Story Format: Comedy, Tragedy, and Real Life

I haven't written ANYTHING in a long time it seems...This (my final) semester of classes doesn't have any English courses and I've been preoccupied with other things so writing as a hobby has flopped.

The topic of this article is on real life and stories.

Stories are interesting; they are attempts to make the unreal real, but to do it in a way to emphasize a specific point. Stories aren't just "random" they aren't moj-poj collections of different items and plots--not just anybody can make up a story because there are surprisingly many rules--rules that our minds enforce subconsciously and when broken inform our conscious that the story is "lame".

One "rule" is that of the Tragedy or Comedy.

Let's start with comedy: It's a story line or arc just like a tragedy. But the comedy always starts with the main characters at the bottom of the pile. The lowest rung. The base of the totem pole. Bad things happen immediately starting the story.  But the point of a comedy is how the main character rises from the dust rises from the slum and succeeds.
If the initial trial isn't hard enough, the audience doesn't appreciate the growth that is made. The story of a rich man getting richer just isn't all that interesting.
Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's not funny, but the ending is meant to make you feel good--inspired that mankind is so capable.

But let's talk about Tragedy:
Tragedy is the opposite of comedy. Instead of starting on a sad note, it starts on a happy note. Something good happens, something too good. The purpose of a tragedy is to point out the folly of mankind, or human nature, or whatever else.  By the end of the story, the characters who were so successful in the beginning are brought to their knees, humbled, humiliated, and lost. They lose everything.


But real life is so different.

Sometimes rich people do get richer.
Sometimes poor people get poorer.
But we are still attracted to the situations where people in poor circumstances rise to prosperity.
It pains us and confuses us when people in prosperity fall.

The more human of us try to help those who fall to land soft, and help those who are trying to rise to rise well.

I'm never aware of where I am. Comedy leads to Tragedy leads to Comedy. Sometimes I feel as though I am in a comedy--that I'm rising from some horrible state. Other times I feel I am falling from a higher plane.

When one falls...