Help w/ specific Plot/character motivation issue

[sozme]

An 8 year old boy and his mother are forced out of their elaborate mansion owing to a crime committed by the boy's father (the government/chancellor seizes all of the family's assets).

What are some reasons the boy would want to earn back the favor of the government in hopes the property will be granted back to him? Even if it takes him the next 50 years trying to earn it back.

In other words, what is so special about the family's estate that the boy not only wants to get it back, but needs to get it back?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Genre is science fiction/space fantasy

Only thing I can come up with is that it is their family's ancestral home. But I have the character in question risking his life to earn back the favor. I don't know if this is believable enough.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

It was his birthright, not anyone else's to steal.

 

[The Judge]

Well, my latest fantasy has Our Hero risking his neck to regain his ancestral home which was confiscated by the state -- together with the rest of his estates, admittedly, and other reasons are added to the pot, both logical and emotional -- so personally I think it's eminently believable!

However, if you want something extra, you simply need a McGuffin hidden somewhere on the estate/within the mansion, that he can't access unless he owns it, but which no one else could ever find. That could be a riches, or an ancient artefact. Or to integrate it with the plot better, some papers which prove his father didn't in fact commit the crime.

 

[Jackie Bee]

Maybe give him some sentimental memories, like playing there as a child with his best friend/little brother, building a fortress and promising each other they would always protect it, and then his friend/brother died in an accident or something, so he felt he had to keep the promise. Something like that.

 

[Ragandar]

Depending on how much romance you want in your book, he could be in love with someone of high rank, and their father will only allow the marriage or whatever if he's of some repute. His quickest/best way to obtain that status again is to get his ancestral estates back from the government. You can then even build in some character doubts about whether it's worth it to risk his life, or whether they'd be better off running away together.

It's not an option that I would personally use because of what I like to write, but it certainly is an option that is available to you.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Thinking aside, you could even have a revenge element, a la Count of Monte Cristo, for the process of getting it back. Well, obviously no one is simply going to give back what they've already stolen from him.

 

[Ihe]

Imagine mother/son knew of a hidden item in the mansion grounds that the government doesn't know exists. It could be a powerful alien artefact, game-changing tech, treasure, whatever, and to retrieve it in secret and safely, he needs to own the land back (if it's a huge thing). Maybe it could be related to his father's crime even. Hidden in plain sight and missed by the government perhaps?

 

[RX-79G]

The son is the newest incarnation of a long line of people sharing the same personality and memories going back for centuries. The son must maintain his link to the property to both fully realize his full memories and maintain his ability to keep going into future generations. The father does not have to die for the son to have memories as well - it is a shared identity.

 

[Steven Sorrels]

Home is home. If he felt it had been unjustly taken from his family, then he could very conceivably be led to believe that either earning or taking it back is righting a wrong in the world. His need to secure his childhood home could be an extension of some sense of justice and balance. Of course he could also go to extreme lengths to achieve this goal, depending on how you want the story to proceed, as often people's noble goals become twisted by how they view the world and how it has treated them.

*Edit: (Just read the comment above me lol)

If the ancestral land imparts a shared identity to his family, then it is out of a sense of survival as well. He would be losing a large part of himself to forgo pursuing repossession.

 

[VinceK]

The boy's home is where he draws his power from, without it he will fade and be unable to prove his father's innocence.