2. Genre
• The genre of Mean Girls is comedy. We can tell
this because most comedies are set in bright
social settings, and Mean Girls is set in a
school. It is also a comedy because of how
exaggerated the characters are, and what
happens throughout the film.
3. Narrative - Linear
• The protagonist Cady Heron was raised in Africa by her parents but they
then move to the suburbs of Illinois, where Cady goes to public school in
America for the first time, where she learns about popularity and how it
divides the students around her. Cady becomes friends with Janis and
Damien, who tell her about three girls who are called ‘the plastics’, who
then invite her to have lunch with them. Janis and Damien talk Cady into
becoming friends with them, but then later on accuse her of being just
like them when they only wanted her to be friends with them so they
could find out things about them. Whilst Cady is being friends with the
plastics, she falls in love with Regina’s ex boyfriend Aaron Samuels, and
when Regina finds out, she started going out with him again. Cady and
the plastics eventually stop being friends, and without friends Cady
decides to join the mathletes, and then at the school dance makes up
with everybody she fell out with. The end of the film shows the plastics
doing completely different things without each other, and Cady back
with Janis and Damien, just how things started.
4. Representation
• Cady Heron – the main protagonist played by Lindsay Lohan. She moved to America
from Africa.
• The Plastics – Regina, Gretchen and Karen, the three most popular girls at the school
Cady moves to. Known for having money and knowing everybody's business. They
become friends with Cady and make her like them. Played by Rachel McAdams, Lacy
Chabert and Amanda Seyfried.
• Janis and Damien – The two friends that Cady makes when she first starts school. They
tell her everything she needs to know about the school and everyone in it. They
convince her to become friends with the plastics, but it doesn’t go how they planned it.
Played by Lizzy Caplan and Daniel Franzese.
• Aaron Samuels – Regina’s ex boyfriend and the boy that Cady likes. He is on the schools
football team and sits behind Cady in maths class. He starts to like her but when Cady
becomes like Regina, he doesn’t like her anymore. Played by Jonathan Bennett.
• Ms. Norbury and Mr Duvall – The two main teachers at Cady’s new school. Ms. Norbury
tries to get Cady to join the mathletes. Mr Duvall is the one that deals with the burn
book and who wrote it.
5. Audience
• The audience for Mean Girls would be mainly
girls aged between 15 – 25, as Mean Girls can
be enjoyed my teenagers but also may appeal
to younger adults.
• The audience would mainly fit into Group E of
the Jicnar Scale as the majority of people who
watch Mean Girls will still be students.
