rise to prominence from humble beginnings theme
A character who has little or no particular social status at birth rises to a prominent position, usually due to their talents and hard work.
Examples
Bill and Margaret Weldon spent a giddy night imagining all the things they would buy after having signed a big contract to market a razor-less shaving cream in "Her Husband's Affairs" (1947).
26 total · 3 choice · 12 major · 11 minor
| Story | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| movie: Barry Lyndon (1975) | choice | Barry's fortune rose and fell in stellar proportions as he became a drafted soldier and then a monied Lord. |
| movie: The Great Ziegfeld (1936) | choice | The story is a musical biopic of Florenz "Flo" Ziegfeld Jr. who started out managing a strongman performer in a lowly London nightclub and ended up a famous Broadway impresario. |
| movie: The Life of Emile Zola (1937) | choice | The story follows Emile Zola’s journey from his early struggles as a writer to his later years as a renowned man of letters. |
| columbo1971e7x03 | major | A point of the story was that Kay had worked enormously hard to get to where she was, from an all but impoverished childhood nearly in the gutter. |
| ftt1982e4x06 | major | A destitute son of a miller, named Edgar, married a princess and got his own castle all thanks to his crafty talking cat, Puss in Boots. |
| ftt1982e5x01 | major | With the aid of the genie, Aladdin became rich and powerful and married the Sultan's beautiful daughter, Princess Sabrina. |
| futurama7x12 | major | Zoidberg went from having only a mere jar of pennies to his name to having a giant sack full of money. He promptly blew it Mars Vegas. |
| movie: Algol: Tragedy of Power (1920) | major | Robert Herne went from toiling in a coal mine to virtually ruling the world. |
| movie: All the King's Men (1949) | major | The story concerns the aspiring politician Willie Stark as he goes from being a humble "hick" to becoming governor of his state. |
| movie: Her Husbands Affairs (1947) | major | Bill and Margaret spent a giddy night imagining all the things they would buy after having signed a big contract to market a razor-less shaving cream. |