a person's true character is revealed in a time of crisis theme
The idea is explicitly voiced or pointedly illustrated, that it is in moments of extreme pressure we learn what people are really made of.
Examples
In tz1959e3x03 "The Shelter", we saw how a previously friendly group of neighborhood friends and families turned on each other and behaved with selfishness and spite when they thought a nuclear apocalypse was impending.
4 total · 1 choice · 3 major
| Story | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| tz1959e3x03 | choice | The Stockton family's once-friendly neighbors banged down their bomb shelter door in the lead up to a presumed nuclear attack. |
| movie: Cube 2: Hypercube (2002) | major | The seven people trapped in the hypercube all seemed reasonably normal enough at first, but each revealed their true colors under the stress of trying to escape their near hopeless predicament: Simon, for example, turned into a psycho who'd kill anyone to save his own skin, while Kate never lost her sense of compassion for others, especially the blind teenager Sasha. |
| theamericanshortstory12 | major | The people of Hadleyburg, who prided themselves for being an honest and incorruptible lot, showed their true colors once they realized that they could lie their way into obtaining $40,000 worth of gold. |
| tz1959e3x10 | major | the old woman apologized for behaving like an animal; the home invader likewise apologized for his uncivilized actions, urging the women to believe that he was a descent man. |