Vladimir Propp analyzed 100 Russian folk tales and identified common narrative components, which he organized into a theory. He identified 8 character types that frequently appear: the villain, helper, princess/prize, father, donor, hero, false hero, and dispatcher. Propp's analysis found that tales share a common structure involving an equilibrium that is disrupted, a hero's journey to restore equilibrium, and a new conclusion/equilibrium. His work established structuralism in folklore and narrative studies.

1. Graphic Narrative Theory

2. Vladmir Propp
He was a Russian soviet formalist. He analyzed the basic
components of 100 Russian folk tales to identify their basic
narrative and found a key similarity within each of them. He then
wrote these down into a theory which even today is seen in things
like films and books. He split these into eight different sections of
types of characters that are seen in the fairy tales he studied. These
were…
• The villain
• The helper
• The princess/prize
• The father
• The donor
• The hero
• The false hero
• The dispatcher

3. Hero
• The hero normally leads the narrative and is the main character in
the story. They usually are on a quest to look for something or
defeat something and are the good guy in the story. They usually
cause the audience to want them to win and succeed in there quest
to live happily ever after. An example of this would be a character
like maverick in Top Gun, his quest is to become the best pilot in the
top 1% of pilots in the world. He is seen as the good guy in the film
and causes the audience to like him.
• An example of a hero in my book would be Jack. His quest is to get
to the top of the bean stalk and defeat the giant and get the chicken
and the guitar and give them to his mother to use to get money for
the house.

4. The villain
• The villain is known to be the bad guy in the story and
normally tries to prevent the hero from completing their
quest but causing disruptions or tasks for the hero to do. They
can also try and go for the prize as well as the hero and
normally succeed to a point where the hero saves the day. An
example of this would be P. Sherman the dentist in finding
Nemo. He captures Nemo on his fishing boat and takes him to
his dental practice. This means he disrupts the simple life
Nemo and his dad has and causes his dad to go on a
dangerous mission to go find him.
• An example of a villain in my book would be the giant kind of
as he is seen as the threat to jack until jack understands that
he is friendly and they become friends and agree to keep the
guitar and the chicken

5. The princess/prize
• The princess is usually the the quest for the hero to get
to and receive at the end of his quest. However is some
stories it is usually captured and taken by the villain
and the hero needs to fight his way though to defeat
the villain and rescue the princess. However it may not
be a person it could be an object like treasure or
freedom. An example of this would be Charlie
Blackwood in Top Gun.
• An example of this in my story would be the magic
guitar and chicken as they are the prize for jack to
collect and make his and his mothers life easier.
Another kind of prize may also be the giants friendship
with jack for the giant to have.

6. The donor
• The donor is usually the person who gives the hero
something to help them on their quest or to help them
defeat the villain. This can sometimes be combined
with the helper. An example of this would be crush in
finding Nemo as he shows them the way to get to
Sydney using the east Australian current and where to
leave it. Doing this he helped them get to Nemo faster
and with less danger.
• An example of a donor in my book would be the old
man who gave jack the magic peas to grow the pea
stalk which gave jack the riches to have a better life.

7. The helper
• The helper supports the hero on his quest by either giving
them helpful advice or tagging along with them and helping
on the way. Sometimes there is something wrong with
them either they are not brave or are nervous all the time.
This sometimes is overcome by them in the story. An
example of this would be Dory in Finding Nemo, she is a
fish with memory loss and struggles to not stop talking
however she helps Marvin find his son by reading the
goggles and going with him on the journey.
• An example of a helper in my story would be jacks mother
as she tells his what he might expect at the top of the pea
stalk which makes jack a little more careful when entering
the house.

8. The Princess’s Father
• This character usually gives the hero a task to complete
before they can ask for their hand in marriage to the
princess, they are usually rather protective over them
and are not accepting and understanding towards the
hero. An example of this would be the king in shrek, he
is very protective over Fiona and doesn’t take a liking
to Shrek until later in the story.
• An example of this in my story would be jacks mother
as she is protective over him and wouldn’t let him go
up the stalk in the beginning until he changed her
mind.

9. The false hero
• This character appears to be heroic at the start
and is made to be out as the hero. They try to
steal the heroes thunder and make them out to
be a bad person. Sometimes they even try and
marry the princess until the hero usually saves
the day. An example of this would be stinky pete
in toy story 2. he tries to keep woody from taking
them out of there place and then tries to kill him.
• There isn't an example of this in my story as jack
retrieves the items on his own.

10. The dispatcher
• This type of character usually appears early on in
the story and sends the hero on there mission.
They can also be linked to the bad guy in the
story for example in Shrek lord faquad sends
Shrek on his mission but is also the bad guy by
preventing them from marrying.
• An example of this in my story would be his
mother as she sends jack up the pea stalk to
retrieve the prize at the top however she is not
the villain.

11. The theory of equilibrium
• This is where the story starts where everything is normal and
everyone is living there normal lives. All the characters are getting
along well and no problems occur. This can be set in different
setting for example in a fairy tale it will be a dream land but in a
action movie this may be in a post war environment where
everyone has adapted to things. In this part of the story
disequilibrium is introduced where somebody is asked to do
something or the villain causes a problem to them and there
normal lives change. Then the rest of the story is about trying to get
back to this normal equilibrium and events happen on the way, for
example different characters are introduced. This part of the story
is where the new equilibrium comes in and the characters carry on
with their lives as normal. This happens in most stories whatever
the theme or setting is.

12. For example in my story jack and the pea stalk everything
is going well at the start and jack and his mother have
adapted to being poor and not being able to afford much.
This would be the starting equilibrium of the story, jack
then goes to the market to sell the cow and this is where
the problems start in the story, this would be the
disequilibrium of the story. The rest of the story where
jack takes the guitar and the chicken and travels down the
stalk to be greeted y hs mother is trying to get back to the
original equilibrium. Then at the end of the story
everyone is happier and jack and his mum now have
more money and are not poor anymore, this would be
the new equilibrium to the story. So this proves the
theory in which fairy tales follow a pattern in each story
that is told.

13. Binary opposites
Binary opposites are where two sides come together for example a good and
evil character or a man and a woman. Different stories have different plots
and binary's. My story is based around good and evil but then resolved to be
good all around when the giant becomes friends with jack and gives him the
chicken and the guitar as a token of their friendship. My story almost uses
binary to get across to children that when the right things are said someone
who is seen to be evil can be changed and become a friend. Another example
would be a story like harry potter by J.K Rowling. In this story there are two
major groups which are magical and non-magical people which are already
binary opposites. There are two other types of people which don’t fit into
each community which are muggle born and half bloods. the lord Voldemort
believes that only full blooded wizards and witches should be allowed to use
magic and all half bloods and muggle born should be tortured or killed. He
then creates a binary system which the full blooded wizards and witches
would dominate any half bloods. Using this system of pure bloods and non
bloods shows her readers the dangers of creating these types of binary
systems in society.

14. Types of narrative
Open: these types of stories don’t have a proper conclusion and are often left
on a cliff hanger which can be linked in with another story which may just go
on and on. A good example of this would be soap operas such as EastEnders
or coronation street. These types of programs have been running for years
and years having loads of different stories for each character and family in the
cast. These types of narrative just go on and on and adapt to new changes
and present this in there episodes. There have been 8593 episodes of
coronation street since it started in 1960 and is still going today which proves
it can just keep going.
Closed: these types of stories do reach a conclusion and that is where the
story is left and is not continued. In fairy tales this is normally what happens.
An example of this would be the James bond movies. Even though they have
made many films with a different cast each film still has a beginning a middle
and a end and the end is the end of that movie and the next movie will be a
complete different setting.
Single strand: this type of story only has one event that happens and gets
resolved like something is lost and they go on a journey to find it. This makes
them simple and good for things like children's stories. An example of a single
strand story would be a film like iron man where the whole story is
concentrated on one character and nothing else. In the first three films it is all
about tony starks life and where as a film like avengers there is more back
stories and events that take place a single stand film like this is a basic, easy to
follow film

15. Multistrand: this type of story has several events some happening at
the same time with others. These can be hard to follow and are usually
split into different books or episodes like a soap opera or a siccom. A
good example of a multistrand story would be the avengers movie and
different parts of the story concentrate of different characters and
time periods. Each character has a different back story and this is
shown in the main story which can become confusing for a viewer.
Linier: in these stories the story starts from the beginning and goes
through till the end and the events all come in order after each other
and in the present tense. This is a very simple layout and is easy to
follow. A film like rocky would be a good example of this as each event
of this film is in the present tense first the introduction then the
training then the fight at then end. These types of films are really easy
t follow as the film guides you thought it in simple stages and you
don’t have to think about the characters past or anything.
Non-linier: in these stories the story can start from any point and
usually flicks through both past and present tense to tell the story and
can become rather confusing to a reader and is very hard to follow. An
example of this would be a film like batman begins. This film started
when he was a child and it does so through different parts of the films
referring to both past and present tense. This can make it really hard
to follow as you need to remember what happened at certain dates in
the characters life to be able to understand the whole story.

16. Realist: these types of stories have events and characters in them that are
realistic and believable to happen in a real life situation. These happen on
things like soaps where real people are used to act situations out. Even
though a lot of ad things happen of these soaps it is realistic because they use
realistic props and characters to act out these problems. For example if
somebody was shot this would be a believable thing to happen as it does
happen in this world. Therefore this type of story counts as realist.
Anti-realist: these are types of stories that include less realistic situations and
are usually used in things like siccoms and less realistic films. A film like
captain America would be a anti-realist type of film as the events that happen
in it are not believable and look unrealistic although we may have things like
pulse blaster guns and energy cubes in the future we do not have them now
so it doesn’t seem real or true.