Wednesday, June 15, 2005
THE NAKED SPUR: allies and enemies
There are a total of five characters in Naked Spur--
The protagonist, Kemp.
The antagonist, Ben.
The romantic interest, Lina.
Secondary character, Jesse.
Secondary character, Roy.
The relationships between these characters change back and forth during the course of the story. Loyalties are courted and shift. Circumstances force uneasy and temporary alliances. The motives for alliances change. This keeps a relatively stagnant cast of characters dynamic and interesting. This is absolutely vital when the main characters are isolated in a "pressure cooker" situation, like in Naked Spur or 12 Angry Men. But it can layer added depth to any kind of story.
It works this way: the protagonist has a motivated goal. The antagonist has a motivated goal that is in direct opposition to the protagonist's. Right away you have two enemies. Both start the story with allies on their sides. Kemp has Jesse and Roy. Ben has Lina.
This dynamic remains fairly unchanged until the revelation of the bounty on Ben's head inflames Jesse's and Roy's self-interest. When that happens, they become not so much Kemp's allies as their own. They haven't defected to Ben's side, but the development of their self-interest is clearly a victory for the antagonist because it complicates Kemp's goal.
Later, Roy develops immoral designs on Lina. It turns him into Kemp's enemy as far as the romantic subplot is concerned. But he remains Kemp's conditional ally in the main plot. When Indians threaten attack because of Roy's assault upon an Indian girl, he becomes a danger to Kemp in both plot lines, and Kemp tries to get rid of him. But Roy refuses to go.
Jesse's position as Kemp's ally undergoes similar changes. He remains a neutral figure on the romantic journey, but eventually turns into Ben's ally in the main plot.
These ally/enemy positions are fairly clear and forthright. Still, they make the characters' relationships realistically complex and multidimensional. The protagonist doesn't simply trust or distrust the other characters, because then the audience's attention would wane as they took for granted the secondary characters' purposes in the story. Instead, the protagonist simultaneously trusts AND distrusts the other characters on various plot levels--and so the audience stays riveted, watching the scales constantly rise and fall.
One of the more complex examples of this concerns the romantic interest in this story. Lina begins as Ben's fiercest ally, believing in his innocence. But as she comes to understand his enemy (and by extension, her enemy), she develops sympathy for Kemp and eventually falls in love with him. Ben can no longer trust her as an ally because her loyalties are divided: she still wants to help Ben escape, but she refuses to let him hurt Kemp in the process. Naturally, this creates intense internal conflict for her that cannot be sustained long without boiling over into the main plot. Ben plays on her new loyalty to Kemp to trick her into doing his bidding. The disastrous results are the same as if she were still Kemp's enemy, but the emotional payoff for the audience is exponentially bigger.
It's this kind of complexity that can help elevate an essentially simple, straightforward story to the level of a classic.
The protagonist, Kemp.
The antagonist, Ben.
The romantic interest, Lina.
Secondary character, Jesse.
Secondary character, Roy.
The relationships between these characters change back and forth during the course of the story. Loyalties are courted and shift. Circumstances force uneasy and temporary alliances. The motives for alliances change. This keeps a relatively stagnant cast of characters dynamic and interesting. This is absolutely vital when the main characters are isolated in a "pressure cooker" situation, like in Naked Spur or 12 Angry Men. But it can layer added depth to any kind of story.
It works this way: the protagonist has a motivated goal. The antagonist has a motivated goal that is in direct opposition to the protagonist's. Right away you have two enemies. Both start the story with allies on their sides. Kemp has Jesse and Roy. Ben has Lina.
This dynamic remains fairly unchanged until the revelation of the bounty on Ben's head inflames Jesse's and Roy's self-interest. When that happens, they become not so much Kemp's allies as their own. They haven't defected to Ben's side, but the development of their self-interest is clearly a victory for the antagonist because it complicates Kemp's goal.
Later, Roy develops immoral designs on Lina. It turns him into Kemp's enemy as far as the romantic subplot is concerned. But he remains Kemp's conditional ally in the main plot. When Indians threaten attack because of Roy's assault upon an Indian girl, he becomes a danger to Kemp in both plot lines, and Kemp tries to get rid of him. But Roy refuses to go.
Jesse's position as Kemp's ally undergoes similar changes. He remains a neutral figure on the romantic journey, but eventually turns into Ben's ally in the main plot.
These ally/enemy positions are fairly clear and forthright. Still, they make the characters' relationships realistically complex and multidimensional. The protagonist doesn't simply trust or distrust the other characters, because then the audience's attention would wane as they took for granted the secondary characters' purposes in the story. Instead, the protagonist simultaneously trusts AND distrusts the other characters on various plot levels--and so the audience stays riveted, watching the scales constantly rise and fall.
One of the more complex examples of this concerns the romantic interest in this story. Lina begins as Ben's fiercest ally, believing in his innocence. But as she comes to understand his enemy (and by extension, her enemy), she develops sympathy for Kemp and eventually falls in love with him. Ben can no longer trust her as an ally because her loyalties are divided: she still wants to help Ben escape, but she refuses to let him hurt Kemp in the process. Naturally, this creates intense internal conflict for her that cannot be sustained long without boiling over into the main plot. Ben plays on her new loyalty to Kemp to trick her into doing his bidding. The disastrous results are the same as if she were still Kemp's enemy, but the emotional payoff for the audience is exponentially bigger.
It's this kind of complexity that can help elevate an essentially simple, straightforward story to the level of a classic.
