This is nice for those who like the pull-to-refresh trope (I'm not among them, but that's not relevant here). Some suggestions: 1) Wouldn't it be better to have some initialization function like $('body').hook('Reloading...') to create the necessary markup instead of requiring the developer to put it on each page? 2) I'm not sure how hard this would be, but I think it would be better for the pull to refresh action to…
Tangengially, people should stop using the trendy word "trope" to mean 'recurring thing'. It's only valid in a metaphorical sense. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/mind-your-language/2011/sep/...
The "trendy" meaning of trope, is, as far as I can tell, not one easily replaced by another word. It's not a motif so much as a kind of generalization of what archetype is to a character. In its narrative sense it refers to the sort of "tools" and "parts" the story teller uses to construct their tale, and I absolutely love the extension of meaning to refer to UX... tropes (what word would you use here? Motif? That suggests to me more aesthetic design elements than things like pull-to-refresh)