The Anatomy of Story (23 page)

MORAL ARGUMENT IN DIALOGUE

Story structure is the main way that you make your moral argument in a good story. But it isn't the only way. You also need to use dialogue. When you let structure do the heavy lifting to make the moral case, you free up the dialogue to do what it does best, which is provide subtlety and emotional force.

I will explain in detail how to write moral dialogue in Chapter 10, "Scene Construction and Symphonic Dialogue." For now, let's look at the best places to use it in the story.

The most common place to use dialogue to express moral argument is when an ally criticizes the hero for taking an immoral action while trying to win the goal. The ally contends that the hero's actions are wrong. The hero, who hasn't yet had a self-revelation, defends his actions.

A second way that moral argument comes out in dialogue is in a conflict between the hero and the opponent. This can happen anywhere over the course of the story but is most likely during a battle scene. A classic example of a moral argument in a battle scene occurs between Fast Eddie and his ex-manager, Bert, in
The Hustler.
In
It's a Wonderful Life,
a great moral argument between hero and opponent occurs much earlier in the story when George stops Potter from getting rid of his father's Building and Loan. The great advantage of an early moral argument between hero and opponent is that it gives the audience a clue about what values are really at stake, and that allows the drama to build.

A third place to use moral dialogue, and a mark of really good writing, is a scene in which the main opponent gives a moral justification for his actions, even though he is wrong. Why is moral dialogue from the opponent so crucial to making your overall moral argument?

A purely evil opponent is someone who is inherently bad and therefore mechanical and uninteresting. In most real conflict, there is no clear good and evil, right and wrong. In a good story, both hero and opponent believe that they are right, and both have reasons for believing so. They are also both wrong, though in different ways.

By giving your opponent a strong (though wrong) justification, you avoid the simplistic good-hero-versus-evil-opponent pattern and give

depth to the opponent. And because the hero is only as good as the person he lights, you give depth to your hero as well.

You can see an excellent example of the opponent's moral argument in T
he Verdict,
where opposing attorney Concannon explains to the woman he hired to spy on Frank, "We're paid to win." In the battle scene in
A Few Good Men
, Colonel Jessup justifies ordering the killing of a Marine by saying that he is the last bastion against the barbarians coming over the gate. In
Shadow of a Doubt,
brilliantly written by Thornton Wilder, Uncle Char-lie, a serial killer, makes a chilling justification for killing widows by referring to them as fat animals "drinking the money, eating the money. . . . And what happens to animals when they get too fat and too old?"

The key to good moral dialogue by the opponent is not to set him up as a straw man, an opponent who appears formidable but is really hollow. Never give your opponent an obviously weak argument. Give him the best, most compelling argument you can. Make sure he is right about some things. But also make sure there is a fatal flaw in his logic.

O
utlining the
M
oral
A
rgument—
W
riting
E
xercise
4

■ Designing Principle
Start by turning the designing principle of your story into a theme line. The theme line is your view about right and wrong action, in
this
story, stated in one sentence. As you look again at the designing principle, focus on its key actions and their moral effects.

■ Theme Line Techniques
Look for any techniques, like symbols, that can condense your moral statement to one line or can encapsulate the unique structure you will give to your story.

■ Moral Choice
Write down the key choice the hero must make near the end of the story.

■ Moral Problem
After reviewing your work on premise, state in one line the central moral problem your hero will confront throughout the story.

■ Characters as Variations on a Theme
Starting with the hero and the main opponent, describe how each major character approaches the central moral problem of the story in a different way.

■ Values in Conflict
List the key values of each of the major

characters, and explain how those values will come into conflict as each character tries to reach the goal.

moral argument

Detail the moral argument you will make through the structure of the

story, using the following sequence.

■ Hero's Beliefs and Values
Restate your hero's essential beliefs and values.

■ Moral Weakness
What is your hero's main weakness when it comes to acting toward others?

■ Moral Need
What must your hero learn by the end of the story about the right way to act and live in the world?

■ First Immoral Action
Describe the first action your hero takes that hurts someone else in the story. Make sure it is an outgrowth of your hero's great moral weakness.

■ Desire
Restate your hero's specific goal.

■ 
Drive
List the actions your hero will take to win that goal.

■ 
Immoral Actions
In what way, if any, are these actions immoral?
Criticism
: For any immoral action, describe the criticism, if any, that

the hero receives.
Justification:
How does the hero justify each immoral action?

■ Attack by Ally
Explain in detail the main moral attack that
the
ally makes against the hero. Again, write down how the hero justifies himself.

■ Obsessive Drive
Describe when and how your hero becomes obsessed with winning. Put another way, is there a moment when your hero decides to do almost anything to win?

■ Immoral Actions
While obsessed with winning, what immoral steps does your hero take?

Criticism
: Describe the criticism, if any, that the hero faces for these actions.

Justification:
Explain how the hero justifies his methods.

■ Battle
During the final battle, how do you express which values, the hero's or the opponent's, are superior in this fight?

■ Final Action Against Opponent
Does your hero take a final action against the opponent, whether moral or immoral, before or during the battle?

■ Moral Self-Revelation
What, if anything, does your hero learn morally at the end of the story? Be sure that this insight is about how to act properly toward others.
■ Moral Decision
Does the hero make a decision between two

courses of action near the end of the story?
■ Thematic Revelation
Can you think of a story event in which you express your vision of how human beings should act in some other way than through the self-revelation of your hero?

Let's take a look at the film
Casablanca
to see how moral argument works.

Casablanca

(play
Everybody
Comes to
Rick
's
by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison, screenplay by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch, 1942)

■ Designing Principle
A former freedom fighter drops out of society over a lost love but is then inspired to get back into the fight when his love returns.

■ Theme Line
Even a great love between two people may have to be sacrificed in the fight against oppression.

■ Moral Choice
Rick must choose between being with the woman he loves and fighting worldwide dictatorship.

■ Moral Problem
How do you balance your personal desires against sacrifices for the larger good of society?

■ Characters as Variations on a Theme

Rick:
For most of the story, Rick cares only about himself and

nothing about the troubles of the world.
Ilsa:
Ilsa tries to do the right thing, but ultimately love is too strong for her.

Laszlo:
Laszlo will sacrifice anything, including his love, to lead the

fight against fascism.
Renault:
Renault is a complete opportunist, concerned only with his own pleasure and money.

■ Values in Conflict

Rick:
Self, honesty, his friends.

Ilsa:
Loyalty to her husband, love for Rick, fighting Nazi takeover.
Laszlo:
Fighting Nazi takeover, love for Ilsa, love for mankind.
Renault
Women, money, power.

moral argument

■ Rick's Beliefs and Values
Self, honesty, his friends.
■ Moral Weaknesses
Cynical, selfish, cruel.

■ Moral Need
To stop looking out for himself at the expense of others. To return to society and become a leader in the fight against fascism.

■ First Immoral Action
Rick accepts the letters of transit from Ugarte, even though he suspects they came from the murdered couriers.

■
Second Immoral Action
Rick refuses to help Ugarte escape from the police.

Criticism: A man tells Rick that he hopes someone else is around if

the Germans come for him.
Justification:
Rick tells the man that he sticks his neck out for nobody.
■
Desire
Rick wants Ilsa.
■
Drive
Rick attacks Ilsa many times while also trying to lure her back. He also takes a number of steps to preserve the letters of transit, either to sell them or to use them for himself.
■
Immoral Action
When Ilsa returns after the club closes, Rick refuses to listen to her and calls her a tramp.
Criticism:
Ilsa voices no criticism, but she does give Rick a stricken

look as she leaves.
Justification:
Rick offers no justification for his abuse.
■
Attack by Ally
Rick's first opponent, Ilsa, makes the main moral attack against him and his methods over the course of the story. However, his friend, the bartender Sam, does urge him to quit dwelling on his lost love. Rick's classic response: "If she can stand it, I can. Play it [our song]."

■
Immoral Action
In the marketplace, Rick propositions Ilsa and tells her she'll lie to Laszlo and come to him.

Criticism:
Ilsa accuses Rick of not being the man she knew in Paris

and tells Rick she was married to Laszlo before she met him.
Justification:
Rick offers no justification for what he said except that

he was drunk the night before.
■
Obsessive Drive
Rick is initially driven to hurt Ilsa because of the pain she caused him. It is not until later in the story that he becomes obsessively driven to help her and Laszlo escape.
■
Immoral Action
Rick rejects Laszlo's offers for the letters and tells him to ask Ilsa why.
Criticism:
None.

Justification:
Rick wants to hurt Ilsa.

■
Immoral Action
Rick turns down Ilsa's request for the letters.
Criticism:
Ilsa says this cause is more important than personal feelings and it is Rick's fight too. If Rick doesn't give her the letters, Victor Laszlo will die in Casablanca.