Breaking Down the Disillusionment Arc

Writing Craft

May 18

While often portrayed in a negative light, the disillusionment character arc can serve as a powerful tool for delivering a message of caution and encouragement. By exploring the struggles and challenges characters face, these stories can ultimately provide readers a sense of hope and inspiration.

Overview of the disillusionment arc:

In a disillusionment arc, the character is emotionally invested in the wrong thing at the story's beginning, just like in a positive arc.

Ruled by their false belief stemming from their wound, they believe in something that does not truly serve them, and it stunts their interpersonal growth. They usually have something they don’t fully appreciate… like a sound mind or a loyal friend, for example. Typically mid-story (but sometimes later) they get a shocking wake-up call and discover that their false belief was masking an egregious and painful truth.

And guess who’s the problem?

They are.

The disillusionment arc is one of the most interesting negative character arcs because once the character learns the truth, they’re presented with another choice.

At this point, sometimes they choose to better themselves, and sometimes they choose not to or don't have the chance.

Disillusionment begins with an almost irreversible investment in a false belief rooted in a wounding event from their younger years. This lie is so strong that only a stronger truth (like reality) can break it.

What happens in a Disillusionment arc?

Throughout the course of the story, the protagonist experiences a gradual loss of faith in a particular ideology, belief system, or way of life (hence the name “disillusionment”).

Various factors can cause this, such as personal experiences, social or political upheaval, or realizing that their beliefs do not align with reality.

The Disillusionment arc through the lens of story structure:

In the setup or first act of the story, the character will be fully invested in their false belief and see only the good things that believing it affords them. The inciting incident triggers the plot, where they will make choices to get what they want (an external representation of their false belief), which takes them further away from what they need to be whole.

In the second act, as the character navigates a new world, they descend more deeply into the illusion of external comfort the false belief affords them. Still, they also struggle internally–just a little. The truth is like an irritation or a nuisance. It's there but easily ignored, as they are fully committed to pursuing their external goal.

The midpoint is where things begin to crumble because the false belief is often partially exposed, and what's underneath is a disaster. The contradiction between what they believe and what they know, can no longer be ignored. They must figure out what to do about this. It's like they are on a slippery slope and need to find some serious back-peddling energy. They become increasingly disillusioned with the circumstances they initially believed would be amazing.

In the final act, at the low moment or all is lost, the character learns the whole truth, and for them, it's gut-wrenching. They get the entire scope of what living in service to their false belief has cost them. It's BAD. The protagonist may experience feelings of alienation, despair, or hopelessness.

At the climax, the character must take action in service to the awful truth they have discovered. This action directly opposes their choice to embrace their false belief and all the extravagance and adventure it promised as they entered the second act.

And because of this, they may or may not live to fight another day in service to the truth. Author's choice. LOL!

Examples of the disillusionment arc in fiction:

(Spoiler Alerts ⚠️ for Fight Club and The Firm below!)

The anonymous narrator (also known as Jack in the film) from Chuck Palahniuk's novel Fight Club
Mitch McDeere in John Grisham's novel The Firm. (You could argue that this is a growth arc because of the uplifting ending and positive change in the character. But Mitch is 100% disillusioned, devalues the life he has at the start, and learns an ugly truth, so I think it works well as an example.)

Example 1: Fight Club

In Fight Club, the unnamed narrator is an unfulfilled, regular guy who hates his job and feels life is pointless; plus he's got a wicked case of insomnia. He finds relief in pretending to be part of a support group for cancer patients. I could sum his false belief up as "life would be better if only I had something else; more excitement and meaning," and he looks for this outside of himself.

He meets Tyler Durden, who represents his alter-ego, and together they form Fight Club, which allows the narrator to escape his depressing reality. Fight Club is cool. Fight Club is a movement to reject consumerism and everything that weakens a person. Later Fight Club becomes more of a cult and is given a fitting name: "Project Mayhem."

Things are rosy for a while. But then the club spirals out of control and goes too far. The narrator becomes disillusioned with the club and Tyler's destructive and violent nature.

When a close friend of the narrator dies because of his involvement with Project Mayhem, the narrator discovers that Tyler is not real, only a figment of the narrator's imagination and that Fight Club, Project Mayhem, and all the havoc caused are his fault.

Whenever the narrator struggled with insomnia, his alter ego, Tyler, would emerge. The big twist is that Tyler has plans to blow up something big and die as a martyr, which means the narrator would die too!

Luckily, the narrator's sorta girlfriend turns up at the last second, and Tyler vanishes; the bomb malfunctions, but it's no happy ending.

Seeing no way out, the narrator chooses suicide by a bullet. Yet he doesn't die. Instead, he awakens in the hospital to find members of Project Mayhem waiting for Tyler to return.

The moral of the story … be careful what you wish for.

Yikes. What a downer.

Example 2: The Firm

(This one has a positive outcome, but still, the truth is a downer so I put it in disillusionment.)

Young, ambitious, naïve law student, Mitch McDeere, believes that success and money will answer all life's problems and that the law is just. Raised poor and scrappy with a brother in the slammer, Mitch has worked hard to overcome his past. He and his wife have barely made ends meet in their rat-infested apartment but are hopeful things will improve when Mitch passes the bar exam and gets a job.

Mitch gets an offer from a small but powerful law firm in the South. It's an offer that is too good to be true. Mitch takes it—cue Act II—and life is rosy. Money is flowing. He has it all: the house, the job, and the sexy wife. But soon, Mitch sees the unsavory side of his employer.

He learns his colleagues are not as they seem. They work for an organized crime syndicate and will do whatever it takes to protect the firm's interests, including murder. This realization shatters Mitch's idealistic view of the firm and the legal profession.

Soon he realizes that he's been complicit in the firm's illegal activity and must protect himself and his family by helping the FBI take down the firm. Unfortunately, this leads him on a dangerous path where he must use all his wits to stay one step ahead of those who want to bring him down.

This story has a happy ending and a positive transformation for Mitch in that he's learned the hard way that the pursuit of success and wealth can come at a great cost and that the law is not always just.

Disillusionment arcs are all about the character learning the truth and seeing where they had it wrong, and it sucks, but they accept it; though they may still choose to rebel against it, they are no longer under an illusion.

I hope this breakdown has been helpful for you in understanding this fascinating arc!

What other stories can you now see a disillusionment arc in?

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