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When characters don't know their goals
May. 11th, 2022 05:21 pmI've realized that there are several kidlit examples of a trope that was especially hard for me to wrap my brain around as an autistic child, and that's "the character thinks they want X but they actually want Y." If I'm following along, and the text isn't presented in an especially obscure way, I can usually infer "the main character's goal is X even if they never say in so many words 'I want X.'" However, there are cases where the character either gets (a chance at) X but isn't happy about it, or doesn't get X and is happy about it, and this causes me dissonance.
-The Paper Bag Princess: the princess thinks she wants to marry the prince, but she actually wants the prince to love her just as she is.
-Holes: Elya thinks he wants to marry Myra, but really, he wants Myra to love and appreciate him.
-Annie: Annie thinks she wants her birth parents to return for her, but really, she wants a loving family.
With the first two, you could say, "romance is just weird and strange especially if you're a kid," but for the last one, I'm sure there are people who would be like "how dare you think that birth family is the only family that counts, that's #problematic, found families are important too!" And it's like...I make that assumption because that's what the character claims that they want. It's something about that second-order realization, if it's not made explicit, that was kind of beyond my capacity to grasp.
-The Paper Bag Princess: the princess thinks she wants to marry the prince, but she actually wants the prince to love her just as she is.
-Holes: Elya thinks he wants to marry Myra, but really, he wants Myra to love and appreciate him.
-Annie: Annie thinks she wants her birth parents to return for her, but really, she wants a loving family.
With the first two, you could say, "romance is just weird and strange especially if you're a kid," but for the last one, I'm sure there are people who would be like "how dare you think that birth family is the only family that counts, that's #problematic, found families are important too!" And it's like...I make that assumption because that's what the character claims that they want. It's something about that second-order realization, if it's not made explicit, that was kind of beyond my capacity to grasp.
