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Going to See the Elephant: Difference between revisions
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Somewhere, not too far from the hero's hometown, there is something new and exotic to go see or do. The hero is fascinated with the idea of checking out this new thing, and he and his friends set out on a journey to do just that. Their journey drives the rest of the plot. This differs from characters on a quest, because there's no overarching need for them to take the trip, other than "let's go take the trip". They're tourists, not heroes out to destroy [[Lord of the Rings|The One Ring]]. In addition, the actual object at the end of the journey is utterly unimportant, other than as a prod for the character to take the journey in the first place.
The name of the trope is from a 19th-century expression that meant "to take a trip to see or do something exotic." In [[The American Civil War]] era, it was sometimes used to refer to going to war. Sometimes used as a [[MacGuffin]], making the character go in order to drive the plot, but not always, as it lacks the interchangeability of a true MacGuffin. Often, [[
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[[Category:Plots]]
[[Category:Going To See The Elephant]]
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