Examples of Character Arc in Genre Fiction

In Build Better Settings, Eileen Cook and Crystal Hunt show how characters can change over the course of a story and how you can use setting to illustrate that. To help you understand the concept of the stages of character arc we’ve focused on in the book, we’ve compiled a list of examples from popular stories below.

Dystopian YA: The Hunger Games

1. Initial State: Katniss lives in District 12 where she ekes out a bare living. She’s focused on keeping herself and her sister alive in a grim world.
2. Unhappiness: When her sister’s name is pulled to participate in the Hunger Games, Katniss is distraught. She decides to take action by volunteering as a tribute even though it risks her own life.
3. Transformation Begins: Katniss is in the Capital and training to participate in the games. When the initial tributes begin to die, the severity of her situation is driven home
4. Mirror Moment: In the arena Katniss has partnered with Rue and they decide to work together.
5. The Dark Moment: Rue has been killed. Katniss is livid and throws herself into the final battle with Cato with Peeta at her side.
6. Transformation Complete: Katniss and Peeta have outwitted the Capital and survived the arena. They return to their district heroes, but she’s changed. She’s now a revolutionary.

Romance: Pride and Prejudice

1. Initial State: Elizabeth Bennet lives with her sisters and parents. Her mother is always concerned with finding matches for all the girls.
2. Unhappiness: Elizabeth meets Mr. Darcy and feels snubbed by him when he doesn’t want to dance with her.
3. Transformation Begins: Elizabeth and Darcy have increased interaction and flirting. Elizabeth is opening herself up to the idea of being vulnerable and open with someone else.
4. Mirror Moment: Darcy proposes (very poorly and unexpectedly) to Elizabeth. She refuses him because of some of his interference in her sister’s romance and how he deals with Mr. Wickham. Elizabeth realizes she won’t settle just to be married. Her pride and prejudice are in the way.
5. The Dark Moment: When Elizabeth’s sister Lydia runs away with Mr. Wickham she ruins the family’s reputation. Elizabeth realizes that Darcy was right when he tried to warn her about him. She feels they can never be together because of this family tragedy. She’s allowed her prejudices to stop her from getting what she really wanted.
6. Transformation Complete: Elizabeth discovers that Darcy was the one to convince Mr. Wickham to marry Lydia, thus saving the family from ruin. She is able to see herself and Darcy clearly because she’s allowed herself to be vulnerable. Darcy proposes and this time she accepts. The two marry and in theory will have their happy ever after.

Comedy: Elf

1. Initial State: Buddy lives in the North Pole. He loves being an elf, but he knows that he doesn’t fully fit in. (Both literally and figuratively)
2. Unhappiness: Buddy overhears the news that he’s not an elf-(gasp) he’s a human. This is why he doesn’t fit in. Now he realizes he won’t ever fit in but leaving the only home he’s ever known is terrifying.
3. Transformation Begins: Buddy travels to New York. He’s meeting his human family, getting a job at the department store.
4. Mirror Moment: After a great day with his new half-brother, Buddy is convinced to ask out his potential love interest, Jovie who agrees. He’s seeing what it would be like to have family and love.
5. The Dark Moment: Buddy interrupts a meeting at his dad’s office. His dad loses his temper and yells at him to just get out. Buddy feels he has no home. And then he discovers that Santa’s sleigh has just crashed in Central Park. What can he do to help?
6. Transformation Complete: Buddy is back in the North Pole. He’s now with his wife (Jovie) and children. He has a family and is able to straddle both worlds.

Science Fiction: Iron Man

1. Initial State: Tony Stark is wealthy, owner of a company and cocky as hell. He doesn’t have awareness that his profit is coming from weapons.
2. Unhappiness: After an explosion, Tony wakes up hooked up to a car battery. He’s being forced to build a new weapon by a group of terrorists. He has to build himself a power source in order to stay alive.
3. Transformation Begins: Tony builds himself a super suit. He is thinking about how he could do more than just build weapons and be an idle rich person. His life could have a different focus.
4. Mirror Moment: Tony shoes off the capabilities of the suit he’s built. His long-time assistant, Pepper, gives him the original power source he used to keep himself alive with a note about how its proof that he has a “heart.”
5. The Dark Moment: Tony discovers that his true nemesis is Stane who has been double dealing and supporting the bad guys. Stane steals his current power source and tells him how it will be used to power even more weapons. Tony feels himself dying, his legacy lost.
6. Transformation Complete: On the verge of death, Tony remembers the back up power source Pepper gave him and is able strap on the suit and fight for the right cause. He’s now active and worried about others more than he’s worried about himself. He risks his life to save others, at the very end he is standing before the world declares himself to be Iron Man.

Fantasy: Star Wars Episode IV

1. Initial State: Luke is a bored farmer on Tatooine.
2. Unhappiness: He finds a message from a Princess and wants to go on adventure, but is scared to do anything different.
3. Transformation Begins: Leaves his home planet with his new mentor and a rag-tag group of new friends to see what they can do to save the princess.
4. Mirror Moment: Luke and his friends show up where the planet Alderaan should have been to find the Death Star. They’re going to have to go inside if they want to rescue Leia.
5. The Dark Moment: Obi-Wan is cut down and the rebellion is faced with the fact that the Death Star is going to blow up a whole bunch of additional planets.
6. Transformation Complete: Luke has used the Force to destroy the death star and is rewarded in a fancy ceremony for his bravery. He’s officially not a farmer anymore.