Levi-Strauss argued that narrative has two main characteristics:
1. That it’s made of units that are put together according to certain rules.
2. That these units form relations with each other, based on binary pairs or opposites, which provide the basis of the structure.
Strauss looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. These are sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts. Levi-Strauss was not so interested in looking at the order in which events were arranged in the plot. Instead he looked for deeper arrangements of themes. A few examples of these opposites are:
IN WESTERNS
Cowboys & Indians
Whites & Reds
Christian & Pagan
Civilisation & Frontier
Settlement & Wilderness
IN CRIME MOVIES
Law & Criminality
Injustice & Retribution
Innocence & Guilt
Pursuit & Capture
Crime fighter & Villain
Victim & Perpetrator
SCI-FI
Earth & Space
Good & Evil
Humans & Aliens
Past & Present
Normal & Strange
Known & Unknown
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