"Okay, we may not have anti-aircraft missiles or underground lairs, but what we do have is community. We look after each other." —Lena,Blue Yonder

AClose-Knit Community—whether a village, a scattering of country farms, a city neighborhood—is a place where people know their neighbors and look after them.

It is not an ensemble or team—not even one like a traveling circus—because the characters do not have a common purpose except on occasion, and incidentally. Most of the time, they go about their own purposes. TheirLeaders act as leaders only in crisis, and merely asReasonable Authority Figures in ordinary time. It also tends to be larger than mostTrue Companions and other groups—large enough that many residents are onlyBit Characters. While it can range from poor to prosperous, it is seldom if ever rich, and the characters are mostly settled in it, with few moving in or out. The widowed may remain there instead of returning their families because they know they can get help there, and their families would be colder.

They lack the privacy of less close-knit communities, theGossipy Hens often get word around, but then, if they don't know what is happening to you, how can they help you? And sometimes their help can feel somewhat restricting.Can't Get Away with Nuthin' has its unpleasant side.

Quirky Town is always one; even ones that aren't quirky often have a high tolerance for eccentrics, town drus, and other unusual and/or dysfunctional characters.Arcadia is also always a Close-Knit Community, if the matter comes up; it is more likely to come up when Arcadia is contrasted to aVice City rather than aDeadly Decadent Court. TheWrong Side of the Tracks can also be close-knit, in which case it is not theWretched Hive, and even holds down the crime rate by their quick action against it. This can even be true in aVice City, though it is not common, and the community tends to be poorer and have more crime than other close-knit communities, because they can only contain the city to a certain extent; on other hand, they will often need each other's support after crimes.Crystal Spires and Togas and other ideal cities are more likely to contain neighborhoods of them, than be them, since the characters have to know each other. Common in the towns ofThe Western.

Hidden Elf Village can also be one. Characters in this community do not have to be welcoming.

However, aTown with a Dark Secret does not qualify, since all the townsfolk are united in the purpose of keeping their secret, and probably with the activities involved in it—and similiarly with anUncanny Village. AWrong Genre Savvy protagonist may take one of those for this trope, or this trope for one of those, or the story may have such a fake out.

Because of their mutual support, plots involving the Close-Knit Community either

1. Imperil the community, so they have to defend themselves, or haveThe Hero defend them. (He may be an outsider, often brought in because one member acted as aGood Samaritan.)
2. Have a youngster not appreciate it.Small Town Boredom or resentment of how theGossipy Hens see to it that everyone knows everything, and youCan't Get Away with Nuthin' can lead to an escape. Often followed byAn Aesop as the youngster learns thatApathetic Citizens are worse, and the value ofHome, Sweet Home.
3. Have an outsider—often one burned out onIn Harm's Way—learn thevalue of community and settle down from hisWalking the Earth. Often a subplot of the first, but it is not required.
4. As a safe setting forFree-Range Children to have child-sized adventures.

Advertising

• One Budweiser extolls the neighborhood.

This is for the people in my neighborhood Who help me through the day and make me feel good This Bud's for you And you and you and you.

Anime and Manga

• InMy Neighbor Totoro, the unnamed community the Kusakabes are moving to at the opening of the film proves to be this. Hardly surprising, since it's located not far from the border ofArcadia and theGhibli Hills.
• InMaison Ikkoku, the title location is a tiny, aging apartment complex whose rather disfunctional residents manage to fit the description of "a place where people know their neighbors and look after them", though "looking after their neighbors" often amounts to "bring them inside when they pass out drunk".

Film

• Haven, fromSerenity.
• The Hassidic diamond sellers district in theCrime and Punishment filmA Stranger Among Us.
• The Greek community inMy Big Fat Greek Wedding
• Bedford Falls inIts a Wonderful Life.

Literature

• L. M. Montgomery'sAnne of Green Gables and all its sequels. Anne comments on how all the little old well-meaning ladies visited her before she went to college and their comments, delivered with the sweetness of intentions, made her dread the possibilities.
• Haven fromProtector of the Small, by Tamora Pierce.
• District 12 fromThe Hunger Games - before Katnissvolunteers to take her sister's place in the Games, the community deliberately overlooks the fact that Katniss breaks a major rule (imposed by the government nobody likes) every day to poach from the forest because she brings them meat. Despite that Katniss is a little girl, she gets an even trade from the members where possible and nobody exploits her. Her mom, an Apothecary, cares for the sick and injured villagers for no pay. Generally every citizen of District 12 is pretty altruistic and selfless.
• It's mentioned several times throughout theEarth's Children series that residents of any given Cave^[1] look out for each other for their mutual benefit.
• Miss Marple comes from one, St. Mary Meade, and is occasionally set to work in one of these
• OnDiscworld, the Chalk. Tiffany Aching at one point describes how everyone did so because they knew her grandmother was watching them.
• The Ramblings inSeptimus Heap. Mrs. Beetle stayed there because of it after she was widowed, instead of returning toher family and her late husband's in the Port—the families would not be as much help.
• The Prelapsarians inJohn C. Wright'sChronicles of Chaos; they will not move against Olympus while Phaetheusa is hostage, because of their respect for her father, even though he holds no formal position.
• InL. M. Montgomery'sJane of Lantern Hill, Jane is struck by the friendliness of PEI. The narrator comments that she didn't realize that she had changed, no longer having her spirit crushed out of her by her grandmother.

Live Action Television

• AlthoughDeep Space Nine was primarily an ensemble show, the entire population of the space station may count as this.
• Similarly,Terra Nova, though larger than most such communities, probably counts.
• The Twilight Zone's Maple Street was like this before the monsters were due.
  • In "Valley of the Shadow", a quirky town is close-knit. Turns out they have advanced science and don't want their secrets leaking out, pushing it towardTown with a Dark Secret.
• The Hooverville in theDoctor Who episodes "Daleks in Manhattan" and "Evolution of the Daleks".
• The Waltons
• Mayberry onThe Andy Griffith Show also came off as one.
  • In one episode, a stranger came to town and acted all close-knit, which creeped everybody out. Turns out he was planning to move to Maberry and subscribed to the local paper so he knew what everyone was up to.
• Portwenn inDoc Martin is like this, where everyone knows everyone else's business and will always go out of their way to do someone a favour. Whether you want them to or not in fact, something arch-misanthrope Martin absolutely hates.
• Monarch of the Glen
• Little Tall Island fromStephen King'sStorm of the Century. In fact, the villain says that the reason he chose to come to Little Tall was because he knew that they were a close-knit community who could pull together and "do what needs to be done." After the storm, Little Tall arguably moves from this into aTown with a Dark Secret.
• Stars Hollow fromGilmore Girls. Hilariously Lampshaded when Paris barges in, trying to write an article for Chilton's school newspaper about the "dark secret" of the town.

Table Top Games

• Kithkin villages in the Lorwyn setting ofMagic: The Gathering are all like this. When the world is warped into its darker variant Shadowmoor, their communal spirit is turned into outright xenophobia.

Theater

• Our Town features Grover's Corner.

Video Games

• Harmonica Town inHarvest Moon Animal Parade is this, probably because it's a very rural setting and the only town on the island.
• Link's hometown could count as this in most of the games, notablyThe Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword andThe Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess.

Webcomics

• InBlue Yonder,Claremont Apartments. The washed-up superheroes there work together and protect each other and it.
  • Yuri explains to Jared how his careless actions affect everyone.
• Mechanicsburg inGirl Genius is a city with population mainly made up of minions and monstersunited by their loyality to the House Heterodyne.Fooling outsiders is asport.

Western Animation

• InThe PJs, Thurgood's building is another "dysfunctional yet functional" example, mainly because it's located inside an economically strugglingVice City.
• InKing of the Hill, the fictional town of Arlen, Texas (or at least the Hill's neighborhood). The opening sequence depicts protagonist Hank having his daily can of beer with hisTrue Companions (all of whom apparently live on the same street) in the alley next to the Hill residence.

• Trope
• Settings
• Small Towns
• Close-Knit Community