Trope Workshop:Harsh Life Revelation Aesop

Plenty of media, especially for children, have lessons about being a kind person, doing your best, and that life rewards the underdogs.

Then you get to the other kind of Aesop. While the lessons about kindness may work in tandem, they don't contradict some shocking statements that, upon examination, are true. One example is Life Isn't Fair. We don't like hearing or seeing it, but we know that sometimes life sucks.

The Harsh Life Revelation Aesop is when a work has An Aesop that isn't a bed of roses. It has a character in media facing a truth about the world and having it affect their story or perspective. Characters also respond to the Aesop in-universe, by either accepting or rejecting it.

This is the sister trope to Family-Unfriendly Aesop, with the difference being that A Harsh Life Revelation is not YMMV and doesn't change due to Values Dissonance. The lesson remains relevant.

Film

 * Aladdin:
 * As Aladdin himself learns, changing your clothes doesn't change who you are on the inside, and pretending otherwise will make you a laughingstock. His attempts to court Jasmine as "Prince Ali Ababua" go south because she sees him as no different from the other arrogant suitors with his attitude. The genie says as much, that Aladdin's real personality and the truth is more likely to win Jasmine over. While Aladdin resists telling Jasmine that he is a "street rat" who got lucky until Jafar forces the truth out of him, he comes to his senses at the end of the movie. He apologizes to Jasmine for lying to her and the Sultan, frees the genie as promised rather than become a prince again, and prepares to return to his humble roots. It's only because the Sultan interferes that he gets a happy ending.
 * Sometimes rules are in place for a reason. Jasmine tells her father that she doesn't want to spend her whole life in the palace while one "chump prince" after another comes to court her. The stage version even has her sing a song about how she wants to go outside the walls once. He reiterates that it's the only place where she can be safe, because there's a lot that she doesn't know about the world and he won't be around forever to protect her. Jasmine runs away that night...only to learn that her father is right. In the marketplace, she nearly loses her hand due to not knowing about money and the guards care little about her status when they arrest Aladdin and she reveals herself to save him. Jasmine acknowledges while crying to Rajah about it that she was at fault. During the spinoff TV series, Jasmine is much more cautious when going to the market either in peasant garb or her princess clothes, making sure to carry money and go along with her friends.
 * Aladdin and the King of Thieves has Aladdin realize that some people won't change, even when given the best opportunity to turn a new leaf. The movie has him reuniting with his father Kasim, who thought Aladdin was dead after leaving him with his mother in Agrabah to seek his fortune. When Kasim explains that he went hungry for years trying to find an income for his family, Aladdin's disappointment in Kasim becomes understanding as he went through the same thing. He invites Kasim to his wedding, with a proper invitation, as himself and not as the King of Thieves.
 * The Little Mermaid
 * Grimsby tells Eric that there is no such thing as a perfect romantic partner when encouraging him to settle down with a girl, a real one who is right before his eyes and not an idyllic dream. In this case, he's referring to the mute Ariel, who showed up on the beaches of Eric's palace wearing a tattered sail for clothing. Eric keeps saying that he doesn't want just anyone, he wants someone who he knows will be right for him, and thinks it's the mysterious girl who rescued him from drowning. Over the course of their courtship, Eric and Ariel each learn the other is not perfect; Ariel has No Social Skills while combing her hair with a fork, and Eric remains oblivious to the hints that Ariel is the girl who saved him, but they learn to communicate and accept each other's flaws.
 * As Ursula puts it, "Life is full of tough choices, innit?" Ariel even nods reluctantly at this statement. For Ariel to get what she wants -- to be with Eric-- she would need to become human. But becoming human means no more living with her father and sisters, who she loves dearly. While she enjoys two luxurious days above the surface in Eric's palace and trying to woo him with her friend's help, Triton is organizing search parties throughout the ocean, wracked with guilt that his temper drove Ariel and Sebastian away. They end up reconciling by the end of the movie, but Triton making Ariel a human permanently is acknowledged as a Bittersweet Ending for him.

Literature

 * Unlike in the film adaptation, Coraline has her say outright that getting what you want isn't that great when you get it. Sure, her parents are boring and ignore her, but that doesn't mean the Other Mother can sway her with a world filled with excitement, her favorite food, cool clothes, and constant shows. She says, rather Wise Beyond Her Years, that no one actually wants to get what they wish for, especially when it has no meaning. The novel ends with her rescued parents having not changed at all; her father being a Cordon Bleugh Chef makes a pizza with strange toppings, while her mother is still working on a book. Coraline eats every bit of the pizza, relieved that her family is safe.
 * Roald Dahl's books have a few of these:
 * Matilda has the opening chapter outright state that some parents are plain terrible. The Wormwoods neglect their younger daughter Matilda, ignore her polite requests to buy a book, and deny that she's a genius. Matilda fights back by playing pranks, and eventually begs her grade school teacher Miss Honey to adopt her when the Wormwoods have to flee the country. The book, movie, and musical adaptation all depict this as a happy ending.
 * Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has a few:
 * As Grandpa Joe narrates, there are some chocolatiers like Mr. Wonka who care more about the wonder of making sweets and feeding people. Then there are others like Slugworth, Prodnose and Ficklegruber, who only care about making money by any means possible. They actually do drive Mr. Wonka briefly out of business by stealing his recipes, and put thousands of good employees out of a job. While Mr. Wonka does reopen, he is much more cynical, hiring Oompa-Loompas and keeping them in the factory while swearing all of the kids to secrecy. Business can corrupt the most ideal person.
 * Money makes a difference. When the Golden Ticket contest starts, Charlie muses it would be nice to win one and visit Mr. Wonka's factory. Out of all the adults, Grandpa George is the most cynical. He says that the kids most likely to win are the ones who can buy candy bars every day. The Buckets can only afford to give Charlie one bar of chocolate a year, which Charlie makes sure to last for a month. Sure enough, all the other kids who get a ticket are fairly wealthy or competitive, able to buy at least a few bars a day, and adults also get in on the search. While Grandpa Joe gives Charlie a dime he stored for emergencies to give him another chance, it takes a literal miracle for Charlie to get the last Golden Ticket. The stage versions in West End and Broadway outright imply if not show that Mr. Wonka manufactures circumstances to get the ticket in Charlie's hands.

Live-Action TV

 * Malcolm in the Middle: The theme song ends with "life is unfair" for a reason.
 * Sometimes, you are just wrong. Lois gets arrested for allegedly making an illegal turn and cutting off another car, with Francis having accumulated thousands in unpaid parking tickets. She thinks the cop had it out for her and prepares to fight back. Malcolm tries to clear her name, only to find evidence from her workplace's CCTV that implicates her. Hal convinces Lois to back down and admit she was wrong after Malcolm shows her the footage, because it's not worth getting into a fight with a police officer.
 * "If Boys Were Girls": No child is easy to raise, regardless of gender. When a pregnant Lois is feeling ill from morning sickness and swollen feet on a day where the boys are unrulier than usual, she has a prolonged Imagine Spot about raising four girls instead. At first she thinks that she will get along with her daughters and see them resolving conflict peacefully, with "Renee" and "Daisy" talking things out with "Mallory" and planning a relaxing shopping trip. Then the fantasy crumbles: Mallory is self-centered who takes diet pills to deal with a lower metabolism while manipulating Hal to get makeup, Renee is lying about band practice and has gotten knocked up with a boy that Mallory likes out of spite, and Daisy gleefully outs the girls' secrets. When "Frances" comes, she basically has Francis's life problems but is in a worse spot: her husband is controlling and way older than her, and she's working at Hooters. Lois says girls are supposed to be easy, but Daisy outright says that girls know how to manipulate their mothers.
 * Generally, Malcolm has no freedom under his mother's thumb. Lois making him get a job at the pharmacy where she works only exacerbates her control issues, and she writes him up for defying him. When Malcolm finds out she is breaking store rules as well and threatens to retaliate, Lois points out calmly that at the end of the day, he still lives under her roof and she outranks him as his mother. Until he's independent, he has to conform to her rules. Malcolm is forced to concede this point.
 * We get another one, aimed at Lois no less, in the episode where she insists on going with Malcolm to college visits. A petty argument over candy with the floor's RA Control Freak escalates, and | he gives Lois a The Reason You Suck Speech for how she's living vicariously through Malcolm because she has nothing else going on in her life. (Even Malcolm says, "I don't know who to root for!") He says she can try to control everything, but she's a coward who can't let go of the one thing she can claim as a success. If she were a sane parent, she'd allow Malcolm to make his own decisions especially since no other mother accompanied the other kids visiting. Lois is so stunned, she actually lets Malcolm decide how to handle the RA.
 * Scrubs:
 * Dr. Kelso, Dr. Cox and J.D. repeatedly demonstrate that when you are in charge, you can't be nice. Reasonable sure, but you have to know when to be firm and lay down the line.
 * A season 3 episode has J.D. let his interns walk all over him. Both Elliott's boyfriend of the time Sean, a marine mammal trainer, and Turk note this. Turk bluntly says that J.D. needs to have limits, or the interns won't learn. J.D. shapes up and in season 8 is a better leader.
 * While Dr. Kelso denies patients that lack insurance and cuts costs, that's because it's his job. A season 4 episode shows that Dr. Kelso does try to be nice once in a while, but he has to go back on it because everyone does their job better when they hate him. Without a bad guy, they endanger the patients.
 * Ed's season 7 arc shows that you can't coast on your smarts forever as a doctor. Dr. Cox dislikes how Ed is lazy, while doing "better than most" compared to the other interns. Eventually, Ed does fall behind because the other interns are actually studying while he chills in the coffeeshop. Dr. Cox issues Ed an ultimatum: read a basic medical textbook for two days and prepare to answer any questions about it, or get lost. Ed fails, and Dr. Cox fires him.
 * Denise gets the opposite in "My Cookie Pants": J.D. hates how she seems to lack empathy for patients, only to apologize when a painful procedure she ordered saves a man's life. When Denise argues that she doesn't want an apology, she wants J.D. to be hard on her because doctors need a better bedside manner and she knows she has little empathy, J.D. is firm. He says that he can't make Denise a better doctor or a kinder one; she has to find that on her own. But he trusts that she can do it. Sure enough, Denise tentatively offers sympathy to the man in question regarding his cancer diagnosis.

Newspaper Comics

 * Calvin and Hobbes has so many, you can make a drinking game out of it:
 * Life Isn't Fair. Sure, Calvin may have legitimate points calling out his dad's Misery Builds Character or the amount of littering and construction around his neighborhood, but he is only six years old. As a result, he doesn't have the power to change as much as he wants. The rules also exist for a reason: he has to take baths because kids get dirty, going to school means getting an education, and early bedtimes mean he isn't cranky (or crankier) in the morning.
 * One Sunday strip has Calvin and Hobbes talking about what they would wish for; Hobbes says that he would want a sandwich. Calvin goes that's the Stupidest Thing I've Ever Heard because he would want wealth and power. The strip ends with Hobbes happily munching a sandwich and pointing out he got his wish. Calvin scowls, refusing to acknowledge the lesson.
 * In another, Hobbes suggests that some philosophers suggest a life of virtue provides more happiness than living normally. Calvin tries it out for a few hours: much to his parents' shock, he does his chores and homework, gives his mother a nice card, and behaves. Then the urge to hit Susie with a snowball overpowers him, so he does so and walks away smiling. Hobbes remarks that "Virtue needs cheaper thrills." As Bill Watterson himself put it in the tenth anniversary comic, humans are wired to seek cheap thrills, and acknowledging this tendency is better than repressing it.

Puppet Shows

 * The Puzzle Place
 * One episode has the other kids throwing a Mexican-themed birthday party for Kiki, who is Mexican-American and speaks fluent Spanish. They ask her mother for recommendations on which music to play, and go with a guy named Javier. When Kiki hears the music, she turns it off and goes "Yuck!" Kiki tells her friends that she appreciates their good intentions, but that doesn't mean she likes everything Mexican.
 * Sesame Street
 * "Farewell Mr. Hooper" has one that marked Growing the Beard for the show: as Gordon puts it to Big Bird, "When people die, they don't come back." The adults while crying have to explain that Mr. Hooper died and won't come back, which leads to Big Bird crying as well. Talking it out and the adults saying it's okay to be sad allows Big Bird to accept this big loss, as well as a Group Hug.
 * The wildly memed Rocco episode has one for Zoe. She spends the whole afternoon using her pet rock Rocco to boss Elmo around and make him sing an apology song every time she claims that he made Rocco cry. Eventually Elmo hits his Rage Breaking Point when Zoe doesn't let him say the number of the day after he asked, delivers a The Reason You Suck Speech, and stalks off to play alone. Gina spots Zoe moping in guilt; when she hears what happened, Gina says that Zoe may have been pretending, but her pretending went too far and hurt Elmo's feelings. You need to know when to stop. Zoe takes this to heart and makes peace with Elmo by singing him an apology song.
 * The special Elmo Saves Christmas has Santa deliver one to Elmo: "Every day can't be Christmas." For context, he gave Elmo a snowglobe that grants three wishes, and Elmo used his second wish to ask for it to be Christmas everyday. Elmo doesn't see what the problem is, because everyone is happy on Christmas. Santa shows him using a time-traveling reindeer named Lightning: everyone on Sesame Street gets tired of exchanging presents and eating turkey every day, the adults run out of money and have to close their businesses, and those who traveled for the holiday can't come back. Elmo is shocked that Sesame Street becomes a wasteland, and quickly strives to fix things.

Theatre

 * Avenue Q is all about these harsh life revelations:
 * "It Sucks To Be Me": Everyone has problems. Comparing them will only make you feel worse. When the cast argues whose life sucks the most, they each say theirs is the worst, until Gary Coleman comes onstage and they agree he "wins" due to his parents stealing all his money as a Former Child Star.
 * "Everyone Is A Little Bit Racist": Every person and monster has preconceived biases and will express them at the worst time. Some may be innocent, like Brian calling his Japanese wife "Oriental" while defending her broken English.
 * "Schadenfreude": Everyone will laugh at others' miseries. A homeless Nicky protests this when Gary Coleman is mocking him, only to acknowledge that he also does the same thing.
 * Chicago: The whole musical is about how anyone can get away with murder by manipulating people's desire for a sob story and drama:
 * On the other side of the coin, thanks to these theatrics, legitimately innocent people get the short end of the stick. Poor Amos gets suckered into paying for his wife's legal bills even though she cheated on him and got arrested for shooting her lover. The Hunyak, who only speaks a bit of broken English and incomprehensible Hungarian, insists that she is innocent while being accused of helping her famous lover chop off her husband's head. Despite Mama Morton's best efforts to help the Hunyak, Roxie and Velma are horrified because they know that Katarina, as we find out her real name, was genuinely innocent.
 * Billy Flynn demonstrates during "Razzle Dazzle" that if you have enough flair and pizzazz, you can make anyone a star. Sure enough, the play ends with him getting
 * Wicked:
 * As Glinda sings to Elphaba after a Heel Realization, every great leader in history became that way due to popularity and looks, not their intellect or competence. The play ends with Glinda as the de facto leader of Oz, all the while knowing she hasn't earned it.
 * "Wonderful": The Wizard explains to Elphaba that he made Talking Animals the scapegoat for Oz and altered history because it's what the locals wanted: in politics, history is Written by the Winners and everyone wants someone to blame for their problems. When Elphaba tries to save the Talking Animals, including the Flying Monkeys, she's easily scapegoated in turn and realizes she can't do a thing about that.
 * "No Good Deed" shows Elphaba's Sanity Slippage on realizing that no matter how much good she intended, her actions ended in disaster: . She realizes that you can have the best intentions but "no good deed goes unpunished".

Western Animation

 * Avatar: The Last Airbender:
 * "The Western Air Temple": As Zuko himself acknowledges, a simple apology for all of his terrible actions won't undo the harm he has caused to others. He has to show that he is sorry, and fails miserably at his first attempt because the Gaang brings up a List of Transgressions. (It doesn't help that he lets slip that he sent the Combustion Man assassin after the Gaang to make sure the Avatar was dead.) Even when the Gaang lets him join under probation after he helps fight off Combustion Man to call off the assassination, it takes several episodes for him to bond with them and show he truly has changed.
 * "The Southern Raiders": Zuko delivers it to Aang when the latter begs Katara not to give into a need for vengeance when Zuko, in an attempt to redeem himself to Katara, offers to help track down her mother's killer. Aang brings up He Who Fights Monsters using an analogy about a two-headed snake that keeps biting itself and getting poisoned. Zuko says nice moral, but they aren't in Airbending school, rather in the real world. Indeed, Aang acknowledges that Katara needs to find the man who killed her mother for closure, and says he trusts that she will do the right thing. Katara ends up not taking the man's life, but the quest does give her closure over the trauma.
 * The Legend of Korra would follow this tradition:
 * As shown with Lin's arc in Book Three, Parental Hypocrisy will negatively affect the next generation. Toph Beifong was a Defector From Decadence, The Runaway and a rebel who hated cities as well as their rules as a child. It was thus a shock that she founded the Metalbending Police in Republic City, who are taught to use cables to apprehend their subjects, and a bigger shock that she had two girls while building her career. Lin tried to live by a strict life as a Metalbending police officer to please her mother, while her little sister Suyin acted out and committed crimes to get attention from Toph. This came to a head when Suyin scarred Lin when the latter caught her in the act as a getaway driver for thieves, yelled at her to stand down, and tried arresting her with the cables. Instead of showing sympathy for Lin's tough situation, Toph yelled at both the girls, destroyed Suyin's arrest warrant, and exiled her from the city. Lin was not impressed, pointing out that Toph is undermining the very law she sought to build. She later calls out Toph for this in Book 4, saying that Toph's flippant behavior and lack of empathy for her daughters is why they were estranged in the first place.
 * If an existing rule seems arbitrary or extreme, there is usually a reason for it. Korra grew up in a Gilded Cage compound where she was treated like a princess while protected from all harm, but as a result has No Social Skills. She resents this, especially when finding out all the Avatar training doesn't teach you about keeping money on hand for food or respecting local laws. Then book 3 happens, and she finds out from Zaheer during a truce meeting that he and the Red Lotus attempted to kidnap her when she was a toddler. Zaheer is quite upfront about the fact that they planned to turn Korra into an anti-Avatar to spread chaos and anarchy, and her uncle Unalaq was part of the plot. Though the kidnapping plot failed, Korra's father Tonraq was paranoid about anyone getting ideas and begged the White Lotus to protect his daughter. Korra gains understanding as Zaheer tells her this.
 * Hercules: The Animated Series has a few episodes that show this:
 * In one episode, Hercules fails to get a girl for the dance. He builds a woman out of clay and asks Aphrodite to bring her to life. Aphrodite, to teach him a lesson about autonomy, makes "Galatea" obsessed with Hercules, to the point that she attacks anyone that so much as insults Hercules pettily, and he can't control her. Hercules learns the lesson when Galatea gets turned into a baked clay statue and begs Aphrodite to save her; Aphrodite does, but gives Galatea free will and "a mind of her own" this time. Hercules apologizes for being shallow and properly asks Galatea to dance. She accepts the apology... but turns him down. Hercules realizes that he has to accept no for an answer sometimes, even if it hurts.
 * Icarus learns a similar lesson when his crush Cassandra gets with another boy, after she has turned Icarus down repeatedly. He poses as a cherub and steals arrows from Cupid to turn into "Loathe Arrows," so as to break up the couple. Then Hades gets his hands on the arrows, kidnaps the cherubs, and prepares to make all of the city hate each other. Cupid recruits Icarus and Hercules for help with his usual cherubs missing. To fix things, Icarus has to save Cassandra and her boyfriend from a Loathe Arrow, and accept that Cassandra has rejected him once and for all. We don't always get what we want in life, and it's not the end of the world.
 * Teen Titans
 * The episode "X" has one: sometimes people won't forget your worst mistakes. Someone steals the Red X suit from Robin, briefly alarming the team when they think that Robin has another obsessive scheme up his sleeve. Starfire pokes Robin to make sure he's not a hologram, and Cyborg prepares to do an anal check to make sure he's not a robot double. While Robin reassures them that it's him before Cyborg can go that far, the team is still distrustful of him as they try to track down the real Red X and stop whatever plan he has. Robin spends the whole episode brooding about how he hurt his friends with his good intentions.
 * "Troq": You can't fix racism by being a good person. Starfire tolerates Val-Yor, who keeps calling her the title word; she later explains to Cyborg that it's a galactic slur that means "nothing". Though Starfire saves Val-Yor's life and he actually uses her name rather than "troq", he says that she must be one of the "good" Tamaraneans. The team is aghast, with Robin telling the guy to Get Out and get off their planet. Robin apologizes to Starfire for not protecting her, as Val-Yor flies off in a huff, but Starfire wisely says that it doesn't matter what Val-Tor thinks, only that she did the right thing.