Generation Xerox as seen in Literature.
- In SA Swann's Apotheosis series, Salmagundi practices a peculiar form of ancestor worship, which expects everyone to download 5-12 of their ancestors into themselves. Since each of those ancestral minds is usually a melding of the half-dozen or more minds that they had downloaded, each of which is a blending of minds etc., this leads to people who are remarkably alike in personality, since everyone is a distillation of their ancestors, and a lot of people have overlapping sets of ancestors.
- Between by Jessica Warman demonstrates this through the main character Liz. Liz was a xerox of her mother's seemingly golden status yet dealing with anorexia. And just like her mother, she also faces her best friend attempting to seduce the man she was in a strong and genuine relationship with.
- Implied in the third book in The Beyonders: Darien the Seer's message to Jason implies that he will some day have a daughter who will also go on a journey across Lyrian like he did, and, in the process, end up having to explore Darien's lair just like Jason did.
- In Robert Rankin's fifth Brentford Trilogy novel, The Brentford Chainstore Massacre, we're told that Omalley's ancestor was sent to Brentford by the Pope to kill Pooley's ancestor and that Pooleys and Omalleys have been killing each other over the Brentford Scrolls ever since. However, the current Pooley and Omalley are best friends.
- In Neal Stephenson's novel Cryptonomicon and its multipart Prequel, The Baroque Cycle:
- The characters of Lawrence Waterhouse and his ancestor Daniel are both descended from nonconformist preachers (Lawrence's grandfather, Bunyan, and Daniel's father, Drake). Despite an unconventional childhood, they attend a prestigious university (Princeton/Cambridge) where they form a strong but uneasy friendship with an obsessive, gay uber-genius (Alan Turing/Isaac Newton). They subsequently come onto the radar of the mysterious immortal Enoch Root, and become involved in a complex secret war involving hidden gold and cryptography, with the assistance of Sergeant Bob Shaftoe (of the US Marines/the King's Own Black Torrent Guards), while also becoming involved with the political machinations of the Comstock family (Earl Comstock, first head of the NSA/Roger Comstock, Marquis of Ravenscar) and working on early computers (very early in Daniel's case). Oh, and amongst the genuine historic figures Waterhouse meets is the famous military leader, Churchill (Winston Churchill/John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough).
- Laurence's grandson Randy in Cryptonomicon's 1990s sections, also fits the pattern to some extent; he's a computer geek, he becomes involved in Root's conspiracy, works with Bobby Shaftoe's son (and has a relationship with his granddaughter), and deals with the political machinations of Earl Comstock's descendant. Admittedly, he starts out with an interest in his grandfather's work, but that doesn't explain all of it, and certainly not why his capitalist venture partner just happens to be descended from a member of the original Bob Shaftoe's brother's pirate crew (as, incidentally, is Goto Dengo, one of a handful of characters to appear in the 1940s and 1990s sequences of Cryptonomicon. He's a Japanese soldier who converts to Christianity; his ancestor was one of the "Kirishitan" Jesuits persecuted by Toyotomi Hideyoshi).
- The writing of David Eddings, especially the Belgariad/Malloreon series and The Elenium/Tamuli series, in which characters specifically point out the similarity of events. This repetition is put down to Destiny by Dirty Old Man / Byronic Hero Belgarath and Creepy Child / Oracular Urchin / Physical God Aphrael, respectively. At the end of both series, however, it is claimed that this cycle of Destined Events has been broken, making the future unpredictable.
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth: It turns out that Greg looks exactly like Frank's cousin, Terence. Greg is not happy about it.
- In Discworld novels, "Old Stoneface" Vimes is the Knight Commander of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch and is well known for his belief that nobody is above the law, to the extent that he famously arrested the ruler of the city. While this obviously refers to Sam, during the time period of the novels, it's also a description of Suffer-Not-Injustice, some 300 years earlier.
- The Divine Comedy: All that we learn about Dante Alighieri's great-grandfather, who gave the family the name Alighieri, is that he has spent a century in Purgatory to rid himself of Pride. Vices appear to be genetic because Dante had earlier admitted that he would almost certainly end up in that part of Purgatory for a long, long time.
- An unusual Real-Person Fic example in the Doctor Who Expanded Universe short story "Doctor Who and the Adaptation of Death" by Graeme Burk. Set in 20 Minutes into the Future Hollywood, the big movie stars the screenwriter viewpoint character mentions are all the kids or grandkids of present-day stars, either real (Kal-El Cage) or imagined (Jude Law III). Also, J. K. Rowling has a descendent called P. Q. Rowling who wrote Harry Potter and the Half Moon Dentist.
- In Emily the Strange: The Lost Days, Emily/Earwig discovers she very closely resembles her Great Aunt Emma.
- Chris and Cathy in Flowers in the Attic not only look eerily like their parents, but they also end up basically the same way, Brother–Sister Incest and all.
- In Sarah Addison Allen's The Girl Who Chased The Moon, after Dulcie and Logan's history in the Back Story, Logan's brother fears it will happen again with his son Win and Dulcie's daughter Emily.
- In Harry Potter, this cuts both ways. Harry's father and his cohorts from their days at Hogwarts, the Marauders, map well onto Harry and his friends — and he meets every single one of them before the end of the third book. And the "first day at Hogwarts" at the end of Deathly Hallows is a dead ringer for Harry's own "first day" way back in Philosopher's Stone. This is emphasized when Harry's daughter Lily whines that she wants to go to Hogwarts now to her mother, Ginny, said the same thing six books earlier.
- This is also subverted to an extent with Harry's father — Harry unthinkingly assumes that their characters were xeroxed until Harry's father James turns out to have been a pampered Jerk Jock in his teenage years, properly maturing only in the last year or two of school. It's implied that Harry's unhappy upbringing has made him a better person in some respects. Dumbledore also comments to Snape he finds Harry's personality much like his mother's, rather than his father's.
- Harry is constantly described as looking exactly like his father, except that he has his mother's green eyes. When Harry actually gets a look of what James looked at his own age, due to reading Snape's memories, he notices that looking at his father's face is much like staring into an uncanny mirror. It looks almost the same, but some details are just slightly off.
- Also, both Harry and James fall in love with and marry a red-haired woman, making both couples very alike in looks. Although this is subverted because Harry is a half-blood whose wife Ginny is a pureblood, while James was a pureblood whose wife Lily was muggle-born.
- Also the situation of an orphaned godson is repeated. The books start out with Harry, an orphan, living with his relatives. He grows very close to his godfather, Sirius. The books end with Teddy Lupin, an orphan, living with his relatives. Jo tells us he becomes very close to his godfather, Harry.
- Draco Malfoy plays this trope around across the saga. When we meet his father Lucius it's very much clear that Draco takes after him physically and does everything he can to imitate him, putting on airs with a snobby attitude and looking down on others. However, come Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, when he finally joins the Death Eaters and is given the (seemingly) impossible task of assassinating Dumbledore, he starts realizing what it really means to be like his father, and he does not enjoy it one bit. Many years later, he goes out of his way to defy this trope and raise his son so he doesn't turn out like him or Lucius.
- This is also subverted to an extent with Harry's father — Harry unthinkingly assumes that their characters were xeroxed until Harry's father James turns out to have been a pampered Jerk Jock in his teenage years, properly maturing only in the last year or two of school. It's implied that Harry's unhappy upbringing has made him a better person in some respects. Dumbledore also comments to Snape he finds Harry's personality much like his mother's, rather than his father's.
- In Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar series, the Ashkevrons are shown to be very much like this generation after generation. Queen Selenay jokes, not inaccurately, that members of the family who don't inherit the usual resemblance generally find excuses to run off to the capital city. To give one of the more egregious examples: the main characters of the books are identical twin girls with an older brother. Of the past five generations of their mother's family, three have consisted of identical twin girls with an older brother.
- Holes largely hinges on a downplayed version of this: Elya Yelnats accidentally broke a promise to a one-legged Gypsy named Madame Zeroni, resulting in a curse on all his descendants. The protagonist, his great-great-grandson Stanley, winds up breaking the curse entirely by accident, when he happens to befriend Madame Zeroni's descendant and help him in all the ways that Elya forgot to help her.
- How to Fly with Broken Wings: Archie's mother Rachel used to be in love with a fighter pilot named Robert. They were together for twenty-one days before he was killed. Many decades later, Archie gets engaged to Gracie and moves in with her. Twenty-one days later, he dies of a heart attack.
- In The Hunger Games, Katniss looks like her father, Mr. Everdeen, has inherited his hunting abilities, singing voice and, like him, will marry someone from the town. Her sister, Prim, looks like Mrs. Everdeen and has inherited her passion for healing. Also, Mrs. Everdeen was close friends with Katniss' friend, Madge's mother, as a teenager and the father of Katniss' love interest Peeta had a crush on Mrs. Everdeen.
- The immortal witch Azusa of I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level meets a guild receptionist named Natalie during her first visit to Flatta village. Three hundred years later, she meets her descendant, also named Natalie, also working as the receptionist, and looking so alike Azusa thinks she's the same person. Downplayed in the anime adaptation, in which the two have distinct design differences.
- A bizarre variant, in which there's no blood relationship, is the "Jack and Susan" mysteries by Michael McDowell. Whether it's 1913, 1933, or 1953 (and McDowell originally intended to write stories for the "_3" year of each decade), Jack Beaumont and Susan Bright are always 27 years old, meeting and falling in love for the first time. No explanation is ever even attempted — this is just the way it happens.
- In the Jack Ryan series, Jack Ryan Jr. eventually joins the CIA like his father, while Sally goes to medical school like her mother (the same one, to top it off).
- The Kane Chronicles has a variation on this in that most of the people that the gods possess tend to live variations of the tales of the gods; e.g. Julius Kane (possessed by Osiris) is kidnapped by Set while his children Carter and Sadie Kane are forced to escape (Horus and Isis respectively). Justified in that the gods don't have imagination and can only repeat stories, while humans can change these.
- In Kunoichi, this is implied to have occurred with Michiru Fujimori and her daughter Anna, both skilled computer scientists. Right down to the Split Personality.
- Roland Rat: Living Legend by Anne Digby, the spoof biography of the CBBC puppet character, reveals that Roland's father and grandfather both wanted to make it in showbiz before him, and were subsequently conned by the father and grandfather of Roland's dodgy agent, Darcy de Farcy. The opening illustration to the first chapter shows Anton de Farcy as looking exactly like James Saxon, the actor who played Darcy.
- A non-heroic example is present in Gabriel García Márquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. The names and the personality traits associated with those names emerge in each generation of the Buendía family, leading to a cycle of repeating mishaps and tragedies which only ends with the death of the last member of the family and the destruction of the town the family founded. The exception being the twins Aureliano Segundo and José Arcadio Segundo. The former is sociable, jolly and likes to party, which are traits associated with the José Arcadios; the latter is reserved and gloomy, and has military interests, like the previous Aurelianos. It's implied that this is because the twins swapped names so often that eventually they lost track of their own identities — it's quite possible that Aureliano Segundo was José Arcadio Segundo and vice-versa.
- Simona Ahrnstedt does this in her debut novel Överenskommelser, where the female protagonist Beatrice seems to have inherited both her appearance and her personality from her paternal grandmother. Her cousins have some of this too. Edvard has inherited his abusive side from his father, Sofia is beautiful but weak like her mother. Not to mention that Beatrice must have inherited her intelligence from her father, who was a professor at Uppsala University.
- Ramona Quimby: In Beezus and Ramona, Beezus feels guilty about how much Ramona annoys her, because her mother Dorothy and Aunt Beatrice have such a loving relationship and she thinks that's how all sisters should be. But in the last chapter, her mother and aunt reveal that they were just like Beezus and Ramona as children: Dorothy was the neat, well-behaved, responsible older sister, while Beatrice was the free-spirited, messy, mischievous Annoying Younger Sibling, and they drove each other crazy all the time.
- Red, White & Royal Blue: The Forbidden Romance between Henry and Alex echoes the relationship between Henry's own parents Arthur and Catherine. In literally any other relationship, Arthur would've been considered a serious catch, being a wealthy and famous stage and film actor. Instead, he fell in love with Princess Catherine, whereupon his career and lack of pedigree made him wholly unsuitable as a spouse. The two were so in love that they got married anyway despite Queen Mary's objections. Likewise, Alex would've been a perfectly acceptable partner for Henry as a child of a President of the United States; however, he's a man, which in Mary's eyes makes him an even more unsuitable option than Arthur was. Despite that, the two of them are too in love to let that barrier come between them and fight for their right to be a couple in the open.
- Every generation of the Ohmsford family in Terry Brooks Shannara series includes one member who Jumps At The Call of the druid Allanon (or his successors). This family member stands a good chance of being friends with the impulsive Prince of Leah, and will almost certainly encounter the King of the Silver River and be accompanied by a group of Men, Dwarves, and Elves (probably including Elven royalty) against the Big Bad. They may also have a more sensible sibling who accompanies them to stop them getting into trouble, encounter a Lovable Rogue named Creel, and befriend a Moor Cat. Although there's usually an element or two from this list missing in each generation.
- The Silmarillion: Elu Thingol stumbles upon Melian singing surrounded by nightingales while wandering alone in the forests of Doriath. Immediately "an enchantment fell upon him" and he takes her hand and they fall wordlessly in love. Several thousand years later, Beren stumbles upon their daughter Lúthien dancing while he is wandering alone in the forest of Doriath and nicknames her Nightingale; he "fell into an enchantment", embraces her, and they fall wordlessly in love.
- Inverse situations end their narratives as well: when Beren dies of wounds received fighting Carcharoth immediately after presenting Thingol with the Silmaril, Lúthien deliberately dies in grief and follows his soul to Mandos. Thirty-six years later, when Thingol is killed by the Dwarves over the Silmaril, Melian deliberately relinquishes her mortal fána and returns herself to Valinor in grief.
- It is rather subtle but the similarities between the younger generation of (especially, but definitely not just them) Stark children in A Song of Ice and Fire and the previous generation has been pointed out.
- This also happens to Ned in regards to older members of his family. His father Lord Rickard was unjustly executed by the evil King "Mad" Aerys II and his oldest son was also killed horrifically. Near the end of the first book Ned is executed by the evil King Joffrey and later his oldest son is killed in a horrific manner.
- Arya is noted to be Generation Xerox for her Aunt Lyanna in both appearance and personality, as a similarly wild, tomboyish Rebellious Princess with an interest in riding and fencing over ladylike arts, and concern for the smallfolk. Ned even admits he's worried about the similarities.
Ned: "Lyanna would have carried a sword if my lord father had allowed it. You remind me of her sometimes, you even look like her. Beautiful, willful...and dead before her time."- Examined by the various members of the Lannister family. Jaime and Cersei both believe themselves to be just like their father. Both claims are refuted by other members of the family. Cersei is considered to be too mercurial in comparison to the rock-solid Tywin by both her brothers. Tywin's sister Genna dismisses Jaime's claim, as Tyrion is most like Tywin, while noting he does have similarities to most of his uncles.
- The noble houses in ASOIAF in general work like this, both in appearance (Martin's genetics is... peculiar) and in behavior (nobles are encouraged to imitate their more famous ancestors). One character (Joffrey Baratheon) was even correctly outed as not a real Baratheon by numerous characters, by virtue of him neither looking the part nor acting like how a proper Baratheon acts. By contrast, Robert's bastard children all act in a stubborn manner and have the Baratheon coloring.
- Robert's brother Stannis has similar qualities to his great-great-grandfather King Maekar I. They were both stern and unforgiving younger sons who are great military men but feel unappreciated, unexpectedly inherit the Iron Throne, and both kill a better-liked brother of theirs.
- Robert's bastard son Gendry manages to demonstrate the traits of his father and uncle Stannis, despite not even knowing he's a Baratheon. He's inherited Robert's strength and fondness for a war hammer while being very similar in personality to the serious, honorable, and reserved Stannis. He even ends up best friends with Arya Stark — the daughter of Robert's best friend Ned — and is hinted to be developing feelings for her, who (as noted above) is similarly Generation Xerox of Lyanna Stark, the woman Robert spent his life in love with.
- The Sweet Valley Saga books rely on the idea that the present inhabitants of Sweet Valley largely are Xeroxed from the ancestors who are the subjects of the books. Patmans and Fowlers are of course in some way derived from nobility, for example.
- The whole plot of Madeleine L'Engle's A Swiftly Tilting Planet is Charles Wallace performing Mental Time Travel into members of the Maddox-Llawcae clan, two Always Lawful Good families that repeatedly intermarry. Also featured are the Mortmain, O'Keefe, and "Gwydyr" families, whose members are Always Chaotic Evilnote . Basically each stop involves one or more members of an "evil" family trying to seduce/oppress someone from the Maddox-Llawcaes. A common criticism of this book is that In the Blood is the actual moral.
- As revealed in the Thomas & Friends spin-offs The Island of Sodor and Sodor: Reading Between the Lines, there have been three Fat Controllers: Sir Topham Hatt, his son Sir Charles Topham Hatt, and his son Sir Stephen Topham Hatt. Within the books, the Fat Controllers appear identical.
- Played with several times in Tamora Pierce's Tortall Universe:
- Aly of the Trickster's Duet is completely different from Alanna — she's flippant and unambitious at the start of the book, with no interest in being a knight. However, she does take after her dad George the spymaster. Her twin brother Alan is a knight-in-training, and her other brother Thom follows after his namesake in studying magic.
- The Beka Cooper books invert this completely. The Hero, Beka Cooper, is George Cooper's great-something grandmother... a legendary police officer. Also in her books is Lord Lionel of Trebond, a sexist who thinks that women are weak and delicate and who is far too cowardly to stand up to the Big Bad of the book.
- There is something like this in Vanity Fair — Amelia, who is something of a Wide-Eyed Idealist Proper Lady has a son George whom she terribly spoils, leading him on a path to become like his father (also named George), who was a snobbish Jerk Jock wannabe aristocrat. However, whereas Dogged Nice Guy Dobbin wasn't successful in reforming the earlier George, he is able to mold the younger George, his step-son, into a better person. The other "heroine", Becky Sharpe, has a Freudian Excuse for some of her behavior. She neglects her son Rawdon, who is named after his father who was better than most of his family who were a long line of evil aristocrats. While less of a character than young George, the younger Rawdon also seems to grow up to be a better person than his parents — he gives his mother a settlement not to come near him ever again which contrasts with how his grandfather, Sir Pitt Crawley tried to cheat his children out of inheritance owed to them.
- In Warrior Cats, characters tend to be the subject of a prophecy or take on a role like a leader if it happened to their mentor or parents. For instance, the last few ThunderClan leaders have been a series of mentors and their apprentices: Sunstar mentored Bluestar who mentored Firestar who mentored Bramblestar. Hawkfrost tried to take over the Clans like his father Tigerstar and there was a prophecy about the final confrontation that stopped each one. Being the subject of a prophecy and saving the Clans in some way also seems to run in Firestar's bloodline.
- Happened in Welkin Weasels — even their names are very similar: the descendants of Mawk and Scirf are named Maudlin and Scruff, respectively.
- In Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff and Isabella's son Linton Heathcliff has the worst traits of both of his parents, being a nasty, cowardly snob. On the positive side, Hareton Earnshaw and Catherine Linton have a lot in common with young Heathcliff and young Catherine Earnshaw (in fact, Heathcliff deliberately keeps Hareton uneducated to mold him into a new version of himself), but turn out to be better than the older generation.
