What is with all the dead parents in fiction?
By Awinds
@Awinds (2468)
United States
August 6, 2011 10:27pm CST
Romance, fantasy, mystery and many other genres feature protagonists with dead parents. The cause is often murder, childbirth, illness, or death by natural disaster. Parental death is also often used as a motivator for a protagonist to seek revenge. However the dead parents phenomenon is so common it is on the verge of becoming cliche.
My question is, why are there so many dead parents (and thus orphans) in literature? Why are dead parents so popular? Do you consider this cliche or are you fine with it? :)
3 people like this
6 responses
@CTHanum (8234)
• Malaysia
7 Aug 11
Yes, it's a cliche to me and I am not fine with it. I hate that plot or story line. I just think they can't develop the story if both parents are there. It really hard to find fictions which include mom and dad together. Most of the time they showed the main characters with single parents or no parents at all...They should change the thinking that story will be interesting with only one or no parents to the main character. No wrong if the offer us a strong character with till both parents are there for them. I think they just do not want to focus more on other supporting characters so just go with an orphans or a child with one of the parent there.(^^)
1 person likes this
@Awinds (2468)
• United States
8 Aug 11
Parents can really interfere with the strength of a character - especially if the are the clingy and overprotective type. You have a good point: it is probably easier for the writer to take out the parents. If left in the parents would require a lot of the story telling since they are important. :)
@sarahruthbeth22 (43143)
• United States
7 Aug 11
I haven't noticed this trend but I Love it! I love a great revenge story! It is a good plot twist. Plus with both parents gone there isn't a " You shouldn't be doing this" speech!
1 person likes this
@sarahruthbeth22 (43143)
• United States
8 Aug 11
One of the good films I have seen the hero loses his Whole family and seeks revenge! Great action film!
@la_chique (1498)
•
7 Aug 11
It was very common for pre-1900 times for poor families to have problems with diseases, couldn't afford to see doctors, and so the mothers often would die in childbirth, and because the fathers in poorer families had dangerous jobs, such as mining, or heavy manual machinery work, many fatalities used to happen. In the times when these kinds of tales were written, it was almost the norm for young children from poor families to be orphaned, and then sent to orphanages, which were just the most despicable places. Oliver and Annie spring to mind instantly.
1 person likes this
@ReViewMeMedia (3785)
• United States
8 Aug 11
It makes the characters interesting and they have angst issues. It's also a typical origin story.
@francesca5 (1344)
•
7 Aug 11
i think it is to ensure that the main character is a sympathetic one. as we tend to enjoy a book more where the main character is a sympathetic one, rather than one we don't much care about.
there is a gilbert and sullivan opera called "the pirates of penzance" where there is an "we're orphans you must be nice to us" joke running all the way through.
and once i was leaving a building that served food to homeless people, and two elderly male customers said to me "we're orphans can you take us home". so it obviously has some power, though i didn't!
