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Of course, I think it is OSC said that the first answer we pull out of our heads is cliche. These things have been programmed into us from years of hearing stories.
That said, sometimes I'm a little taken aback when I flip on the TV and a character has a similar tidbit to one of my own, or says something a little to similar.
For instance, I have a character who say his father killed before him when he was four. Of course, that was in the 9th century and the setting is modern but... is that idea cliche?
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He's saying, a character said, "I saw my father killed when I was very small." Too cliched?
Sure, it's gripping -- one imagines being scarred for life. I am sure that's why it recurs. I don't know where you saw it, but I remember Ensign Ro of Star Trek, who had this same trait. I don't know if I'd be afraid to use this or not, but if I already had, I'd keep it. Every good idea's been done before, after all!
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Ah, thanks wbriggs. I thought it might be that or that he watched his father kill someone else. Couldn't tell.
If that's the case, yeah that's fairly common in fiction. It all depends on you handle it though. As readers, we like some things to be familiar and some things to be different. We'll accept this similarity, and maybe even the how of it, but if the kid goes on a vengeance spree once he's an adult, then we might say: here's another one of these stories... or we might say: one more troubled childhood makes for a troubled adulthood...
So the trick is to make the similarity seem new and fresh, even though it isn't. That can happen any number of ways...
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I'm sorry about the typos and lack of grammar. I was rushing this one before a meeting this morning while doing two or three other things... I'm glad the meaning was discerned.
The character doesn't go on a rampage, however it is the core reason he is zealous later in life in his philosophies, irregardless of human life, those of others or his own...
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