The Child Savior: An Example of a Literary Archetype  People
respond at a visceral level to images of children. These images
are usually positive, inspiring feelings of love and warmth.
Almost every child is cute and people admire the pictures of
children shown by loving parents, grandparents, aunts, and
uncles. Every Christmas, statues of the baby Jesus can be found
in manger scenes all across the country. Lisa from The Simpsons
and many other youthful characters populate mass media. Tires,
breakfast cereal, cleaning solution, and even political ideas
can be sold by showing pictures of children.  The desire to
protect the innocence of childhood motivates most people, in
real life as well as in fiction. Photographs of suffering
children, such as a starving African baby with its stomach
swollen and flies landing on its mouth and eyes, imprint
themselves on the minds of those who see them. The photograph of
a young girl running, screaming, her clothing burned off by
napalm, raised the consciousness of a generat