What do these two have in common?
So, I was laying the groundwork for a new project, and began to question some things we take for granted in the fantasy genre. One of the things, specifically was the orphan or parentless hero.
We see it a lot, and it very rarely is a driving element of the character, which is stranger when the parental role isn’t taken up by some sort of surrogate, such as a mentor or foster parent. So I began to ask why is this such a common trope.
My first idea, and this doesn’t apply to all cases, but seems very common, is the fact that it’s a shorthand way to ‘other’ the protagonist. By making him an orphan, he’s immediately set apart from his community, which makes answering The Call just a little bit easier.
Another idea, which was presented by Brooke Johnson on Google+, is that it’s intended as a sympathy element. Most of us don’t know what it’s like to not have parents, and so we automatically sympathize with them. I agree it’s a possibility, but isn’t that just as lazy in the long run as using it to other the hero?
Now, to be fair, I don’t think every orphan hero falls under such tropes, in fact J.K. Rowling used the background as very important to Harry Potter and is a good example of using what can be considered a trope in a good way.
So what are your thoughts on the orphan hero, is this something fantasy should be moving away from? Leave a comment below!
When I see this in YA, it’s because parent characters are inconvenient. The protagonist is usually separated from their parents, if not by death, then by extreme distance, secrecy, or captivity. That way the parents cannot make the protagonist’s life easier, and neither can they be blamed for being bad parents. Some of these reasons can still apply to adult fiction. If you want a loner character, then getting rid of the parents helps maintain that aloneness, and bonus points if it explains the protagonist’s early development of self sufficiency. Girl friends often accompany such characters, but not wives, because wives, too, might destroy that isolation. And if the protagonist has both wife and kids? Watch out, because they are probably going to die.
I guess some of it is done for convenience. If you don’t have parents, you can mold the character in some different ways. Or, you don’t have the protagonist tied down in any way.
I have thought about this idea as well, and I made the MC in one of my stories the opposite. He’s a grounded young man with a family (parents, siblings, and even a gal betrothed to him). You can have a story with this type of character, and I think it’s not used enough.
That being said, there is something about having an “orphan” that makes it easy to work with. I’m not sure what that is, though.
It’s part and parcel of what makes young adult orphans most likely to run off on adventures. It’s hard to go if you have a job and ties to the community.
I agree that making the protag an orphan to immediately play the sympathy card is lazy, and over done. But like you said the orphan element works quite well in some stories. But it’s not the only answer. Take Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Having her living with her mother for the first few seasons made the story more interesting. And we all sympathize with a teenager whose parent can’t possibly understand them.
Parentless protagonists are so common, particularly in YA fiction. I always appreciate a story that manages to keep the parents alive, even if they tie them up in some other way, like always working. It is possible to allow the character to grow on their own without just having them be an orphan.
I like stories with parents, too. Even in happy families there are periods of drama and upheaval. How everyone reacts and changes is the story.
The first part of Tolstoy’s line, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” is not necessarily true. Kids should be reading more about happy families who have major upheavals in their lives, but who then grow stronger through them.
I think you and the other commenters have already touched on the a multitude of reasons why orphans are so popular in fiction: instant sympathy, having no one to turn to in times of trouble, no bonds to prevent them from going adventuring, often with a mystery (“who were my a parents?”) or revenge motivation to propel the story.
It’s particularly hard in YA/MG fiction to let children and teens have adventures with strong involved parents around. You can be sure that these moms & dad would step in if things got too risky. That’s why so many parents are dead or occupied or kidnapped, or otherwise not around.