A way with worlds: 27 - Yin and Yang: Self-Serving Self-Sacrifice

We all know the story elements, we all know the classics:

• The heroic sacrifice of some pilot or engineer or captain who guides his plane/ship/spacecraft into the enemy target and dies.
• The martyr to his/her cause who goes out in a spectacular or ugly manner and is thus remembered.
• The guy who throws himself on the grenade or detonates the bomb by hand or whatever in order to save his buddies/country/world (pick one).
• The . . . you get the idea.

It seems that these are classic stories, variance on the theme of self-sacrifice for a higher cause. A story idea from the beginning of time.

However, have you ever encountered a story where the hero's self-sacrifice somehow set your teeth on edge? Did a sacrifice somehow ring false? Did you find yourself somewhat glad a character died in a self-sacrificing act? Did it someone seem . . . not heroic, even though it was portrayed as such?

There's many ways to write heroic self-sacrifice in a way that won't work for readers and will be unrealistic in a coherent setting. I'm going to examine one of the most common ones, a dichotomy I call Self-Serving Self_Sacrifice.

SELF-SACRIFICE:
I'll admit, I'm a Babylon 5 fan, and one of my favorite episodes is "Comes the Inquisitor." You don't have to be a Bablyon 5 fan though to appreciate one of the elements of the story: that one measure of a person's sincere self-sacrifice is to do so without anyone else knowing.

In short, self-sacrifice transcends the self. It's when someone decides that something else is more important to them than themselves (or their concept of self). What matters is the why and the result, not that people know.

In a way, one can cast it in spiritual terms - the person engaged in self-sacrifice reaches a point where their principles are more important than a temporal self. They transcend petty, "local" concerns and in their actions, act without or without much ego.

Now, this is likely an idealized take on self-sacrifice, but I believe it makes the idea clear: in self-sacrifice, one is actually "beyond" the self.

So, how can this get messed up?

SELF-SERVING:
Is it possible to destroy yourself or sacrifice for egotistic motives?

I'd say the answer is yes. And this is where we get into the kinds of self-sacrifice that seem to annoy readers and sit wrong. I'll put it simply:

It's not real self-sacrifice when done for selfish reasons.

Yes, self-sacrifice can be done for selfish reasons:

• In order to make someone sorry.
• In order to become famous or remembered.
• In order to escape a problem by appearing to "go out" in a heroic manner.
• To fulfill fantasies of martyrdom.
• As an act of self-hatred, essentially as suicide that doesn't look like it.
• A contrivance by the author to induce feelings in the reader.

If you'll notice, this self-serving self-sacrifice isn't really self-sacrifice at all - it's self-destruction. It merely masquerades under the name of self-sacrifice.

THE FLAWS:
What problems does this masquerade cause?

• First of all, if you're presenting the character as self-sacrificing, then it appears transparent and false to the reader.
• Secondly, if this transparency isn't seen by people in your setting, then the setting has suffered that continuity-destroying disease of contrivance.
• Third, your knowledge of the character may be flawed, or the character has been shoehorned improperly into the mold.
• Fourth, you may be trying to implement some archetypes that doesn't fit the character. I've seen self-sacrificing images pulled off in spectacular ways (Gamera II and III, believe it or not), but it doesn't work for everyone.

Always remember - any time something comes before your continuity, you put your continuity at risk. It's worse when done in a way that, frankly, seems annoying and coercive.

IS IT RESOLVABLE?:
Simply - no. This is a fundamental dichotomy that you aren't going to resolve. Both concepts negate each other.

Exploring characters conflicted between self-sacrifice and self-serving can be very interesting. This can provide interesting dynamics to write about, and help make realistic characters. However, don't expect to find a comfortable balance between the two.

SUMMARY:
If you're writing a character that is self-sacrificing, self-serving reasons for self-sacrificing will only negate your character's integrity, unless that's your intention. Be careful - this is not an uncommon error.

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