Tropes are so useful. It gives characters something to fight against, to move beyond. I find myself wondering about how the other characters in a story treat the 'trope'. If the employees treat the Big Bad Boss as the friendly supportive boss, then do we force the trope into something different, more real? I'm reminded of the Peter Selle…
Tropes are so useful. It gives characters something to fight against, to move beyond. I find myself wondering about how the other characters in a story treat the 'trope'. If the employees treat the Big Bad Boss as the friendly supportive boss, then do we force the trope into something different, more real? I'm reminded of the Peter Sellers film Being There, where the simple gardener (trope) is treated as a guru and genius (different trope). What happens when our characters refuse to occupy their trope in the way we and the reader expect? I guess that's escalation and drama?
Hi Tom, I really like this idea of Trope as Foil. And I loved Being There, so perhaps I'm biased to this already. But your observation that you (we) start to wonder how others will treat the trope character is a really interesting one. The trope invites us into the story then our radar is tuned and we increase our awareness.
Tropes are so useful. It gives characters something to fight against, to move beyond. I find myself wondering about how the other characters in a story treat the 'trope'. If the employees treat the Big Bad Boss as the friendly supportive boss, then do we force the trope into something different, more real? I'm reminded of the Peter Sellers film Being There, where the simple gardener (trope) is treated as a guru and genius (different trope). What happens when our characters refuse to occupy their trope in the way we and the reader expect? I guess that's escalation and drama?
Hi Tom, I really like this idea of Trope as Foil. And I loved Being There, so perhaps I'm biased to this already. But your observation that you (we) start to wonder how others will treat the trope character is a really interesting one. The trope invites us into the story then our radar is tuned and we increase our awareness.