The Innocent is also willing to continue in the face of adversity. It is not correct to say that they lack resilience in the same manner that they often lack foresight: they may become very devoted believers in their cause and continue to the point of martyrdom, though this is not something that comes easily to them due to their traditional focus on their own way.

Innocents keep their goodness no matter what, at least from their own point of view. This definition of goodness is always shaped from external wisdom, so the ability of an Innocent to change their world for the better is determined by the company they keep.

Under wise leadership, however, an Innocent can thrive and survive the harsh experiences they are inevitably forced to confront. They're not used to having to survive, but that helps a heroic Innocent face hardships that would fill others with terror: they do not fear because they do not know what fear is. Even if they aren't setting out to sacrifice themselves, they wind up undergoing that sacrifice with a smile on their face because they are confident in their great agenda.

One of the important things about this heroic Innocent is that at a certain point they are going to realize their own capacity to err. I think of Ender in Ender's Game, who (while probably more of a Destroyer overall) comes to the conclusion that his pursuits have been destructive, and immediately shifts his paradigm to accommodate the notion that he can be wrong and that the ends (safety for humanity) may not justify the means (total xenocide). He then sets out on a path of atonement, seeking to make the universe a better place.

Another good example of the Innocent as a heroic character is the Pevinses of the Chronicles of Narnia series. Actually, most of CS Lewis' heroes are Innocents, or have to embrace the ultimate wisdom of the Innocent, which is that they can want the best and still have a darker hidden side to them. Lewis does this with Aslan, a Christ-figure, who appears to them to teach them moral lessons. While some of his characters are not Innocents, the most potent message is that hopes and dreams, tempered with a firm foundation in morality and an understanding of limitations, achieves much.

The Tragic Innocent

The downside of Innocents is that they can be incredibly foolish. They, in many cases, lack a fully accurate understanding of reality because they are blinded by the gilded future that consumes their thoughts.

They often seek to serve everyone, but they are not socially-minded. This creates violent side-effects when their vision of what is better conflicts with others', and extreme Innocents can gamble with other peoples' futures (not to the same extent as a Ruler, but in a similar vein of trying to usher in a new world that doesn't have a place for inhabitants of the old.

A great example of an Innocent in fiction is the example of Don Quixote. I am currently just starting to read the novel featuring him, but the example is strong enough that it hardly requires more than a single plot point.

Don Quixote gets this vision of chivalry and sets out on a quest for knighthood and triumph. During this quest, he becomes so delusional that he entirely fails to see the world as it is.

Gustave Doré's depiction of Don Quixote

The image above comes from a scene in the novel where Don Quixote, on his steed Rocinante, confronts a man who is beating a hired hand. Quixote stops and challenges the man, and eventually settles an agreement with the man to immediately pay his hired boy and to cease beating him. Satisfied by the oath sworn by the landowner, Quixote leaves.

At this point, the boy is beaten even more brutally, since the encounter with Quixote has frustrated the landowner and he also gains an ironic amusement at undoing the delusional knight errant's work.

In this way, the tragic Innocent acts without knowledge of consequence, causing more harm than good without any ill-intent in their heart.

Another outcome of the tragic Innocent is the exact opposite: they shape their ideals in conformity (which can often cause them to become fully villainous characters) or in an inflated desire for the security and love that causes them to ignore their reality and become complacent.

In either of these cases, the Innocent fails to live up to their potential to change the world, instead convincing themselves that by inaction or wrong action they have managed to achieve their goals.

The Villainous Innocent

The start of the 20th century is full of villainous Innocents in the form of those who fell into the temptations of totalitarianism and other toxic ideologies. The problem with defining the villainous Innocent is finding the distinction between an Innocent who has fully succumbed to their Shadow and other archetypes like the Ruler and Warrior that can look similar.

The thing that defines the Innocent is their pursuit of goodness.

The thing that defines the Innocent fully eclipsed by their Shadow is their self-deception about what goodness is.

The villainous Innocent worships their ideal as God. They believe it is infallible. They sacrifice anything but themselves on the altar of their ideology.

The reason this Innocent cannot redeem themselves is that they believe they have nothing to redeem. They are dangerous, and can fill themselves with hate in the guise of righteous fury.

The Innocent in Star Wars

In Star Wars, the most noteworthy Innocent is Leia as of A New Hope. She's confident and composed, and not nearly so naive as many Innocents, but she still, as the head of the Rebellion, represents that hope and vision for the future that is lacking in archetypes like the Orphan. This is important as a distinguishing point, because while she is involved in the Rebellion this isn't because she's anti-authoritarian.

She simply feels that there is a better future down the road of her own political agenda–the Rebellion's political agenda is very unclear, another piece of evidence that links her to the Innocent archetype.

Leia's defining moment in the first act of the movie comes when she watches her homeworld, Alderaan, be destroyed by Darth Vader and the Death Star (good rock-band name). Although she had previously been somewhat inured to the consequences of her actions, claiming diplomatic immunity and resisting Vader with a hope for rescue, she instead is forced to accept that her brighter future will not necessarily come without suffering and struggle along the way.

To her credit, she continues to hope and trust, relying on Luke and the band of misfits (despite some initial, and justified, misgivings) to ultimately save the Rebellion from the Death Star.

She maintains her role as a great example of the heroic Innocent, instead of transforming into an Orphan with the loss of her home, or falling to her Shadow and seeking an expedient solution. By having faith in the brighter future, she is able to keep the Rebellion together and serve as its strength and moral core.

Using the Innocent in Storytelling

The Innocent provides a framework to the best part of humanity: our ability to hope and dream and be daring in the face of danger. They are great as heroic characters because they have faith and hope.

Children's literature also focuses heavily on the Innocent as a protagonist: they must learn and adjust, but they can only succeed by holding on to their dreams. This is a message we often want to send children, but the fundamental concept is no less ennobling to an adult than it is to a child.

If you want to tell a positive message about the world, you will find yourself having a difficult time without including some example of the Innocent; to borrow again from young adult fiction, Johnny in The Outsiders undergoes a philosophical metamorphosis on his death-bed, going from the Orphan to the Innocent by realizing that the world has great opportunity–for those who "stay gold" by maintaining their values, as he exhorts the protagonist to do.

The Innocent can also be the core of a cautionary tale. William Sydney Porter's "Gift of the Magi" is an example of a case where this is done without any ill-intent toward the Innocents involved; a poor woman and her husband give up their most valued possessions to buy gifts for each other, each envisioning a world made better by their love for their spouse (and what a great and lofty goal it is!) but both ultimately realizing that their acts are self-defeating because the wife sells her hair to buy a watch-band and the husband sells his watch to buy a hair ornament. At the same time, this learning process serves to show them what is truly valuable, and while there is a cautionary element to the tale (communication helps avoid inconvenience) there is also a great and ennobling case for love furthered by Porter's epilogue to the story, which is intended to downplay the cautionary elements in favor of acknowledging the powerful boon that love is in our lives.

The villainous Innocent is also a very powerful figure, especially in light of the 20th century. They're harder to write for, however, because they're very easy to conflate with a villainous Ruler, Sage, or Warrior. The distinction between the villainous Innocent and those other types is that they do not consciously seek to bend others to their will: this simply happens as a consequence of the fact that their golden dream-city is one that will be paved on the bones of those they ignore.

Victor Frankenstein is an example of an Innocent who fully falls into his Shadow: he envisions a better world for humanity after the conquest of death, but instead he gets a fallen and imperfect creation that he rejects entirely as an alternative to nurturing it into something better. He is distinguished from the Sage archetype because while his pursuit involves knowledge, he never pursues wisdom or truth, or questions whether his goals are going to have consequences until after he is confronted with those consequences.

Using the Innocent in Games

To really make the Innocent work in the context of a game, you need to think about what goes into them and include those elements. The Innocent has to have some great dream, but it can't be built out of suffering like the Orphan's dreams are.

To really make the Innocent work, you need:

• Something grand that lies over the horizon, but is tantalizingly close-seeming
• A way for people to be blinded to the consequences of their actions.

The second will take care of itself, if you create a world where human nature can be reflected. One good way to do this is to have social strife or isolation so that the Innocent reaps the rewards of their utopia while others suffer on a road toward dystopia.

Wrapping Up

The Innocent is a powerful archetype that showcases our hopes and dreams, but it is flawed by a failed conception of reality. They may have lofty goals, but they tread in the mire like everyone else. If they deny this, they can inadvertently defy people.

At the same time, the Innocent serves to show us what we can accomplish if we dare to reach out. They are unconcerned with the realms of practicality, and this allows them to push into new frontiers.