Necessity of a Character Arc

In most stories, the reader or audience is given an inside look into the main character or protagonist’s mind.  This means that the emotional or mental changes that the character undergoes are fully explained to the target audience and a clear character arc is shown.  Although, in some stories the audience is not given that insight into the characters mental psyche and the audience takes on the role of the second person point of view.  In these stories, a clear character arc is not shown, mostly because we are observing the character from the outside.

            I do not believe that a character arc is needed to make a compelling story come to life.  There are many cases where the main character already has preconceived ideas about life and does not undergo the mental, emotional, or even physical changes that many protagonists undergo.  Stories that are told on the subject of a criminal mind are the most likely to omit character arcs through the tale. The audience is viewing the actions of the character and in some cases the mental decisions but the character experienced no inner complications that lead him or her to make a big decision or change drastically.  In the movie The Lady Killers, Tom Hanks plays a character that, from the beginning, has a pre-conceived notion that a bank robbery would make him rich and famous.  Sure he experienced complications that set his mission back some but he never undergoes an arc of personal change or transformation that makes him reconsider his true identity.  Another example would be the movie Rampage, in which a mentally unstable young adult kills many of the members of his community out of spite and hate.  We are never given a clear explanation of why he performs this act and a clear point of transformation is never drawn for the character.  It is more the audience viewing the climax of the story and less getting to know the character during its personal transformation.

            It is true that most action or drama movies will give the audience a clear insight into the characters and allows them to follow the climax of the story through the protagonist point of view.  In these cases, it is very easy to see the clear character arc and it helps create the climax.  But the character arc is not a necessity to the action of all stories especially those that do not feature a first person point of view of the actions in the story. 

            The character arc is helpful in creating a good picture of how a person changes through the story and if the story is based on the effects of outside occurrences on the protagonist, such as a holding down a job and caring for a family in Erin Brockovich, then yes, a character arc is most defiantly needed. But to say that a strong change in character is needed to create any compelling story, is not necessarily true for all cases.   There are many good stories where we never even know the character that personally.