Dead Parent Trope
Where are the adults?
Have you ever noticed why your favorite superheroes are always orphaned? Be it an animal character like lion king or the kids-favorite, batman– the main character always loses the parent ( or two), sooner or later. Whether you’ve noticed this cliché or not, it’s there. Minor spoilers ahead.
Not Only Adult Fiction!
Unfortunately, this dead parent trope has become an indispensable part of any adult fiction, at least according to the writers! In fact, the trope is not limited to adult fiction only. Even the Romcom and Thrillers include the main character losing a parent sooner or later. But why it what? Why do the writers feel it necessary to kill the parent before or during the movie? Even though in real life, only 1 in 5 kids lose their parent before reaching adulthood, these movies are created as a depiction of real life. Yes! Even the Adult Fiction. Because the audience needs to be able to relate to the film in order to be fully vested in it. So coming back to the swarm of questions around the dead parent trope? Why is it absolutely necessary, and what’s the benefit of this cliché? Does it help the writer or the audience? Let's explore together!
Started Right; Now a cliché!
That’s right. The dead parent trope started off as an integral part of the story, and movies like Batman and the Lion King are excellent examples of how the movie banks on the death of the main character’s parent. However, with the popularity this trope has gained over the past decade, it has now evolved into an overused cliché for a broad spectrum of categories, including RomCom and Horror movies. I joke in my circles when I read someone’s story that I’d like to meet a hero who still has both parents alive because it seems the default way many start their tales.
But what distinguishes the usage from ‘overused cliché’ to ‘integral part’ of the story? To help understand this better, let’s look at three different scenarios:
Batman: Batman involves the killing of parents before the start of the movie. But, this really drove Bruce Wayne to become the superhero: Batman. Without the killing of parents, you wouldn’t have had batman.
Luke Skywalker: The Jedi Master seems to be an orphan until the audience discovers his father is alive. After that, only the father is vital to the story; nothing about the mother. Strange, right?
Walter White: The famous ‘chemist’ has no parents (apparently). Nothing about them is shown in the show. Just not necessary to the plot.
To summarize the above three cases, the dead parent trope makes sense for the audience if it has a role to play in the plot of the movie. On the other hand, if the death has nothing to do with the story and they’re simply killed to remove the extra cost of hiring people for that role, then that qualifies as a distasteful use of this overused cliché.
Using the Dead Parent Trope in Movie
By all means, using the dead parent trope is not bad at all. The only catch is that the writer should be able to carry the emotional baggage for this scenario– which is, without a doubt, extremely difficult! The death of a parent is extremely tragic and traumatic. The writer needs to consider the gravity of this miserable emotional experience and how it fundamentally affects the psychology and nature of a person. The intricacies of this unfortunate incident can’t be summed up in a movie, but the least that is expected is to portray a reasonable behavior of the character. Some stories (not taking any names– *wink wink*) include this trope as a ‘convenient’ backstory for a character’s maturity and present this tragic incident as a packaged-up plot for a dramatic teen romance. The character can be seen falling in love a week after the death of a parent. The trope offers the perfect justification for the character going wild in their life before meeting someone who understands their emotional trauma, and we know what happens next.
Adding Sympathy for the Character
Remember Harry Potter and how his story starts? Orphaned and left with an aunt and uncle that shove him under the stairs and pretend he doesn’t exsist?
Often you find yourself sympathizing with an ill-treated characters. Wonder why? It’s not because you know that he/she is the main character of the story. It’s because of this dead parent trope in the background. Think for a second; would you still like Mary Lennox from The Secret Garden, especially at the start of the novel, if her parents were alive? Not really. Dead parents get the character instant sympathy from the audience, and the authors are well aware of exploiting that beautifully.
The lack of parents is also used to allow the character to explore fully without caring about having to answer anyone and without any handholding. The character goes wild and explores on its own, but it's fine because his/her parents are dead. The Maze Runner is one example where the character is ‘able’ to explore with freedom due to absence of a parental figure.
Summary
To sum it up, the dead parent trope is indeed overused now. But, it’s fine as long as the death of the parent is crucial for the story. However, if it is used to justify the character’s ill behavior, sympathize the audience with the character, or allow the character to explore without having to answer anyone, then it’s quite distasteful. Moreover, depicting the depth of the parent’s relationship with the child requires effort, creativity, and consequently, a challenge for the author. The audience is intelligent enough to distinguish whether the death is meaningful for the plot or it’s simply to pull the heartstrings of the audience for no reason at all.