That’s so cliché!

Let’s face it: we have all got a love-hate relationship with clichés. Clichés are unavoidable, irreplaceable, irresistible and inescapable. We encounter them on a daily basis — while reading a book, watching shows, movies or even at times in real life.

We have all heard of those typical fairy tales. Yes, the ones which start with ‘Once upon a time’ and end with a ‘happily ever after’. No matter what opinions we happen to have about them now, there was a time when we used to find them magical and enchanting.

We all have dreamt of a life that’s way out of our reach — the one which spells security, the kind where a happy ending is guaranteed, in which we wouldn’t have to deal with the demons within us and in our surroundings. Even though as we grow up our sensible brain realizes that these kinds of wishes are not meant to be fulfilled, there is still a part of us which longs for it. Every girl has at one time wanted her own fairytale ending, her Prince Charming or her very own knight in shining armour. Every boy has at one time wanted to become a hero.

Every girl has at one time wanted her own fairytale ending, her Prince Charming or her very own knight in shining armour. Every boy has at one time wanted to become a hero. Perhaps that’s the reason why most teen fiction, romances or comedies have an element of clichés.

Perhaps that’s the reason why most teen fiction, romances or comedies have an element of clichés. The concept and the plot might be fresh but it’s next to impossible to find a book belonging to that genre which does NOT have even one scene which is not clichéd. Something which is different and out of the box sure is enthralling but at the same time we all crave for clichés.  It can be something as simple as the female protagonist who at first happens to be an average looking girl suddenly turning into a beautiful damsel for one night like Cinderella and surprising everyone in the room. Or a geek, who puts on contacts, gets his braces removed and somehow transforms into the school’s hottest guy in just one summer vacation! We have seen these things a million times already and every time we come across them, they make us sigh and say—“That’s so cliché!”

There’s this thing about fiction — it can take you to beautiful places, show you incredible things, hook you to it, keep you on the edge with a curiosity and eagerness about what will happen next and leave you wanting more and more.
The world in which we live where everybody is always busy and no one has the time to slacken a bit, relax for a while and have fun, fiction’s importance cannot go unnoticed and its popularity can never fade away. Clichés deserve at least a fraction of credit for that. Fiction is pretty much incomplete without clichés and that is why they cannot be deleted from our lives.

I agree with what Stephen Fry says: “It is a cliché that most clichés are true, but then like most clichés, that cliché is untrue.”