Trope Hunting Perks
A study of tropes using the film Arrival
We are so excited to invite
to be this week’s guest writer on the Lit Think blog. She digs into the world of science fiction and the tropes we find across literary genres.Lately, we hear the word tropes frequently in the media regarding storytelling. Netflix uses tropes in descriptions. Buzzfeed publishes lists of favorite tropes in movies. And Tik Tok has been a trope bonanza.
What are tropes?
Tropes are universally understood story building blocks in English. They act as signposts in a story to help orient the audience. Becoming a trope hunter shows us infinite ways to create stories from standard elements. It’s a kind of critical thinking accessible to any type of storytelling.
Tropes are rooted in relationships, so they are key to storytelling. Their development is the art of the storyteller. We sharpen our critical thinking skills by becoming trope hunters in books, series, or movies. Instilling curiosity to wonder how a story works makes us curious about our language.
The 2016 film Arrival creates an intriguing fish-out-of-water story by stacking various tropes, including the fish-out-of-water motif, friendship, and redemption.
Analysis of Arrival (2016)
Arrival begins with a voiceover by protagonist Louise reminiscing with a young child playing.
Then, in the present day, twelve spaceships have spread across the globe, causing the Earth's population to panic. Discovering what the aliens want and how to communicate is critical.
A military officer appears at the home of linguist Louise Banks. She is asked to translate a recording of alien dialogue. We learn that she worked for the government before providing translations, so she has the clearance to hear this sample.
Louise is intrigued but tells him she can’t do it without having the context of interacting with the aliens. The officer tells her no way.
Later, a helicopter lands on her lawn, and the officer returns, telling her she has five minutes to get ready to leave for the alien site in Montana. At the site, Louise meets her new partner, a physicist named Donnelly.
After suiting up, they are transported to the alien pod with a military team. So far, no one has been able to establish communication with the aliens.
On the alien ship, Louise (fish out of water) meets two elephant-sized octopus-like creatures. They have difficulty communicating with them because they have no common language. Their session expires, and they leave discouraged.
At the camp, tensions are high as the humans' mistrust of the alien intentions intensifies. Louise tries again, bringing a whiteboard to write her name. The aliens respond by creating distinctive ink spots on the glass partition.
The US government is in a race to figure out what the aliens want before the other countries. Donnelly quickly realizes Louise is on track to understand this new language.
Louise starts having disorienting images of a young girl interacting with her. The images confuse Louise as she is single and childless.
As Louise progresses with the alien language now called Heptapod, her visions of the same child increase. The eleven other countries with alien pods refuse to share their findings. China believes the aliens are referring to a weapon in their dialogue. Louise argues that the meaning could be a tool, not just a weapon.
Disgruntled military soldiers detonate a bomb when Louise and Donnelly board the alien ship. They survive, but one of the alien pair dies.
Louise returns to the surviving alien. She learns that they want to communicate with Earth because they will need allies in the future. Each of the twelve pods has given a different tool to each site, forcing the humans to work together, which they resist. All communication between the pod sites is shut down by humans.
Louise envisions meeting the Chinese general in the future. He leans over to whisper in her ear what he said to her and his telephone number. He tells her that when she told him his dying wife's words, he knew she was telling the truth. Their language tool doesn’t involve linear time.
In the present, Louise finds a phone, dials the number from her vision, and repeats what the general told her. As she does this, her call is detected, and she’s hunted by the military. Donnelly shields her as they prepare to shoot. The Chinese general receives the message and encourages all countries to cooperate to save the earth.
Louise’s understanding of the alien language allows her to understand she'll have a daughter with Donnelly. However, that child will die of an incurable disease at twelve. Donnelly leaves her and the daughter in the future when she confesses she knows how future events will unfold. In the future, Louise will teach a class on communicating with aliens.
Go further!
In addition to identifying tropes, stories can be developed by combining them with character goals, motivation, and conflict to create unique ones.
As the protagonist, Louise’s goal, motivation, and conflict are:
Goal: communicate with the aliens
Motivation: save the world
Conflict: There is no common language between them, and they fail to understand each other.
The antagonists (terrorists) goal, motivation and conflict are:
Goal: destroy the aliens
Motivation: fear that they will attack the earth
Conflict: tight security makes the attack difficult without dying, and the attackers are unsure if they will succeed.
Combining goal, motivation, and conflict with tropes provides a way to develop the story structure while allowing plenty of space to create a unique story. These techniques can be used to study any book or film.
Science fiction and the alien communication subgenre are a fun way to apply these skills. Check out my three favorite examples of alien language in Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis, The Mountains in the Sea by Ray Nayler, and Oddjobs by Heide Goody and Iain Grant.
Thanks for reading!
Like what you read here? Check out Jennifer Hilt’s upcoming release, Trope Thesaurus Fantasy and Science Fiction, the fifth in her Trope Thesaurus Series, at www.jenniferhilt.com.
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