Have you read a story or watched a movie where your favorite character dies and it felt like they weren’t supposed to? Maybe the person was older and their life was naturally coming to an end. Nonetheless, it’s a forlorn emotion, and we wish the author would have kept them alive. Most of us don’t realize why authors do this and we resent them for it; however, authors have their reasons. They kill off our favorite characters with intention; these intentions could be essential to the plot, or to teach us something about the story. Both of these techniques are commonly used, but despite that, the main motive is almost always to add a sense of realism to the story.
Although we know everyone will die, it’s often unexpected for a life to be cut short, because it is assumed that we’ll have the privilege to grow old. Most of us make a plan for ourselves, a path which we will follow that ends with us growing old with a family and dying happily. It’s comforting to believe in this fairytale, but paths don’t always go straight; they don’t always end as expected. The unpredictability of life is portrayed when our favorite characters die, showing us their path was cut short, showing how they didn’t get to grow old. Life can be snatched by the frigid hands of death at any time, and that’s exactly what these deceased characters illustrate.
When an author chooses this specific approach in their writing, they communicate that life is a fragile, fleeting thing and it shouldn’t be wasted. A character could die when they still had so much left to accomplish, so much left to experience. This calls to question, “Why did they have to die so soon?” And that’s exactly what we must consider. What if our stories are left unfinished? What if our lives are snatched before we meet the end of the path? Anything can happen tomorrow, and there is both beauty and horror in that statement. When a character dies, it can be interpreted as a way to make us consider if we are truly living our lives to the fullest. Death is forced in front of our faces, showing a tragic and undeserved end, so it is crucial to take our own lives into consideration. A fictional death is similar to a wake-up call which signals our mortality.
To sum up the points made, although we detest the death of a beloved character, it is vital to assist us in reflecting upon the way we live. It is impossible to control how or when a life will end, but it’s not impossible to control how we will live that life. We must strive for better, reach for our every aspiration, and be memorable in the borrowed time we have, because all anybody wants in the end is for their life to have been worth living. To be human means our lifetime is a ticking time-bomb, so what will you have done when it explodes?
