What It Is: The subversion of a trope happens whenever a writer is self-aware enough to recognize a certain trope before falling writing it, commenting on or switching up the usual trope in an attempt to make a point or a statement. What It Means: A lesser writer than Green (read: many, many other young adult writers) would likely have fallen prey to the tropes that feature in his novels. Green, on the other hand, is literate enough in storytelling and the young adult genre that subverting tropes is practically one of his tropes in and of itself. As mentioned earlier in the list, Green is adept at subverting the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope, exposing characters for idolizing ideas rather than people but there are other tropes he subverts, too. The entirety of The Fault In Our Stars, for example, is built around the idea of subverting what's come to be known as sick-lit, stories that romanticize illness for the purpose of storytelling. Throughout the novel, Green comments on the ridiculousness of these stories, painting the reality of cancer as something completely non-romantic. The characters in The Fault In Our Stars are not self-pitying, but nor do they find the kind of false "enlightenment" peddled by many stories based on sick people. Which other tropes do you think should have made this list? Share your own below in the comments thread.
