Todorov and levi strauss

1. Todorov
Todorov’s theory was in 5 stages:
 beginning on an equilibrium (everything is neutral)
 there is a disruption
 there is then a recognition
 then there is an attempt to repair the situation
 then a reinstatement of an equilibrium is introduced
An example of when this occurred is in Insidious. At the beginning of
the film there is an equilibrium the movie begins with them in their
home doing usual family activities. The disruption is when something
happens to the boy during the night and the recognition of this is
when his dad can’t wake him up in the morning. The attempt of
repair is when the dad travel through the red door to get him from
the devil and the equilibrium is when they get their boy back.
I agree with this theory a lot as that is usually how films pan out but
the one thing I don’t agree with is sometimes the equilibrium returns
at the end and something is shown at the end to perhaps lead to a
sequel. For example in insidious the investigator takes a picture of
the dad and the movie ends on the wife seeing that the picture on
the camera shows the devil not her husband.
Levi Strauss
Levi’s theory is that the narrative is based on binary oppositions. Heobserved
that the oppositions would contrast. For example:
 good vs evil
 human vs alien

2. If you take this woman in black DVD cover you can clearly see the
oppositions of light and dark, good and evil, natural and supernaturaland
known vs unknown.