Overthinkings: Using Cultural Codes

My husband and I were flipping channels the other night when we caught a snippet of the first episode of a new thriller tv show. A bunch of people fall out of a crashing plane and then the scene cuts to a law enforcement office. As the series protagonist sips his coffee and we get a wide shot of the people working desk jobs, a cheery officer comes in with his wife and young daughter. The pigtailed girl shows off the rock she painted for daddy so they could play hopscotch together. 

“Well, he’s gonna die,” I said to John. 

Spoiler Alert: he did, a couple scenes later. 

In this case, the writers clumsily pulled what many authors do on a regular basis. They used societal norm “codes” to create emotional investment, or understanding between the reader/viewer and a character. In this case the emotional investment was needed to show the audience how dangerous the attackers were—setting them up as the definitive “bad guys” (though there will probably be a twist at some point where some really aren’t)—as well as giving the protagonist higher personal stakes besides a job to fulfill. 

Coding is a useful tool to have in your toolbox, but like any tool the efficacy is in how it is wielded. 

The keys to using codes is that your audience has to be on the same page. Not that your story can’t be a great read for those of us who don’t understand the social nuances of 15^th century Japan—we may just miss out on some of the subtext. Regardless, there are some fairly universal signs that point to a character’s, well, character. 

Negative:

-Tattling or going along with “the system”=antagonist

-Man physically abusing  a “morally upstanding” woman,  a child, or an animal is a clear indication of a villain.

-Man physically abusing a “morally questionable” woman, or emotionally or verbally abusing any of the above indicates a problematic character, who may or may not have a redemption arc. 

-Woman abusing men in any manner may be played as comedy or drama, but in drama often the result of alcohol or substance abuse? More indicative of situation rather than category of character. 

-Women abusing children indicates problematic character

-Women abusing animals, or abandoning children indicative of villain

Positive:

-Single Dads

-adoring/present Dads

-substitute Dads

-Husbands doing ANY small household thing—besides taking out trash or traditional male things

-Women protecting children

Character codes are helpful if you want to jump straight into the action of a story, or need to create an intimacy right out of the gate—usually to give a death meaning. The skillful way to do this is to give the character you are going to kill off a micro plot. 

-A goal+stakes

“I’m gonna propose to Gina tonight; now that I’ve helped Mom get her diabetes in check it’s my time for happiness.”

Loving child about to realize personal happiness after a decade of self sacrifice? Not only do we feel for the character about to die, but for Gina as well.

“Hey Kiddo, of course Daddy’s going to make your game tonight! I’ll be there behind first base just like always…”

We know he’s not going to make it, but we can still hope maybe this read through will be different. Notice we use the doting dad code.

“Don’t worry Joe, I’ll picked up the birthday cake. You have that important case to finish. We’ll just meet at the restaurant later…”

MVP goes to the death that also sets up the Protagonist’s character arc. We the reader know that Joe wasn’t really working on a case. When his wife is hit by a drunk driver and dies with pink frosting stuck to the side of her face, Joe has a lot of potential issues to work through on the page…all while juggling a traumatized four year old. 

Giving your character a micro plot helps to avoid Red Shirt phenomena—Google the memes if you don’t know the reference—but to reinforce the emotional weight of the death, show other characters reacting and having life altering consequences over the loss. We need to see Gina grieving, Kiddo never playing baseball again, and Joe riddled with guilt over not picking up the birthday cake. 

Just like dropping a rock into a pond, the more ripples we see help to impart how big the splash was. If the protagonist sighs and moves on, then why should we as the reader care either?  It is subtle and kind of manipulative, but if you want a twist where the bad guy isn’t quite so bad as we thought—maybe he is actually a problematic hero—then having your protagonist show less emotion may make Baddie more forgivable, or even likable to the readership. 

Essentially, codes are tropes—shortcuts in storytelling—but unlike big obvious tropes like best friends to lovers or Red shirts are gonna die, codes can be wielded with subtlety. We don’t just use coding with our characters, but also in our world building.Using accents to place characters’ socioeconomic or regional origins; using slang or clothing descriptions to place characters in time; using props or technology to relay status or access are all examples of coding our world building. 

To wrap up here, as authors we have a library of hints at our disposal to gently guide readers in the emotional direction we want them to go. These same types of hints can help us create familiar worlds. Play around with them this week! Also enjoy the sunshine!