The Black Moment

The black moment comes near the end of a fictional story and leads into the resolution, or the end.  It is the element of the story when all seems to be lost.  Everything the main character has tried to achieve seems to be falling apart.  This is the place where we think “will he or won’t he make it?”

I have a postcard that perfectly demonstrates a black moment.  The picture on the card is from the movie Perils of Pauline where Pauline is laying across a set of railroad tracks, another set of tracks intersects near her head and on the tracks behind her…is a train heading toward her.  Belching black smoke the train appears to be rumbling toward Pauline, but…which set of tracks will the train actually roll on when it reaches the split?  Black moment! 

There is always the chance the train will roll onto the tracks leading away from poor Pauline.  On the other hand, we know there’s a hero out there who, if he cares enough for her, could possibly come in and swoop Pauline off the track just as the train passes where she has been.  All seems lost.

Of course the visual is just for fun, but it has meaning too.  A black moment is a point in the story where the character has to have an emotional change.  Things have to turn around for them.  The main character has to confront the problem head on and make the right decision because…after all, the goal is the reward of the story.

The black moment has to come from the story itself, an author can’t just suddenly decide to throw something in to make it look good, it has to come from the plot itself.  The black moment is the last element before the story comes to a conclusion.

Let me use Cinderella to break this element down.

In Cinderella, the black moment comes when the King’s messenger is going from household to household trying that glass slipper on every female foot in the kingdom.  When he tries the slipper on the ugly stepsisters and it doesn’t fit he has no idea Cinderella exists.  When he discovers there is one more woman to try on the slipper the slipper falls to the floor and shatters.  All looks lost.

Ah…but all is not lost, Cinderella reaches into her apron and pulls out the other glass slipper.  She hands the slipper to the chief official of the royal household.  When he slips the slipper on Cinderella it is a perfect fit.  End of black moment.

This also leads us into the satisfying conclusion of the story and soon wedding bells are ringing throughout the land and the people rejoiced.  Everyone was invited to the wedding.  And what happened to the bad guys, antagonists, the ugly stepsisters and stepmother?  They weren’t invited.

And…as with all romances, the Prince and Cinderella lived happily ever after and the old Kind had many grandchildren to fill his castle…which if you remember, is the start of the story.

Assignment:

As your students reach the black moment, ask them why they think it is the black moment. 

Sometimes what looks like the black moment really isn’t.  For instance, again breaking it down to the basic elements.  In the Wizard of Oz it seems as if the black moment is reached when Dorothy is confronted by the Wicked Witch and all looks lost, but in self defense Dorothy throws water on the Wicked Witch of the West and she melts.  But no, that leads up to the real black moment of when Dorothy still hasn’t been able to return home.  The Good Witch appears and tells her all she has to do is click her heels together and say “There’s no place like home.”  That leads to the resolution of the story and she wakes.  The moral of that story is literally, there is no place like home.