In Sam Raimi’s latest horror film Send Help, a woman who is constantly underappreciated and passed over for a promotion by her lousy boss finds herself suddenly trapped on a deserted island with him. In this new environment, the tables have turned. Injured in the catastrophic plane crash that landed them on this island, he is now dependent on her canny survival skills, a dependence she finds herself more than eager to exploit. Write a short story in which, due to an unexpected event, a role reversal occurs between two main characters. What were the original power dynamics between the characters? Are there benefits and disadvantages for both characters when the tables are turned? In Raimi’s film, the characters occupy a gray area as sympathetic characters—see if you can play with drawing out moral or emotional ambiguities with the characters in your own story.
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