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pwalker8 · 10-11-2020, 02:46 PM

MacGuffin is a term of art which refers to a plot device where something is of importance to moving the plot along, but isn't actually important itself. For example, the Maltese Falcon was a famous MacGuffine. The term has been used in a variety of different situations and the definition has expanded a bit from the original usage.

One of the more extreme cases was in the first book in Elliot Kay's Poor Man's War (recommended btw). In the that book, the point of view switches back and forth between the protagonist and a pirate. While the reader learns a lot about the pirates via the pirate's view point, at the end of the story, it turns out that the pirate character's main purpose was to provide the protagonist had a key piece of equipment that allowed him to survive the final battle.

Having recently re-read the book, I started to think what other books have similar plot devices, i.e. a character or device whose only real purpose is to fill a plot hole or to get the protagonist past a particular difficulty. If one were to stretch the idea quite a bit, then a lot of books have them. One could argue that the Elves that Frodo mets leaving the Shire is such, but I'm more interested in a more narrow case, the situation where it's not just a couple of pages throw away. An example from movies was from a slightly obscure western - Hannie Caulder - where a character called The Preacher appears a couple of times, but ultimately his only purpose is to set up a fair gun fight between the heroine and the last villain.

So, that's the question I would throw out, what books can you think of that has such a character?

10-11-2020, 02:46 PM	#1
pwalker8 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,196 Karma: 70314280 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Atlanta, GA Device: iPad Pro, iPad mini, Kobo Aura, Amazon paperwhite, Sony PRS-T2	MacGuffin MacGuffin is a term of art which refers to a plot device where something is of importance to moving the plot along, but isn't actually important itself. For example, the Maltese Falcon was a famous MacGuffine. The term has been used in a variety of different situations and the definition has expanded a bit from the original usage. One of the more extreme cases was in the first book in Elliot Kay's Poor Man's War (recommended btw). In the that book, the point of view switches back and forth between the protagonist and a pirate. While the reader learns a lot about the pirates via the pirate's view point, at the end of the story, it turns out that the pirate character's main purpose was to provide the protagonist had a key piece of equipment that allowed him to survive the final battle. Having recently re-read the book, I started to think what other books have similar plot devices, i.e. a character or device whose only real purpose is to fill a plot hole or to get the protagonist past a particular difficulty. If one were to stretch the idea quite a bit, then a lot of books have them. One could argue that the Elves that Frodo mets leaving the Shire is such, but I'm more interested in a more narrow case, the situation where it's not just a couple of pages throw away. An example from movies was from a slightly obscure western - Hannie Caulder - where a character called The Preacher appears a couple of times, but ultimately his only purpose is to set up a fair gun fight between the heroine and the last villain. So, that's the question I would throw out, what books can you think of that has such a character?