As Glenn Frey once said, "So often times it happens, that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we have the key." I'm a firm believer in the peacefulness, the dignity, the "oneness" that can be realized after overcoming life's most difficult obstacles. Pain and suffering make us better people. Not that you should actively seek these things out as some religions seem to promote, but I think overcoming the problems in your life, however they arise, is what makes people considerate, tolerant and in general better people. Perhaps this is why we like to see this in our protagonists? Perhaps we recognize this structure when we see it in stories but are sometimes not equipped to recognize it in our own lives? The more I study story structure the more I believe it only emulates the inner structure of life itself...

Kalen, there's a phrase I stumbled on somewhere along the line in my learning the craft of screenwriting and it's this: Audience identification. That is in almost all cases, we, as writers, want the audience (or script reader) to in some fashion IDENTIFY with the Protagonist. The P is typically the conduit for a moviegoer INTO the story, so the more the moviegoer identifies with the lead character, the more they will be compelled by the experiences the P has. This extends to anti-heroes as well. The challenge there is to find universal points of human experience to which the audience can relate. So to your point, maybe we don't necessarily recognize something in the P that is going on in our lives, but even if that's the case, perhaps we do so on an UNCONSCIOUS or instinctive level. There are a couple of other things going on here. We want our Protagonists to overcome lots of obstacles, including some really big ones. We also want to see them go through some sort of change / transformation. Why? My theory is because we want to believe that WE can overcome obstacles, WE can change. Seeing movies which support this theme should have a positive, reinforcing on the moviegoer. Something like if THEY (the movie's P) can change, so can I. If THEY can overcome big obstacles, so can I. Obviously we won't be called on to confront alien invaders, supernatural spirits or WWII vintage German tanks. However the experience we have watching a big movie like those can work on a psychological and emotional level, the obstacles metaphors for our own. Finally I go back to this idea by Jung that if we do not engage all aspects of our psyche, the universe will create circumstances that FORCE us to. To me, that is the essence of a Protagonist's psychological journey, the story universe taking the lead and dropping a big honking plot point in the P's path in their Ordinary World, causing the P to enter the New World (again this can be metaphorical) and off they go on their own transformation-journey. Thanks for your comments.

No, THANK YOU for always finding the time to respond Scott. You seem insanely busy yet always reply with such great insight. It means a lot for aspiring screenwriters like me trying to learn on the fly. It's just so crazy. When I started this journey into screenwriting a few years ago I never would have expected this is where it would end up, at such a deep psychological fissure. But I have to say, I love it. I truly do. Perhaps that's why I was attracted to it in the first place, as you mention, subliminally. I love thinking about these types of things and hope to one day incorporate them into my writing in a way that helps inspire others just as past movies have inspired me. If I can somehow brighten someone's day through art, story and humor, I'll die a happy man.

I think it's fair to say, Kalen, that most of us aspire to inspire people through our writing. Or I should hope so because God knows the world needs a massive blast of inspiration, it would seem.