Narrative Theory

Our product will not conform to Todorov's theory, as the equilibrium (the parent's arguing and the girl retreating to her own imagination) remains throughout the entire product until the disequilibrium occurs (the girl running away), yet there is no resolution to the narrative, as the ending is left open and unknown as the girl continues to walk away.

In our product, the characters will conform to a few of Propp's character types. The girl is The Subject, searching for freedom and happiness, the parents and the monster are Villains, stopping her from having either of these things, and the imaginary friend is The Helper, helping her in her search for happiness. Having these character types will help the audience make better sense of the narrative, as the audience will be able to understand each character better.

"Levi-Strauss argued that stories go from one stage to the next by setting up conflicts between two opposing elements that have to be resolved. Pairs of binary oppositions structure narratives. Often one element within a pair will be dominant over the other."

The binary oppositions in our narrative are the girl and her parents. Her parents are the dominant element as they have a lot of power over her and her emotions, whereas she is almost nothing to them. This conflict could in some way be seen as resolved at the end of the product where the parents will be seen searching for their daughter, finally showing some form of positive emotion towards her.