Happy Thursday, squiders! I’m avoiding making phone calls. So let’s talk master plots!
7 Master Plots Plot: Rags to Riches
Related 20 Master Plots Plot(s): Underdog, Ascension
Related 36 Master Plots Plot(s): n/a
Now, I think it’s very interesting that the 36 Plots list does not have any associated master plots that go along with the Rags to Riches plot. I mean, how does the list with the most plots not having a corresponding plot? But I’ve run through it myself, and the closest would be Deliverance–where someone has caused a problem that someone else is trying to make them pay for, and a third party comes along and saves the first person. But it’s not quite the same thing, because the protagonist is the savior as opposed to the person in trouble. Ambition, too, is similar–but not the same, because the person seeking something better (or just something) doesn’t necessarily win in the end.
I’m getting ahead of myself.
The Rags to Riches plot archetype, as implied by the name, is a story where someone, who is typically kindhearted and/or otherwise “good” but has found themselves in a bad situation, finds happiness and other good fortune by the end of the story.
You’re thinking of Cinderella, I know you are. And you’re right.
Aladdin. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The Prince and the Pauper. The Ugly Duckling. David Copperfield. Puss in Boots. You can probably think of several more.
In the 20 plot list, we find Underdog and Ascenscion.
Underdog is a natural fit. This is when someone who has less resources and is not expected to win/get something/succeed/etc. against a better prepared foe beats the odds and is victorious. You find this a lot with sports movies–The Mighty Ducks, Seabiscuit, etc. Arguably Cinderella can also be an underdog movie, because why would the prince choose a dirty serving girl over all the rich and beautiful women in the kingdom?
Ascension is where, through the course of the story, the protagonist rises out of their initial situation to become something better. Which is just the definition of Rags to Riches anyway. Though sometimes this plot is done more metaphorically (i.e. the protagonist is a horrible person who over the course of the story learns to be a better person) than literally.
Still interesting to me that there’s no 36 plots associated. I wonder if we could say this is perhaps a more fundamental plot, then, than Overcoming the Monster was last week. There’s no need for variations because this is the story, at its core.
Or maybe it’s because all these lists are just the creators’ best effort to categorize something nebulous.
Thoughts, squiders? Thoughts about the lists in general? Why do you think that the 36 plot list doesn’t have a rags to riches archetype on it?
