Why Chaos Is Important In Storytelling

Have you ever wondered why many popular stories showcase worlds that are constantly falling apart? Perhaps you’re exhausted from the doomsday narrative. Maybe, like me, you’re curious why you find cut-throat, dystopian settings so intriguing. Why do we consume the same dreadful story over and over like it is some sort of comfort food?

After reading and viewing so many of these popular stories like The Hunger Games, The 100, and The Walking Dead, I came to understand that all have a common theme of chaos. So, why is chaos a vital element in the stories we consume, write, or share, especially stories that are concerned about world-altering events?

Before we can answer that question, we should consider the relationship between chaos and order in our world.

Chaos of Creation

According to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, “Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos.” In her novel, Frankenstein, alternatively titled The Modern Prometheus, Shelley explores the relationship between humans, nature, and the chaos involved in creation.

For years, Victor Frankenstein had to toil in the chaos of gravesites and disappointment until he could finally piece together his creature. While physically putting to order a new life from scraps, Victor must also find order in his own internal chaos.

What can be understood from Frankenstein, our modern stories, and most importantly, life is that chaos came first and order follows. If we can accept that order is made out of chaos, we can then begin to question the cyclical nature of chaos and order.

If order is made from chaos, why does chaos still exist? Why does chaos show up in complex systems that have been tested by time? Why can a world suddenly fall to chaos?

Are Utopias Even Possible?

Oxford Languages defines a utopia as: “An imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.” In a fictional utopia, there would be order and no chaos. The order would never change. The people, things, and ideas wouldn’t either. The utopia in which this continuous order existed would be stagnant. If chaos were introduced, it would no longer be a utopia.

This concept can be observed in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland. Herland is a fictional, secluded utopia populated only by women. Each woman has her own role like mother, farmer, cook. As far as the readers are concerned, they do not need men to survive, and they seem content with the order of their utopia.

Then, male explorers find Herland, and chaos is introduced. Because they do not have a place for men in their utopia, their presence and relationship with the women raises conflicts and disturbs their peace. The "perfect" order of Herland becomes complicated, and it is no longer a utopia.

The Chaos and Order Cycle

Henry Adams wrote, “Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.” We have a cycle of chaos and order because chaos encourages change and order is a tool we can use to implement the change. Without chaos, growth and innovation are stifled. Without order or the evolution of order, functionality and productivity falter.

Have you ever struggled with implementing ideas or bringing forth change? Before building myself a schedule, all of the things I want to accomplish in a day feels like a beehive of responsibilities in my mind. When my objectives are put into a certain order, perhaps based on priority, it becomes easier to actually accomplish my tasks instead of getting lost at a procrastination station.

According to Chaos theory, “Chaos is not simply disorder. Chaos explores the transitions between order and disorder, which often occur in surprising ways.” Based on this perspective, chaotic scenes can act as a transitional phase between the current order to a new order. The current order could be considered the system in any given context that is most widely accepted and easily utilized. The new order would be created from chaos to incorporate change.

This concept can be applied to titanic or miniscule parts of life — the world is ending or the milk is spoiled. The context in which the chaos is sprouting, the scale at which the order is being asked to change, and the duration of the transitional period of chaos are all a part of the chaos and order cycle.

What is perhaps the inciting moment of chaos and the creation of a new order is when people, things, or concepts no longer fit into the current order. Perhaps new aspects are born that don’t yet have a place to belong. The existence of these outliers is evidence of chaos. If the number of outliers grows or if the outliers are particularly influential, a change in the current order would be beneficial to include the new or evolved aspects.

Dragons in the Junk Drawer

In the universal junk drawer most people have in their homes, there is likely something that needs a dedicated space. For me, it’s Sharpies. If you have ten Sharpies in your junk drawer, it’s not just a junk drawer anymore; It’s the junk and Sharpie drawer.

If you are constantly using the Sharpies, it makes sense to give them a dedicated space so you’re not having to search for them in the mess of the junk drawer. By putting the Sharpies in a cup on your desk, you are altering the current order and including changes introduced within the chaos.

There are a few things that should be established as we continue to navigate the relationship between chaos and order. Chaos is not innately bad. Order is not always good. They each serve a purpose within this time and space. When given a chance to flourish, they can both be beneficial. If ignored, they can both lead to disastrous outcomes.

Now that we have explored the cycle of chaos and order in our world, how does it apply to stories? We consume stories not just for enjoyment but because they can teach us things about ourselves, the world, and how we exist within it.

So, what if the Sharpies in your junk drawer were dragons instead? What if the cup on your desk was a forested mountain where the dragons could hunt, fly above the canopy, and remain a safe distance away from neighboring humans? Wouldn’t it make sense for them to live there? By being stuck in the junk drawer, or chained in caves below the mountain, the dragons have not been integrated into this fantasy world’s order. Chaos brews, and eventually, a Queendom falls to dragonfire.

With this story, we can be entertained and also learn a valuable lesson. Instead of answering the chaos and reframing the world order to accept the dragons, the leaders keep them in the darkness, and the chaos takes over. Big chaos often requires big changes.

Chaos Can Be Freeing

Although characters with questionable morals like Loki or John Murphy may revel in scenes of chaos, as mentioned before, chaos isn’t innately bad. Chaos also doesn’t exclusively belong in dystopian stories. In the film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Walter lives a fairly boring, cautious life.

Eventually, he relinquishes his mind to dreams of adventure. The scenes following his journey to find the photographer, Sean O'Connell, which may or may not be entirely in his imagination, become increasingly chaotic. Walter has abandoned the order to which he once adhered. By answering the chaos, Walter is able to find excitement in his life again.

Similarly, Harold Crick in Stranger Than Fiction answers the chaos introduced by the all-knowing, looming narrator. He abandons his obsessive habits like counting brushstrokes, which once drove his entire life. By integrating a new order that is focused around people instead of efficiency into his life, he finds love. In these ways, we can see how chaos can be beneficial and help people pull themselves out of ruts.

Demanding Change with Chaos

Often, villains like Loki in The Avengers are portrayed as the personification of chaos. But sometimes, even the heroes of our stories are the bringers of chaos. Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games series brought chaos to the expected order of the games by threatening to eat the berries and defy the game makers.

In doing so, she was also inciting a larger, worldwide change within the capital. The current order imposed upon Panem was corrupt, to say the least, and the chaos introduced by Katniss and other rebels demanded a change in the world order.

In the television show, The Boys, Starlight is constantly questioning and defying the corrupted order that is imposed by Vought, a company hiding the wrongdoings of the world’s superheroes. A superhero herself, Starlight is surrounded by blatantly immoral people because being evil and doing questionable things is acceptable in Vought's order. So long as the superheroes stay powerful get amazing ratings, it doesn’t matter if they are good at heart.

Starlight challenges this order by going back to the roots of what superheroes are supposed to be — people who use their abilities to help the world. By being the voices of chaos, characters can demand change in the current order.

Internal and External Chaos

We can also learn about the relationship between internal and external chaos in stories. In Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, Lauren Olamina’s world is being taken over by corruption and pyromaniacs. She creates the Earthseed doctrine during moments of introspection in troubling times.

Lauren establishes her own internal order as a response to the chaos of her world. Later in the novel, Lauren spreads the Earthseed and its teachings to people in her growing survival group. This is an example of how someone’s internal sense of order can affect the external chaos.

Conversely, The Governor in AMC's The Walking Dead allows his own internal sense of chaos to seep into the external order he has created in Woodbury. Eventually, the chaos introduced by not being able to let go of his daughter takes over the story. He loses his town, his followers, and the only people he still considered family. He destroys not just his own sense of order but the order of practically all the characters involved.

Sometimes, chaos meets on different levels. In The Last Man on Earth, Phil Miller, who is an internally chaotic character, a real “my way or the highway” kind of guy, must navigate the end of the world. Whether he's lounging in pools of tequila, getting stuck on top of a billboard, or scaring away literally the only other people in the world with his antics, the union of Phil’s internal and external chaos creates some absolutely hilarious and frustrating scenes.

In stories like these, chaos can affect people internally and externally in a somewhat symbiotic way.

Competing Orders

Many dystopian stories pose more than one current order which characters must decide between. In the CW’s The 100, Clarke and Bellamy must decide if they should kill 384 strangers living below Mount Weather to save their friends.

In the order imposed by the leaders of Mount Weather, the 100’s role is to serve the people below the mountain by donating their blood. In the order established by the leaders of the Ark, before the 100 were sent to the ground, the 100’s role was simply to survive and prove that Earth was habitable. In these scenes, the orders clash.

As mentioned before, chaos isn’t innately bad. But in times of chaos, when multiple orders are questioned, characters can have morally defining moments. They must either decide which order to adhere to, or they must create a new order that incorporates aspects of both.

Sit-coms and the End of the World

In sit-coms like NBC's The Office, we can observe the transition between chaos and order on a much smaller scale, in a very specific context. Michael, Dwight, and Jim are often the bringers of chaos within the office space. Chaos crops up through small pranks, sales competitions, and complicated relationships.

Eventually, the entire staff of Dunder Mifflin get pulled into some sort of chaotic scene. Either in their own ways or as a group effort, they return to some new sense of order. These stories about mundane situations and seemingly inconsequential changes to the order are important. They can help us observe small moments of chaos, which can be extremely relatable in our own lives.

Dystopian, apocalyptic, and war-based stories ask big questions and explore scenes with substantial consequences or rewards. They are not necessarily a peaceful escape for the consumers. Many aspects like conflict and power in these settings, unlike sit-coms, are not as relatable to a general audience. (I’m so grateful that I have never been launched in a spaceship to survive on a dying planet).

We consume stories for enjoyment but also to grow. Scenarios we don’t encounter in our own world or form familiar impressions about can be observed in apocalyptic or fantasy settings. Dystopian stories can help us envision world-wide chaos and understand how order to the same scale could be achieved without having to experience the chaos ourselves.

Yet, despite the doom and gloom of these futuristic, cut-throat worlds we can still find relatable fragments in these fictional characters, relationships, and their own history.

When Chaos Is Too … Chaotic

There is a point when chaos can become detrimental to stories. If characters in stories are constantly facing a new chaos and there is no sense of a restored order, it can be disappointing. Readers may find that the trials a character goes through are fruitless without even a glimmer of restored order — Katniss finally being able to live peacefully and start a family with Peeta, John Murphy finding trust among the 100, or Michonne and Rick rebuilding Alexandria.

The Big Questions

So, to revisit the question: Why do we find dystopian worlds full of chaos so exciting? Stories with big, rifting, world-altering chaos are concerned about big changes in the world order. How do we see things? How do we exist in the world? How do we integrate and include outsiders or people who don’t have their own space? How do we address questions that have never been answered?

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*This is my interpretation of the importance of chaos in storytelling. I’m sure there are others. I would love to hear your own interpretation and thoughts in a comment below. If you would like me to explore some of the various concepts introduced in this article more deeply, please let me know!

*Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower greatly inspired me to read and write more dystopian stories. If you are interested in reading this brilliant woman’s work and also supporting me, my affiliate link to her novel is below.

Octavia E. Butler - Parable of the Sower:

*If you want to read the story where dragons get revenge, my Ersoa’s Awakening serial is available here.

*Lastly, if dragons aren’t your thing … My serial, Lady of the Hounds, is a story about a young woman and her eighteen dogs who are struggling to survive a pre-apocalyptic world being taken over by drought and wildfires.

Thank you for your kindness and support. :)