1. Narrative Structures.
In my book I only have a few of Propps 8 character types, Hero, Villain, Prize and
Helper, these characters are CM Hood, Prince McMahon, Paul.E and Bill Goldberg
respectively.
Other characters include Donor, Princesses father, False Hero and Dispatcher,
examples from the films Jaws include Quint, Mayor Larry Vaughan (who can also
come across as the False Hero and the Dispatcher)
Jaws contains all of Propps character types but one:
Hero-Police Chief Martin Brody
Villain-The Shark
Prize-To free Amity from the underwater menace
Donor-Quint
Helper- Hooper
False Hero-Mayor Larry Vaughan
Dispatcher-Mayor Larry Vaughan
As far as narratives go, my stories equilibrium is that the world my story is set in
is run down and poverty stricken, CM Hood seeing the car of his enemy driving
through his home is the disequilibrium and the new equilibrium is when CM
Hood releases King Paul.E to rule over the land fairly.
In Jaws the equilibrium is the island of Amity and its residents ticking along as
they would on any day of the year, the disequilibrium is the first and second
shark attacks and the new equilibrium is when Martin Brody kills the shark at
the end of the film.
My book and Jaws are both examples of Binary Opposition, good vs. evil in the
case of CM Hood and Prince McMahon and man vs. beast in the case of Jaws.
My book is a single strand open narrative, as it does not reach a conclusion at the
end of the book due to a cliff-hanger ending, but there is just the one storyline
present throughout the whole book.
Examples of a closed narrative in a film is First Blood, which ends with John
Rambo going to prison and the small town in which he has his confrontations
with the police in is set to a new equilibrium.
Multistrand examples include Die Hard, the main focus of the film is John
McClane trying to stop Hans Gruber’s terrorist plot, trying to win back his
estranged wife and the ongoing arguments between Sgt Al Powell and the
Deputy Chief and the FBI
