The Orphan Protagonist Cliche - Why Is It Still Used?

Have you ever noticed that, in a lot of children's and YA fantasy/adventure/action/sci-fi novels, the main character is an orphan? This is so common that the orphan main character has become cliche. Maybe you're sick of it and really wish a biological parent would show up every now and then. However . . . have you ever considered why the orphan MC is so common?

Photo not mine - found over here. I don't know who to credit.

Think about it. All children's and YA protagonists are the same ages as their target audiences - under aged. They're not adults yet, and that means that they are subject to a legal authority. Parents. What do you think most parents' reactions to their teenager/child going off on a probably dangerous adventure would be?

This sounds quite callous, but one of the easiest and most convenient ways to get rid of that authority which would otherwise prevent the children/teen MCs from going on their perilous adventures is to kill the parents before the book even starts. This leaves the main character in one of three positions: (1) he's on the streets, free to do whatever he wants including running into characters involved in the adventure (Mistborn trilogy); (2) he's in an orphan home which obviously will be very careless and not bother to go looking for the MC once he's gone, or will send him away with a man of dubious motives who will inevitably get the MC involved in the adventure in the first place (hello The Ascendance Trilogy and The Ranger's Apprentice); or living with his last remaining distant relatives who either don't care enough about him to bother if he dies -

- or will soon die to provide the MC with a motive for his quest and conveniently free him of remaining parental authority at the same time.

Obviously, this whole removal of authority thing is getting somewhat predictable. But, then again, I suppose that is sort of the point of cliches.

Now the question is, what to do about it? If we leave the parents in the story, we're still going to have that irritating parental protectiveness to deal with, which means we won't be able to really torture the MC as much as we need to. 

Or does it? Here are ten ideas of ways to avoid the orphan protagonist cliche.

1. Make the parent(s) part of the adventure. Mother gets kidnapped and the child has to set out on a quest to save her (Michael Vey). The dad is an adrenaline junkie and wouldn't pass up the excitement for anything. The mother goes along to try to mother-hen the protagonist on his journey, but believes in good enough to let her child be brave. 

   

   Sorry. I couldn't resist throwing that in.

2. The parent(s) are absent so much that it is easy for the protagonist to run away/get taken away and have some time before anyone notices he's gone. A more extreme version of this happened in Nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, when the female protagonist was actually incapable of being remembered by her parents after she'd left.
3. The parent(s) are part of the adventure before the protagonist is, on either the side of good or evil (Elemental trilogy by Antony John, The Compound by S.A. Bodeen). 
4. The protagonist is abducted away from his parents and forced into his adventure (Legend trilogy by Marie Lu, The School of Good and Evil by Soman Chainani, Girl, Stolen by April Henry).
5. The protagonist has no idea who his parents are or if they're alive (this is beginning to be used more often, so be wary). Maybe he is reunited with one or both of them at some point in the plot, complicating things.
6. The adventures happen at a boarding school or summer camp which the parents/parental figures sent the child to (Percy Jackson and Harry Potter, anyone?). 
7. The law interferes with parental authority over the children - this happened in the Black City trilogy by Elizabeth Richards because of Ash's half Darkling status. His father couldn't control all the events in Ash's life because the government was running control measures on Darklings. Other examples of lawful interference take place in Divergent, The Hunger Games, Uninvited, Half Bad, The Darkest Minds, and plenty of other dystopic novels.
8. The parent/s (long shot if there are two parents) are mentally ill, and due to extenuating circumstances (like the end of the world and psychoactive medications) can't take authority over their child. Take a look at the Penryn and the End of Days trilogy by Susan Ee to see this very unique set up. 
9. The adventure does not require any long-distance travel, and so the MC manages to have his adventure right under his parents' noses. (V is for Villain by Peter Moore, Slated trilogy by Teri Terry).
10. The age of majority (legal adulthood) is younger than it is in this world, so that the MC that we would consider a teen or child is actually considered an adult (Red Rising trilogy by Pierce Brown)

There are a few ways to spice things up, but sometimes . . . there is no other option. Your plot requires the parents to be dead, and there's no way around it. Don't be scared that you're being cliche, if this is the case. Just make sure you didn't automatically make the MC an orphan because that was the first idea that came into your head. Think about other options. Family is a big deal, and sometimes, it is nice to see some familial relationships in a book. 

Or maybe you have to do the opposite. You've got the parents, but they're proving pesky. In that case:

Kill those darlings.

So what about you? Do you agree that the orphan protagonist is getting cliche? Have you ever used it, or one of the twists I listed? 

Want more posts on cliches and how to put a twist on them? Click here for all my posts on cliches, or click the label in the sidebar.