Memo from the Story Department. Christopher Vogler

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      CHAPTER FIVE

      POLAR OPPOSITES

      —— McKENNA ——

      The other day, I had a student writer present the beginnings of an idea during a workshop session. She featured two sisters who are basically in tune with each other at the outset and who remained so throughout.

      This was as far as she'd gotten, and she was frustrated that she couldn't find the story. So I asked her to consider the differences, rather than the similarities, between the characters.

      I was asking her to use the storytelling tool of Polarities, of Polar Opposites.

      Responding to “Polarity” questions, the writer decided that Sister A was older, more headstrong and inclined towards security. Sister B was younger, more heartfelt and had a taste for adventure. A good start, and from it we deduced that Sister A is the alpha female who (as the story begins) can always rely on her younger beta sister to be a trusted sidekick.

      The Polarities tool was generating the basics of the conflict that would drive the story.

      The writer had envisioned a romantic setting of upper-class wealth and privilege. Our storytelling tools helped us infer that such privilege would be rooted in long-time traditions and rules to maintain the luxurious status quo. This suggested that alpha Sister A could be a conservative figure, devoted to following and protecting those rules. Polarities could posit beta Sister B as a potential radical who might be tempted away.

      What could tempt her? What might threaten the status quo and tear the girls apart? How about the arrival of a swarthy, handsome fellow from the lower classes? Sister A could see this fellow through the eyes of traditional values and immediately pigeonhole him in a subservient position. But Sister B might see instead the fellow's natural charm and the possibility of a romantic relationship. Eureka! We were finding a story!

      AN ESSENTIAL TOOL

      Polar Opposition is one of the tools that all good dramatic craftspeople value. On the most fundamental level, stories pit two opposing forces against each other and then stage scenes of physical, emotional and philosophical combat (i.e., Reciprocal Action) until the conflict is resolved. The conflict usually continues until one of the Polar Opposites prevails or until the two forge something new that wasn't present in the early going.

      PULP FICTION: TWO CHARACTERS, TWO POLES

      Think about the post-credit opening of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. We initially see Jules and Vincent as a matched pair of businessmen, colleagues who are carpooling to work. They are almost mundane as Vincent describes his recent vacation in Europe.

      But Tarantino uses these two as Polarities to personify the opposing forces of his morality play. The separation begins when the two argue over whether giving a woman a foot massage is a sexual act. This lively debate creates conflict between the otherwise identical colleagues.

      The Polar Opposition becomes clear during a key dramatic event. Jules and Vincent complete their mission by blowing away a roomful of bad boys. Out of nowhere, a previously unseen enemy barges into the room and opens fire with a hand cannon. Impossibly, all of the bullets miss Jules and Vincent.

      In this all-important moment, Vincent claims that they were lucky. Jules rejects this, claiming that they've been saved by a miracle. The two characters are in thematic conflict, and the Polar Opposites argument focuses the script's actions. Pulp Fiction begs the question: Are we merely subject to random good and bad luck? Or is there a greater force at hand with which we can communicate?

      Pulp Fiction implicitly debates this thematic question at all points. Is it luck or God that causes fugitive boxer Butch to encounter Marcellus on the street? Is he lucky or divinely inspired when he wins redemption by rescuing Marcellus from the evil gun shop owners? Is it fate that puts the watch from Butch's father at hazard?

      Tarantino seems to have strong feelings about this question. Just look at where Vincent and Jules wind up. Placing his faith in luck, Vincent survives a near-fatal night out with Marcellus' wife. His luck runs out when gun-toting Butch catches him on the toilet. Denying God, Vincent dies as a secondary character in someone else's story.

      Belief in God gives our Polar Opposite character superhuman powers. Faith allows unarmed Jules not only to talk mad killer Ringo and his wildly unstable girlfriend Honey Bunny out of hurting anyone in the diner, he also convinces the homicidal pair to return his wallet and Marcellus' mysterious suitcase.

      In the thematic play Tarantino is staging, faith in the divine leads to control and mastery while belief in luck puts one at the mercy of random events.

      Once we become aware of the Polar Opposites in play, we stick with the story. Suspense tightens as we root for one side or the other to prevail or to hope that the polar conflict will lead to a new possibility by the end.