Lonely Rich Kid/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A child from a wealthy family, who is also very lonely.

  • Played Straight: Alice's father is a multi-billionaire, but Alice herself has few friends.
  • Exaggerated: Alice has no one to interact with except her private tutor, and her butler.
  • Justified: Alice is a Shrinking Violet whose parents just won the lottery and just moved to a Big Fancy House in a new neighborhood.
    • Alice is an Ill Girl, who doesn't get to go out and play
    • Alice's wealth alienates her from the other kids, who aren't as well-to-do (or attracts only people who want to get a piece of her money and status)
    • Alice is a Mafia Princess, whom everyone else is warned to stay away from because of her father's connections, even if she herself is a kind and all-around good person.
    • Alice is a Spoiled Brat that no one wants to be around.
  • Inverted: Alice is from a middle-class or working-class background, and lonely.
  • Subverted: Alice is rich and has lots of friends.
  • Double Subverted: But few of them are, in fact, true friends; most are fair-weather friends, who only like Alice because she's rich.
  • Parodied: Alice has only piles of money to hang out with.
  • Deconstructed: Alice doesn't have many friends because her wealth alienates her from her peers (who usually aren't as well-to-do); they assume she's going to be the Alpha Bitch and avoid her and/or are jealous that she can afford things they can't. (And those that don't avoid her only like her because she's rich; they don't care at all about her.) And it doesn't help if her parents are jet-setters who are always away, or are feared because of their connections, or just seem to forget she even exists. (It also doesn't help if she really is the Alpha Bitch, which tends to drive people away.)
  • Reconstructed: Alice's family decides to move. They, and Alice, end up in a rich neighborhood where Alice finally finds friends.
  • Zig Zagged: Alice's parents win the lottery, and her Girl Posse is happy, then worry about her becoming the Alpha Bitch and dump her before she can leave them for richer (and snobbier) friends. Then they feel bad about giving her the cold shoulder, and become her friends again. Only to leave again when they find that she's become a Spoiled Brat, and return when she starts treating them better.
  • Averted: Alice is wealthy, but also has lots of genuine friends.
    • Alice is poor.
  • Enforced: The writer wants to teach An Aesop that money ≠ happiness.
  • Lampshaded: "The only friends I have are my Christian Dior shoes and my Prada bag!"
  • Invoked: Upon acquiring wealth, Alice alienates herself from all of her peers, fearing that they will be after her family's money.
  • Defied: Alice goes out and makes new friends in her new neighborhood, and is careful to choose as friends only genuine people who like her for her (not her wealth).
  • Discussed: "I hear Alice is rich. Rich kids are supposed to be stuck up, but I don't see it..."
  • Conversed: ???
  • Played For Laughs: Alice is Rich in Dollars, Poor In Sense, and buys more material goods either as a substitute for friends, or a way to impress people.
  • Played For Drama: Almost always is, unless, of course, it isn't.

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