Tiresome Tropes: The Manic Pixie Dream Girl

This trope often appears in film, and in popular culture and novels too.

It features a woman who has typically experienced some kind of trauma, is quirky with a different appearance (e.g. colored hair) to “normal” women, and who jolts a male protagonist into recognising a deeper life purpose. The character often later needs "rescuing" and the male protag plays a heroic role in doing so.

This character is rooted in misogynistic representations of women. The trope is comparable to the magical negro trope, where their presence in the story serves to further the white male protag’s personal development. Their goals and motivations are secondary and usually undeveloped in the story.

A classic example from film is Kate Winslet’s role as Clementine Kruczynski in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

This was a trope that existed well before it was named and discussed in the first decade of the new millennium. An example of a manic pixie dream girl in literature is Alaska Young in Looking for Alaska, although in this novel, the trope is questioned as Alaska dies and the male protagonist comes to realize that the image he had built up of this person was flawed and narrow.

If you recognise this trope in your own writing, you have some important work to complete on character goals and motivation!

By working these out in detail for this character and making them whole-hearted characters with agency, you’ll likely end up making changes that will result in a substantial revision to your novel.

And you can take it further – this character could go on their own journey of self-discovery that ultimately negates the need for any kind of relationship with that heroic male protag who wants to “rescue” them. This is exactly what happens to Maeve Wiley from Sex Education when her character arc completes (I won’t say how).

What other examples of this trope exist in popular culture? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

And for more on this trope, check out this web page, which covers Looking for Alaska in lots more detail, and the tv tropes page, which gives a general overview.