## Book Card | Key | Value | | :--- | :--- | | **Title (EN)** | The Fan Club | | **Author** | Rona Maynard | | **Type** | short story | | **Genre** | Psychological Drama, Coming of Age | | **Genre (Save the Cat)** | Rite of Passage | | **Tropes** | The Outsider, The "In" Crowd, Peer Pressure Makes You Evil, The Scapegoat, Sadistic Teacher, Downer Ending | --- ## Review: The Fan Club Rona Maynard's "The Fan Club" is a chilling psychological drama exploring the moral dilemma of Laura, an isolated student who despises her popular peers. When another outcast, Rachel, is publicly humiliated, Laura must choose between her stated values and her desperate need for social acceptance. Structurally, the work adheres to the Hero's Journey model, only to masterfully invert it into a moral failure. The story's strength lies in this inversion: the hero's "reward" is not wisdom, but conformity. However, its structural weakness is the total _Absence of the Mentor_, which leaves the protagonist passive and without the moral tools to face her ordeal. The use of narrative tropes is mixed. While the combination of "Peer Pressure Makes You Evil" and a "Downer Ending" is brutally effective, the antagonistic tropes (the "In" Crowd and the "Sadistic Teacher") feel one-dimensional. Their cruelty is absolute, lacking the psychological nuance that would make Laura's fall even more tragic. Recommended for mature readers (high school students and adults) interested in realistic fiction and social criticism. This is not typical commercial Young Adult fiction, but a dark, literary work closer to classics on conformity like "Lord of the Flies." --- ## Structural Analysis (Hero's Journey & Archetypes) > [!INFO]- (click to expand) > # Structural Analysis: The Fan Club > ## Logline > A socially isolated high school student who despises her popular classmates for their cruelty must choose between defending a bullied outcast or joining her tormentors to gain social acceptance. > ## Brief Summary > Laura, an intellectual outsider, detests the "popular" group at her school for their superficiality and cruelty. She finds herself briefly bonding with Rachel Horton, an even more ostracized outcast. However, when the popular group launches a coordinated and public humiliation against Rachel during a class presentation, Laura, faced with a moral choice, betrays her own stated values and joins the bullying out of fear of remaining alone and a desire for acceptance. > ## Archetypes and Characters > > | **Archetype** | **Corresponding Character(s)** | **Brief Description** | > | ---------------------- | ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | > | **Hero** | Laura | The protagonist, a tragic hero. Her journey is a moral failure defined by the conflict between her stated values and her desire to belong. | > | **Shadow** | Diane Goddard (and the "in" crowd) | The antagonist. Embodies social cruelty, conformity, and peer pressure, which acts as a corrupting force on the Hero. | > | **Herald** | Rachel Horton | Delivers the "Call" to Laura: an invitation to genuine empathy and an alliance against the Shadow, challenging Laura's social status quo. | > | **Threshold Guardian** | Miss Merrill (the teacher) | She fails in her protective role. Instead of defending the moral order, she attacks Rachel herself, becoming a Guardian who clears the path for the Shadow. | > | **Shapeshifter** | Laura | Her archetypal function "shifts." She begins as a long-suffering Hero (outsider, moral critic) but transforms into an accomplice of the Shadow in the finale. | > | **Ally** | Rachel Horton (potential) | She is Laura's natural ally, but the Hero rejects and betrays her at the crucial moment. | > | **Trickster** | Steve Becker, Terri Pierce | Members of the "in" crowd who use sarcasm and mockery ("Man, that kid's dumb") to destabilize the classroom order and provide cruel "comic relief". | > | **Mentor** | Absent | The key missing structural element. The absence of positive moral guidance (adult or peer) is the direct cause of the Hero's failure. | > ## The Hero's Journey Stages > > | **Journey Stage** | **Event(s) in the Story** | > | ----------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | > | **1. The Ordinary World** | Laura's daily school routine; her isolation, her contempt for the "in" crowd, and her self-perception as an intellectual outsider. | > | **2. The Call to Adventure** | Rachel's genuine and kind interaction with Laura in the hallway. It is an offer of authentic human connection outside the social hierarchy. | > | **3. Refusal of the Call** | Laura's embarrassment and reluctance to talk to Rachel. She accepts the dinner invitation ("Okay... I'd be glad to come") but does so "faking enthusiasm." | > | **4. Meeting the Mentor** | Absent. Miss Merrill acts as an anti-Mentor, validating the Shadow's cruelty. | > | **5. Crossing the First Threshold** | Laura's speech on civil rights. She publicly exposes herself, crossing the threshold of her silence to declare her values (anti-prejudice). | > | **6. Tests, Allies, and Enemies** | The _Test_ is the conversation with Rachel (a potential _Ally_). The _Enemies_ (Diane, Terri) are identified as they prepare the "fan club" cards. | > | **7. Approach to the Inmost Cave** | The English classroom during the speeches. The atmosphere becomes tense as Rachel is called to speak immediately after Laura. | > | **8. The Ordeal** | Rachel's public humiliation. The crowd mocks her, Miss Merrill reprimands her, and finally, the sarcastic applause and "HORTENSKY FAN CLUB" cards. | > | **9. The Reward (distorted)** | Diane offers Laura the "fan club" card. It is not a treasure, but it is the "reward" she desired: immediate acceptance by the "in" crowd. | > | **10. The Road Back** | Laura's moment of hesitation. "For a moment Laura stared at the card. She looked from Rachel's red, frightened face to Diane's mocking smile." This is her final choice. | > | **11. The Resurrection (negative)** | Laura betrays herself and her values. "Her hands trembled as she picked up the card and pinned it to her sweater." This is the "death" of her moral self and "rebirth" as a group member. | > | **12. Return with the Elixir (negative)** | The Elixir is social acceptance. Diane speaks to Laura "in a soft and intimate voice": "She's a creep, isn't she?" Laura "began to clap." She has obtained the Elixir, but the cost is her integrity. | ## Narrative Trope Analysis > [!NOTE]- (click to expand) > # Narrative Trope Analysis: The Fan Club > ### The Outsider > - **Definition:** A character defined by their lack of belonging to the dominant social group. > - **Description and Context:** Laura defines herself in opposition to the "in" crowd. She bases her identity on her intellectualism ("wrote poetry in algebra class"), her sensitivity, and her contempt for the superficiality of others. This self-perception as an outsider is central to the conflict. > ### The "In" Crowd > - **Definition:** An elite, exclusionary social group that defines norms and often uses bullying or ostracism to maintain power. > - **Description and Context:** Diane Goddard and her circle ("They were all alike, all the same"). They maintain their status through "exclusivity" and "cruelty" ("their hostile stares") towards those who are different, like Rachel and, implicitly, Laura. > ### Peer Pressure Makes You Evil > - **Definition:** A trope where a character commits morally reprehensible actions, which they normally would not, to conform to a group's expectations or gain acceptance. > - **Description and Context:** This is the story's central trope. Laura, who just gave a passionate speech against prejudice ("we don't give other people a chance"), actively and publicly joins the bullying of Rachel ("And Laura began to clap") solely to be accepted by Diane. > ### The Scapegoat > - **Definition:** A character or group that is unjustly blamed, punished, or ostracized to relieve tension or unite a larger group. > - **Description and Context:** Rachel Horton. She is the easiest target. The entire "in" crowd, and eventually Laura, unites by venting their repressed cruelty on her to reinforce their own cohesion and hierarchy. > ### Sadistic Teacher > - **Definition:** A teacher who seems to enjoy humiliating students, or who is simply cruel, uncaring, and abuses their authority. > - **Description and Context:** Miss Merrill. Instead of defending Rachel from the overt bullying, she joins in. She harshly criticizes Rachel's presentation ("Rachel... we are supposed to be prepared... I'm sure you remember those rules on page twenty-one"). Her institutional cruelty validates and authorizes the students' bullying. > ### Downer Ending > - **Definition:** A narrative ending that is tragic, pessimistic, or depressing, in cui the hero fails, dies, or, as in this case, suffers a complete moral defeat. > - **Description and Context:** The story ends with Laura's complete moral capitulation. The hero does not overcome the trial but fails miserably, choosing conformity over integrity. The ending offers no hope or redemption.