On the Roof

 My dormitory has an outdoor staircase that I must walk up to reach my room every day. The staircase has a landing at each floor, and bridges to each of three buildings. Now, one of these buildings is one floor taller than the other two, and I live in the top floor of one of the shorter buildings.

Today, I had some spare time, so I took the trash out of my room, and on the way back up the stairs, I realized that the staircase goes higher than the roof of my building, I thought maybe I could go up on the roof. I tried it, and when I got to the top of the staircase, there was a metal sun-shade over my head, and a fence secured at the top and bottom that prevented me from going onto the roof. I came back down into my room, and thought to myself, why did I want to get on the roof?

At first I thought, “Because its cool to be on the roof!”.

I'm not an idiot, and I was surprised at myself. Is that really my only reason? I didn't care about the view, or the wind, or the feeling of being physically above the inferior muil below me. I wanted to be on the roof because it is cool to be on the roof.

Now, thoroughly disappointed in myself, I asked why it is cool to be on the roof. I mean, all the coolest characters in fiction spend their time on the roof, right? Lets list a few:

Altair

Katniss Everdeen

Morpheus

James Bond

Sherlock Holmes

Ben Skywalker

The Fiddler

Spider Man

Batman

Agent J

Peter Petrelli

Star Fox

Arnold

The Solomons

Merry Brandybuck

Anakin Skywalker

Gregory House

The Doctor

Mary Poppins' Chimney Sweep

Wow. This whole “on the roof” thing is actually pretty common in fiction. Each of these characters use the roof for different reasons, Altair runs rooftop to rooftop to get the drop on his targets, Katniss sits on the rooftop to have private conversations with her love interest, but, when you really think about it, many of them have no good reason to be up there. Peter Petrelli could have jumped off a park bench to discover that he can fly, Morpheus could have trained Neo by punching him in the face rather than throwing him off a building, the chimney sweep guy could have had any other job, because the fact that he is a chimney sweep had no influence on the story, and The Fiddler is only on the roof because that's the name of the musical. What are the reasons for this?

I think it pretty much breaks down to two things, and they are connected. The first is aesthetic. There is something beautiful about a film shot from the roof of a large building in a city.  You can see the skyline, distant monuments, lights, etc.  The second is the natural desire all humans are born with to do what they are not supposed to do.  When was the last time you stood on the roof of a public building?  Unless you are a construction worker or commercial roofer, the answer is probably never.  Its one of those places that's harmless for most people, but due to our litigious society, has been blocked off.  We cannot help but wonder what we are missing out on, and fiction is our way to experience that.