Why Do Characters [and People Sometimes] Need A Reason For Living?

[TheCrystallineEntity]

I find this a bit...not confusing, but I'm just curious as to why characters and sometimes people need a specific reason to live, and then when that reason inevitably is taken away somehow, they dive head-first into despair? It would make sense, I guess, if the reason is another person acting as a living emotional crutch...

Any thoughts?

 

[Christopher Michael]

Because unless there is a discoverable meaning to life, a purpose you can find, life is a long journey through absolute despair.

 

[Alyssa]

Because sometimes people define themselves by what they do rather than who they are. When you take that away they find themselves very isolated, lost and afraid.


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[skip.knox]

Not to be too facile, but it's a useful plot device. And the converse would not be interesting: MC has a reason to live, it is taken away, MC shrugs and walks home.

 

[Penpilot]

Well, with characters, it's how we write them. Even 'complicated' characters are simple. You can put things in front of them, take them away, have characters have epiphanies etc. But with people... people are truly complicated, illogical, and can have so many variables affecting how they see the world and how they react to it, that it can be really difficult at first blush to understand why people do the things they do and react the way they react.

I'm no psychiatrist, but I highly doubt that simply taking something away is why they fall into despair. There are probably other things behind the curtain that are in play. And the absence of that something is just a trigger, or a crack exposing something deeper that needs to be addressed.

If it was as simple as replacing something to bring someone out of despair, the world would probably be an easier place to live for some people.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

I guess what I meant was: why need a specific reason? Why not just be content with living?

 

[CupofJoe]

I guess what I meant was: why need a specific reason? Why not just be content with living?

Ah... but why are they content? Take that away and see how they act.
Most people are [moderately, vaguely] happy bumbling along in pretty much the same way their parents and grandparents did. Doing pretty much that same things for the same reasons.
I would say that very few people actually only have one reason to live and without that one reason they are somehow irretrievably broken. Most people have a myriad of interlinked reasons to live, even if they don't know them yet. And their ability to cope with almost anything that are given to them frequently astounds me.
And others might say that the curious nature of the human condition means that we are always and continually not content with what we have but want something a little MORE and DIFFERENT...

 

[Mytherea]

I guess what I meant was: why need a specific reason? Why not just be content with living?

'Cause content characters are, often, boring, imo. They're content, so they're not going to go out of their way to be uncomfortable, so one of the few ways to make a content character uncomfortable would be to have an external force push on them--but inherently, they'll then stop being content because something just pushed on them. It's far simpler to create dramatic tension with a discontented character who has a need to do something, or a drive to become something, or a want for something that they don't have, because then they're an active participant in their own story. A content character has no need for anything, so often becomes a bystander.

Just my two cents. Real humans, however, are a totally different can of worms that I'm certainly not qualified to open.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

^Oh, I see.

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

It's not as simple as you may think. Severe depression or a highly stressful event might alter biochemical reactions in the brain, which could alter how a person thinks and behaves and even affect their memory.

Depression: Effects on the Brain

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

^I certainly know the truth of that.

 

[Christopher Michael]

I guess what I meant was: why need a specific reason? Why not just be content with living?

Because that's not reality. Everybody has a reason to stay alive. Usually multiple. That's why we stay alive. It's why humanity doesn't devolve into mass suicide.
Now, we don't always know what those reasons are. I know some of mine- my faith, my wife, my family. But I'm certain there are many others I'm unaware of.
And that is the layering people, especially in the current market, demand of the characters in the books and stories they read. You can't have a character just existing because they exist. If they don't have a reason, usually multiple, their motivations will be shallow and useless, and the readers will grow bored.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

It just seemed a bit cliche to me. Sorry.

 

[Christopher Michael]

It just seemed a bit cliche to me. Sorry.

I understand. But this isn't a cliché. It's reality. And the alternative is fiction filled with unbelievable, unrelatable, characters.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

Here's an example [complete spoilers for the second season of the Clannad anime]:

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Everything in life that we have that is meaningful to us is a reason to live. That can be family, friends, love, a job, a calling, an identity, a belief, a way of life...For some, avoiding death or pursuing pleasure seems to be sufficient. But I don't think anyone is content to just exist. There has to be some reason. It's a quality of humankind.

 

[Miseo]

I guess what I meant was: why need a specific reason? Why not just be content with living?

Being content with living is still a reason to live. You live because you are satisfied with life. I don't think you know what it looks like to have no reason to live.

My mother for the past year has become just that. And now she has no reason to live. She never eats, showers, changes her clothes, does her laundry, leaves the house, answers phone calls, talks to people... her place smells horrible too. We had to get her admitted to the psychiatric ward of the hospital because of how bad it was.

People need to have some meaning in their life.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

The Claymore manga certainly explores what happens when a brutal and desolate life is combined with losing almost all reason to live, yet the protagonist ironically finds so many reasons to live by the end of the story.

 

[Miseo]

Never read it, but without a reason to live you have no motivation to do anything including finding a reason to live. So I would imagine that in itself would be an entire journey.