Character Types & Narative Structures

1. Character Types & Narrative
Structure
The Character Types:
A Russian formalist scholar named Vladimir Propp
analyzed the plot components of a hundred folk tales and
found that despite the fact there are a large amount of
characters in them they are all broken down into the
following 8 character types:
 The Hero
 The Villain
 The Princess/Prize
 The Donor
 The Helper
 The Princess’ Father
 The False Hero
 The Dispatcher
In my book the hero would technically be a combination
of all three of the little Martians. However if I was to
narrow it down to one character I would say the third
little Martianwould be the main hero as he is the one that
builds the brick house which protects them. He also the
one to come up with the idea to drop the Big Bad Alien
into the pot of boiling goo to get rid of him. Although it
would be unusual to have him as the Hero as he does not

2. show up till very near the end of the story, all of the
things he does makes him the most suitable candidate.
The villainin my book would be the Big Bad Alien. This is
due to the fact that his main goal throughout the book is
to cause distress to the three little Martians and try to
destroy their houses. As he has only bad intentions
towards the three little Martians he is seen as the bad guy
or villain. Also because he is a villainI have made him red
so the reader will see the red and think he is evil. This is
because although red is associated with being strong,
which my alienis, it is also associated with bad things like
a “No Entry” sign for instance.
In my book there is no princess or someone in need of
rescue. However, there is a prize of sorts. In the story the
three little Martians are trying to get rid of the bad alien
by any means necessary and so the prizes becomes the
three Martians kill/scaringaway the Alien. Also as there
isn’t any princess then there is no princess’ father as
there is no person that the three little Martians need to
impress.
The Donor in my book would be the Merchant Martianas
he gives each character the materials that allow them to
build their houses. This helps advance the story as
without the merchant the Martians wouldn’t be able to
build and so the alienwould have found it a lot easier to
eat them. Although the merchant is the donor in my book
he is not, unlike many books, the helper as he only shows
up three times to give the Martians the materials they
need to make their houses and then he is gone againand
so this only makes him the donor.

3. The Helper in my book could technically be the first and
second little Martians. This is because the first Martian
helps the second Martian escape the stick house as it is
being blown down an then the second and first Martians
help the third one to get rid of the alien once and for all.
So because they help the third Martian who I said was the
hero of the book they would be the helpers helping
Martianthree in his quest.
In my book there is no one who has the traits of the false
hero. As the false hero is someone who is suppose to trick
the hero into going the wrong way or doing the wrong
thing and even a person we could mistake for the actual
hero in the story. In my story there is no one who fits this
character role as all of my characters are set as The Hero,
The Villain or The Donor.
Finally, The Dispatcher. This would be the Mother
Martianthat we see only once on page one. She is the
character that sends the three little Martians out into the
world to start their new lives. Although she doesn’t send
them out on a quest she does help kick start the plot by
telling the three little Martians that she cannot afford to
keep them any longer.
The Narrative Structure:
A Russian structuralist named Todorov found that all
stories follow a simple structural path. There is a three
and five step version.

4. Three Step:
 State of Equilibrium – This is the start of a book or
film where it sets the scene of a new day
 Disequilibrium – An event happens that throws the
character into the story and on the adventure
 New Equilibrium – This is at the end when
everything is back to normal, but it doesn’t have to
be back to the same as before.
Five Step:
 A state of equilibrium
 A disruption of that order by an event
 A recognition that disorder has occurred
 An attempt to repair the damage
 A return or restoration of new equilibrium
In my book there isn’t really a starting equilibrium as the
story starts off with the characters being told by their
mother that they have to move out and make their own
way in the world. However you could argue that this is
their equilibrium as the reader has no knowledgeof the
way these characters use to live and so them moving out
and building houses is their normal day or their
equilibrium.
The disequilibrium starts when the Big Bad Alien arrives
this is something that isn’t apart of their normal daily
routine and is an event that causes distress and disorder.

5. Finally when the alienis gone and the Martians are safe
the story goes back to a new state of equilibrium.
Everything hasn’t gone back to the way it all was as two
of the three houses have been destroyed, but the three
little Martians are back in a state of equilibrium, as they
have nothing disturbing their lives anymore.
Binary Opposition:
Claude Levi Strauss, a French theorist, came up with the
theory of binary opposition. The theory states that in
each story there are two opposing sides that come
together and is most likely to end up in combat.
Some examples would be:
 Good vs. Evil
 Men vs. Women
 Policevs. Criminals
 Young vs. Old
 Humans vs. Aliens
 Humans vs. Animals
This applies in my book as I have a Good vs. Evil story
line. The Martians would be the Good and the Alien
would be Evil, all the way through the book from the
point the Alien arrives they Good and Evil are in combat
with each other and trying to kill/eateach other. In my
book I have made it very obvious who is good and who is
bad by use of colours. To show the good Martians I used

6. Green for their skin tone, and to show the Evil Alien I
used a Red for his skin tone.
Types of Structure:
There are eight different types of structure that are use
throughout most books and even movies. These eight
consist of:
 Open – An open narrative does not have any
conclusion to the story. Instead they leave it open so
that it can go on and on. Most soap operas and
Comic books do this.
 Closed – These are narratives that have an ending
point and can’t be continued as the story always has
some sort of way of saying this is the end. Most films
do this as they have a start and an end within the
run time of the movie.
 Single-Strand – This refers to a movie, book or
other type of media that has only a single storyline.
An example of this would be children’s book as if
there are too many story lines a child could get lost.
 Multi-Strand – This type of structure consist of
multiple story lines running parallelto each other.
Soap operas are a good example of this. Also movies
like Pulp Fictionand Sin City are excellentexamples
of this.
 Linear – A linear story is a start that runs beginning
to end all scenes in the correct order. This is the
most common way of story telling and is used in
many films, books and other areas of media.

7.  Non-Linear – A non-linear story is a story that
doesn’t go straight from beginning to end and
instead jumps around with each scene being way
after or way before the last. This is a less common
and less used method but it is still used. Pulp Fiction
again is a good example of this type of structure.
 Realist – This type of story line consist of real-life
event. These are mostly made up from an event that
could happen to an actual person but has been
amped up a bit to make for a more interesting film.
An example of this in film would be the 2013 film
Selfish Giant, as this is a situation that, given the
right circumstances, could happen to anyone.
 Anti-Realist – These are stories that would never
happen to anyone and are complete fabricated by
the films/books creators. Examples of these would
be films such as the 2015 film Ex Machina or the
2014 film Transcendence.
My book has a single-strand. This is because there is only
one story within my book, which is the alientrying to eat
the Martians and the Martians trying to get rid of the
alien. I have done this as I feel it would be too difficult for
children of the age range I am aiming my book at to
follow multiple stories. I also did this because the
original story of the Three Little Pigs is single-strand.
The book is also linear which means it starts at the
beginning and goes straight through to the end in order.
This was done because again the original is like this and
because many 5-7 year olds would be confused if the
story was all out of order. Finally it is closed and this is
simply because there is no sequel to this book and the

8. Alien is gone in the end meaning there is no longer a
threat.