History DeconstructedTrope / Literature

* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' deconstructs RecruitTeenagersWithAttitude by combining it with WarIsHell.
** Animorphs deconstructs several tropes involving young heroes, or optimistic tropes in general:
*** WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld, as the five (later six) heroes discover that War Is Hell and how badly it's messed them up.
*** KidHero: It's obvious from the get-go that the kids, having no sort of military knowledge or practical connections whatsoever, are pretty much just making it up as they go and doing the best they can with what they have, and they're closer to ChildSoldiers than anything else. They're kid heroes in that they're working to save the world and they're pretty much the Earth's last line of defence, but the blunt approach the series takes to WarIsHell makes it clear that it is the furthest thing from a good thing there is.

* ''Franchise/LesMiserables'' deconstructed the typical "mysterious benefactor" character common in 19th century novels with Jean Valjean. He rescues Cossette from hardship the same way The Bishop of Digny did for him. He becomes obsessed with being her ParentalSubstitute because he's eaten up by guilt over not being able to save her mother Fantine.

* ''Literature/TheDisasterArtist'', a book talking about the making of ''Film/TheRoom'' and the author's time with Creator/TommyWiseau, deconstructs three things:

* Literature/RWBYAfterTheFall: Coco deconstructs TheLeader. While under the effects of the Caspian's Semblance, which amplifies existing emotions, Velvet and Fox reveal that they harbor some resentment towards Coco due to the fact she doesn't lead them, she bosses them around. She neglects to take their concerns into account and makes decisions for them. Coco takes their issues to heart and begins working to be more conscientious of her team and learn how to be a proper leader. In the sequel ''Literature/RWBYBeforeTheDawn'', she clashes with Team SSSN, which is having a similar problem with their leader, Sun. Her team makes it clear that there's a fine line between critiquing Sun and being unreasonable, showing that her own self-improvements are still a work in progress.

* The Literature/XWingSeries novel ''Starfighters of Adumar'' deconstructs the concept of the ProudWarriorRace. The military of the Adumari nation of Cartann is made up of these types, but their GloryHound tendencies mean they make poor tactical decisions, and their insistence on live-fire dueling means that they end up killing off competent pilots (with only certain protocols keeping them in check, and these only do so much), meaning that the New Republic and Imperial pilots who take them on are easily able to defeat them in combat. Wedge himself disparages the concept of fighting for honor in a single speech:

* ''Literature/ThePower'' deconstructs WomenAreWiser. The author's thesis is that this trope exists at the intersection of sexual dimorphism making the average woman smaller than the average man and [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority combat prowess determining who was in charge]] for most of human history, leading most women to seek out moral and intellectual authority as opposed to the path of military glory that men historically dominated. Gender egalitarianism, therefore, didn't ''create'' more peaceful societies but was rather a ''consequence'' of such, as the declining importance of physical strength as a source of authority, especially in the world's developed and industrialized nations, gave women more room to showcase their talents and emerge as leaders. When a biological mutation gives women the power to [[ShockAndAwe shoot electricity from their hands]] and thus makes them the more physically powerful gender, they start flexing their power, especially (though not exclusively) in developing countries where modernity had not yet fully advanced and traditional gender roles were still widespread. The characters who believe in this trope turn out to be some of its biggest monsters as they set out to oppress men, driven by a belief that they are more barbaric and violent than women and need to be controlled for the good of society. [[spoiler:And when WorldWarIII sends humanity back to the Stone Age, {{matriarchy}} emerges as the basic governing principle of post-apocalyptic society for the same reason patriarchy did in humanity's prehistory. The FramingDevice is set in a distant future that has rebuilt into something resembling modern society with the genders reversed, with the AuthorAvatar's female colleague fully believing in a gender-flipped version of this trope and coming up with all manner of (obviously false) evo-psych explanations for why it is.]]

* ''Literature/ACanticleForLeibowitz'' takes a look at the idea common in more secularly-oriented science fiction that technological progress necessarily implies social progress. ''Canticle'' makes the point that no matter how advanced the technology gets, the human heart is inclined to a certain moral laziness that needs to be carefully and consciously guarded against if people aspire to be anything more than barbarians with fancy toys.

** Before ''Don Quixote'', there was Ariosto's ''Literature/OrlandoFurioso'', whose intense [[LoveMakesYouEvil love]] for Angelica basically turned him into the ComicBook/IncredibleHulk after he finds out that she's a normal, human woman who's had a fling with a shepherd, and not a virginal PrincessClassic.

* ''Literature/WutheringHeights'' deconstructs AllGirlsWantBadBoys, by showing exactly what happens when girls fall in love with troubled, angry men. Heathcliff is a 'bad boy', and Bronte shows exactly what this means; he's unstable, vindictive, violent, selfish and vicious. The relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine is depicted as being intensely passionate, but also intensely unhealthy (not least because they [[IncestIsRelative may]] or [[NotBloodSiblings may not]] actually be [[BrotherSisterIncest brother and sister]]), and Heathcliff's response to being spurned for another man is to embark on a single-minded crusade of vengeance that ultimately results in the ruination of both lovers and their immediate families for absolutely no point whatsoever. As if this wasn't enough to illustrate the point, Edgar Linton's foolish sister Isabella elopes with Heathcliff because she's attracted to his bad-boy image. She gets what she wants, but not in the way she expects; an abusive husband who is openly contemptuous and violent towards her, and makes no secret of the fact that he only married her to get at her brother. This hasn't stopped a MisaimedFandom growing around Heathcliff, however, who even to this day is considered a model of a romantic hero despite the fact that he's pretty much a sociopath - something that Bronte intended to make absolutely clear.

* ''Literature/ParadiseLost'' is a deconstruction of DracoInLeatherPants in its portrayal of {{Satan}}. He starts out all badass and charismatic, but as we get to know him more and more, he see that he's a whiny, self-pitying bully who bows to peer pressure from the other demons, [[ParentalIncest bangs his own daughter]] and arguably isn't even all that badass when compared to, say, [[TheCape Michael]] or KungFuJesus. The intention was to make the reader acknowledge that they felt the allure of sin but also that it leads nowhere good. However, he is for the most part still portrayed sympathetically enough, to the point that actually seeing him as living up to those traits isn't that far off, if he wasn't immersed in a sea of {{Wangst}}. It doesn't help that in the process of deconstructing Satan, the story [[RonTheDeathEater deconstructs God]] and YouCantFightFate by having God know every single thing Satan is going to do... [[JerkassGods and chooses to do almost nothing to stop it.]] As a result, it manages to slightly reconstruct Satan: both gods are jerks, but at least Satan is proactive and likable.

* ''Literature/DonQuixote'' is a DeconstructorFleet, but even more than a deconstruction of ChivalricRomance, (a genre now forgotten given WeirdAlEffect), he is a DeconstructiveParody of the overzealous fans (hence an immortal novel).