For the record, the phrase “killing your darlings” means something different in creative writing circles. But just for today: can we talk about death in fiction?
As I am (apparently) prone to do, I was once listening in on a conversation between customers in the bookstore where I work. They got on the subject of a certain book series (I will not name the author or the series here because, due to reasons, I do not want to draw any attention to them) in which the concluding book resulted in a lot of main character deaths. And one of the things mentioned in this conversation was that “so-and-so” was the “most pointless death of all.”
Now, I do not mean to step on anyone’s emotions. You are free to feel how you feel, especially about something as personal as the death of a beloved fictional character (Oh boy, have I been there. In fact, I used to think I was cursed… But that’s another story for another time). However, when this person uttered those words, I was also free to have my immediate thought, which was: “Well, yeah. Death is usually pointless.”
*Cue my shrug and expression twisted to imply the words, “I don’t know what to tell ya.”*
Yes, we could argue that deaths in fiction should always have a purpose or meaning behind them, just as every other detail should have its purpose and/or meaning. Maybe the death of a loved one is what sends the hero on their journey—or maybe it is what drives their emotions and therefore their determination to see their journey through to the end. Maybe the death of a main character is fully intended to leave the reader with feelings of sadness, or frustration, or in rare instances, even hope—or, most likely, a simple sense of closure.
But the truth about death, for most people who are still living, is that it is pointless. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t be set on such beliefs that a person “went too soon,” or that “only the good die young.” We wouldn’t be so devastated when someone we love passes from our own world. As human beings, we do not understand death, and therefore the event rarely has any rhyme or reason in our own realities. Why should it be any different for our fiction?
Sometimes death is just death—whether in real life or in the stories we tell. Sometimes it is simply an inevitability that must be faced by our characters in one way or another–especially if those characters are experiencing war. And, sometimes, it doesn’t need a reason other than the fact that a character’s writer decided they had run out their usefulness to the plot, much like a deity might point their almighty finger at some mortal and announce, “That’s enough.”
Sometimes, perhaps, pointlessness is exactly the point.
Night Owls, what was your most devastating loss of a fictional character? Do you think their death had a “point” to it? (Try to be mindful of spoiler warnings!)
