Written by Danielle Carpenter
6
DECEMBER 2020 | LEVEL STORY
When it comes to the character of Ellie, Left Behind offers a unique perspective on the coming of age narrative. It is a core theme of the game and offers a lens for the player to better understand Ellie’s character. Left Behind is a small game that packs a big punch. Through the interweaving stories of the day Ellie was bitten and the day Joel was brutally injured at the University, we get to see how Ellie becomes the character we know and love from the base game, The Last of Us. A lot of this has to do with Left Behind being a subtle coming of age story that depicts Ellie’s gradual radicalization after being an apathetic onlooker for most of her life. The coming of age story depicts a child making the transition into adulthood. Examples of this type of story include To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Malcolm in the Middle, and Stand By Me...just to name a few. Coming of age stories do not aim to literally represent the moment a child becomes an adult because this is a long transitional period of one’s life. Rather, coming of age represents moments in time when a child’s view of the world is changed, and it transforms their viewpoint because of this. Left Behind explores coming of age by contrasting two different timelines: Ellie before she was bitten and Ellie afterwards, traveling with Joel.
