You're Not the Boss of Me!
In fiction, as in real life, there are often good reasons to defy authority. After all, a good deal of human progress is owed to people who stood up to unjust laws and corrupt governments and oppressive social systems. And many a good fictional story echoes these struggles, pitting the characters against powerful antagonists.
Then there's the characters who seem determined to annoy and inconvenience whoever's in charge for no good reason whatsoever. Teenage characters are particularly common offenders, but there's also a subset of characters (particularly angsty urban fantasy detectives) who do this as well. While this can sometimes work when it's presented as a fundamental character flaw, but all too often, we're supposed to admire the character not in spite of their borderline case of oppositional defiant disorder, but because of it.
On some level, this is understandable. All of us, at some point, have harboured fantasies about talking back or otherwise defying an authority figure we didn't like or starting a public protest against some stupid rule. It's a pretty basic human urge. Since fiction often contains a degree of wish-fulfillment, it's not surprising that fictional characters defy authority more frequently than people do in real life. At the same time, this regularly moves well beyond the bounds of credulity. When writing a character who's bent on sticking it to the man, ask yourself the following questions:
Are your character's views congruent with their cultural worldview? For example, if a character comes from a culture with a high power differential where the higher-ranking person is always right, it's going to take a lot more for them to rebel than if they come from a culture where people regularly challenge their leaders. Also, their motives for rebelling will be different depending on what their culture expects of leaders. If not, how did that character come to their particular viewpoint? If a character's ideas about authority run counter to the cultural norms around them, you'll need to explain why. What is the character's motivation? Someone who is fighting back against an intolerable abuse of authority needs to be treated very differently by the narrative than someone who is basically a troll (ie, enjoys getting a rise out of people), which is different still than someone who simply ignores rules because they like their way better.How do other characters respond? Characters do need to have realistic, contextually appropriate reactions to the character who is stirring things up. These reactions may be nuanced-- for example, someone could be both grateful that that the character is standing up to a bad leader, but also fearful of retribution if it all goes wrong.
Then there's the characters who seem determined to annoy and inconvenience whoever's in charge for no good reason whatsoever. Teenage characters are particularly common offenders, but there's also a subset of characters (particularly angsty urban fantasy detectives) who do this as well. While this can sometimes work when it's presented as a fundamental character flaw, but all too often, we're supposed to admire the character not in spite of their borderline case of oppositional defiant disorder, but because of it.
On some level, this is understandable. All of us, at some point, have harboured fantasies about talking back or otherwise defying an authority figure we didn't like or starting a public protest against some stupid rule. It's a pretty basic human urge. Since fiction often contains a degree of wish-fulfillment, it's not surprising that fictional characters defy authority more frequently than people do in real life. At the same time, this regularly moves well beyond the bounds of credulity. When writing a character who's bent on sticking it to the man, ask yourself the following questions:
Are your character's views congruent with their cultural worldview? For example, if a character comes from a culture with a high power differential where the higher-ranking person is always right, it's going to take a lot more for them to rebel than if they come from a culture where people regularly challenge their leaders. Also, their motives for rebelling will be different depending on what their culture expects of leaders. If not, how did that character come to their particular viewpoint? If a character's ideas about authority run counter to the cultural norms around them, you'll need to explain why. What is the character's motivation? Someone who is fighting back against an intolerable abuse of authority needs to be treated very differently by the narrative than someone who is basically a troll (ie, enjoys getting a rise out of people), which is different still than someone who simply ignores rules because they like their way better.How do other characters respond? Characters do need to have realistic, contextually appropriate reactions to the character who is stirring things up. These reactions may be nuanced-- for example, someone could be both grateful that that the character is standing up to a bad leader, but also fearful of retribution if it all goes wrong.
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