Levi Strauss Theory - Binary Opposites

Anthropolgy theorist, Claude Levi Strauss, now the 'Father of Modern Anthropology, came up with the idea of a term called Binary opposites in 1958 and made it into his own theory. He said that this theory of meaning belives that audiences not only understand words solely based on the meaning they directly contain, but of our understanding of the opposites they reflect too.

The theory can be simple asthe two opposites up and down or left or right butit is also used in films to help plots, in relation to when we think of 'Hero', as 'Villain' would be the binary opposite. Also in music videos binary opposites are used as part of a narrative to reinforce song lyrics. They link heavily with our ideological values of how we feel we should perceive the world, for example the ideological view of a mother. In relation to music videos it is seen when there is a breakup, it is often the girl singing about the boy and how he broke her heart. They will not be two sides to the story and the pair wont come together to be friends. The boy will be made out to be the villain that everyone should hate and the girl will be the hero who has been hurt and left alone.

This theory enables the viewers to have an understanding of a narrative before its even begun. It also forms climax and brings interest to a piece making it more sucessful, but is this also becoming too predicable?