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Evaluation of gnarrative

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Jonah Adshead
Jonah Adshead

The document summarizes and analyzes a graphic novel story using various narrative theories. It applies Vladimir Propp's character archetypes and plot functions to analyze the story elements. It also uses theories from Todorov, Levi-Strauss and others to examine the story's structure, including its equilibrium disruptions, binary oppositions, and use of a single, linear narrative thread. The story involves a dragon kidnapping a princess and a hero's quest to rescue her, making it an anti-realistic fantasy narrative.

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Evaluation Jonah Adshead
Task 1 Vladimir Propp was a Russian formalist scholar who devised a theory to identify the basic narrative elements of stories. He did this by analyzing one hundred Russian folk tales to identify their different elements that they are made up of. After completing his studies, Propp concluded that all stories are made up of 31 plot elements that he called functions. He also discovered that, although the folk tales feature many characters, that these characters fit into only 8 different types. These character types are; 1. The Villain 2. The Helper 3. The Princess or Prize 4. Her Father 5. The Donor 6. The Hero 7. The False Hero 8. The Dispatcher I will now compare and look at how this theory applies to my story; The Dragon Princess.
Comparison-8 character types The villain in my story is definitely the Dragon King. He I portrayed as being morally bad, shown kidnapping the princess from the Emperor and Empress while they slept. He also struggles against the hero of the story when an attempt at rescuing the princess is made, fighting him and eventually being slain by him. The lack of morals and weaknesses of the villain serve to highlight the superiority of the Hero. The helper of a story has one purpose, to aid the hero in their quest or journey to meet a goal. They often appear in critical moments to offer help or provide support to the hero. The helper is never as good as the hero, and these shortcomings; often in intelligence, courage, skill or determination again serve to highlight a hero’s defining characteristics. The princess/prize can is the actual thing that the hero searches to get, as they may have been stolen by the villain. They are be the reward the hero will gain having completing a quest or mission, as through doing so they gain their affection and/or hand in marriage. Often the princess is scarcely seen during a story perhaps only appearing at the end of a story. The princess is also often pursued by many characters including the false hero and villain as well as the hero himself. In my story the Dragon princess is takes on this role. She falls for the hero when she's saved by him and the hero then gains her affection. The princess’ father sets the hero on their task or quest. They are a key figure as they are often very protective over their daughter and so the hero must persuade them to grant the princess’ hand in marriage. The hero and princess’ father also can start competing for the princess’ affection forming a triangle between the three characters, this could be the reason behind the princess’ fathers common over protectiveness. The princess’ father is quite an outdated character as the idea of having to gain the father’s permission for marriage isn’t really common anymore so this character is difficult to identify in modern storytelling. The Emperor is the Princess’ father in my story and he grants the hero permission to marry his daughter after rescuing her and reuniting them.
The donor is a person who gives the hero something special to aid them, perhaps a magical weapon, a clue or piece of wisdom or a special ability/power. This gift enables or at least helps a hero in completing their quest. A donor may not always let the gift be taken for free, often setting the hero another task such as a simple riddle or even another quest. This role is often merged with the role of helper. The hero usually leads the narrative and the story being told is the hero’s story. They are often looking for something such as a quest or are seeking to solve a mystery or crime. Usually they are the person we want to succeed as an audience. In my story the young samurai is the hero, he is at first searching for a quest and then completes this quest, slaying the villain and gaining the affection of the princess. The false hero always appears to act heroically and is stereotypically what we would expect from a hero as an audience so much so that we may even mistake them for the true hero. Eventually though it is realised that the false hero will try to steal the credit for the good deeds done by the hero and may even try to steal the princess from him. Another way false hero’s often try to steal credit is by gaining the respect or other control therefore becoming an even bigger obstacle for the hero in gaining the princess’ hand. The dispatcher is the character in a story who sets the hero on his mission or quest. This could be a family member, friend or even a completely new person that appears it the hero’s life. This role can be combined with the role of the princess’ father or even the false hero. In my story it could be argued that the princess’ father is also indirectly the dispatcher as it is a quest that he sends out a reward for. The hero finds out abut the quest from an old piece of scripture advertising it however and so it could also be argued that there is no real dispatcher.
Comparison-31 functions There are a lot of functions that Propp thought up to try and show that the structure of all stories fall into some kind of pattern. Not every tale includes every one of the 31 functions but when they appear the functions usually come in the original order Propp put them in. Here are the functions I believe appear in my story; ABSENTATION: someone goes missing (the princess is kidnapped by the dragon king) INTERDICTION: the hero is warned (hero finds a flyer warning of the abduction and advertising a quest) BEGINNING COUNTER-ACTION: hero chooses positive action (he decides to rescue the princess) DEPARTURE: hero leaves on mission GUIDANCE: hero reaches destination STRUGGLE: hero and villain do battle BRANDING: hero is branded (could be when the dragon strikes him and disarms him) VICTORY: villain is defeated LIQUIDATION: initial misfortune or lack is resolved (princess is found) RETURN: hero sets out for home (with the princess) RECOGNITION: hero is recognised WEDDING: hero marries and it can be assumed them ascends the throne.
Toderov, a Russian structuralist believed that all narratives followed the same simple pathway. He devised a 3 and 5 step version of this theory. I have compared the three step version to my story; Equilibrium: is where the story starts and is the everyday life of our character. This doesn’t mean its nice, no mater what is going on, its just the norm for the people in the story. My graphic novel almost skips this part as the first panel shows the princess being abducted, but you get the idea that before this event it was quite a nice environment as the whole palace were just asleep when she was abducted. Disequilibrium: is the where the story really starts because of an event occurs disrupting the equilibrium known by the characters in the story previously. Now, the whole story resolves around the characters, mainly the hero, reacting and trying to return to the equilibrium. In my story the disrupting event happens immediately and the rest of the story does consist of people trying to slay the dragon king and rescue the princess, firstly with war being declared, then with many people attempting single handedly before our hero is successful 16 years later. New Equilibrium: is the ending to a story and the re-establishment of a equilibrium. As an audience we expect that things will continue like this after the ending. In my story the Princess is rescued and re-united with her father; the Emperor and the hero is granted her hand in marriage.
Claude Levi Strauss, a French theorist, came up with the idea of binary opposition believing that the conflict between two opposites is the driving force behind a story and you can find this in every narrative. Often many binary opposites can be found in one story, here are a few I think appear in mine; Good Vs. Evil- The dragon kidnaps' the princess and is clearly a very evil and villainous creature. The savior of the story who's job it is to defeat the dragon is there hero and he is good. In traditional good Vs. evil stories good always prevails and this is true in my story. I think that in keeping with the original version of the folklore tale I have really done it justice and it works better than if I would have changed it and given it a more modern, tragic ending where evil prevails. Humans Vs. Dragons- This is a very old and traditional version of stories that goes back hundreds of years. Dragons have been a part of folklore in many places, not just in Asia but in England too with stories such as St. George and the Dragon. The dragon usually represents evil but in some Asian cultures where the dragon is seen as a Godlike creature it can often be the human that is the Villain. Natural Vs. Supernatural- Dragons are magical, powerful beasts that are definitely supernatural. The human in my story, although a great warrior is just a normal person. This fight between natural and supernatural is another very old one with fights between witches and priests, daemons and kings, werewolf's and hunters dating back hundreds of years. I believe this kind of story is effective as the reader can relate to the natural protagonist who is normal like them and this makes the root for them. This is the same in my story and I believe it allows the reader to want the hero to succeed more.
Task 2 My graphic novel is a closed, single strand story. It is closed strand because it reaches a conclusion at the end, this means there is a clear end to the story and it isn't just continuous as an open narrative is. Multi-strand narratives have a number of different storylines before they all meet usually at then end of a story to allow connections to be realised and for the story to make sense. My story has only a single storyline and so is single strand. I think this single strand model works well in a graphic novel as it allows you to follow the one character well and get to know them. This allows the audience to grow fonder of the character and root for them more in the final battle. In the limited time I had it also made it easier as I would have needed more time to think up an effective multi strand story as they are very complicated. A Linear structure is one that starts at the beginning and goes straight through to the end without any backtracking, each step to progress the story follows the last. It is a very simple ,method of getting a story across and largely due to this is the most common structure for stories. Non-linear narratives don’t progress through a story in the conventional way, instead jumping backwards or forwards to give the storyline more depth. The structure of my story is linear as it just runs straight through from start to finish. This again works well in the graphic novel as the simple story allows the reader to focus on the artwork and on the characters. The original story follows this model and as I wanted my novel to do justice to this I wanted to keep it traditional and accurate. A realest narrative is one that reflects “real life”. It handles events that could actually occur in real life and an audience finds these events believable or at least plausible. An anti-realest narrative on the other hand is one that include events that couldn’t take place in real life often including fantasy characters such as dragons, as the ones that feature in my story. Because of this my story is anti-realist. These anti-realest stories are very interesting and allow the reader to use their imagination and escape to another land. I think that my story does this well and by using dragons and magic in my story the reader can pretend they are real for a brief moment.

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Evaluation of gnarrative

  • 2. Task 1 Vladimir Propp was a Russian formalist scholar who devised a theory to identify the basic narrative elements of stories. He did this by analyzing one hundred Russian folk tales to identify their different elements that they are made up of. After completing his studies, Propp concluded that all stories are made up of 31 plot elements that he called functions. He also discovered that, although the folk tales feature many characters, that these characters fit into only 8 different types. These character types are; 1. The Villain 2. The Helper 3. The Princess or Prize 4. Her Father 5. The Donor 6. The Hero 7. The False Hero 8. The Dispatcher I will now compare and look at how this theory applies to my story; The Dragon Princess.
  • 3. Comparison-8 character types The villain in my story is definitely the Dragon King. He I portrayed as being morally bad, shown kidnapping the princess from the Emperor and Empress while they slept. He also struggles against the hero of the story when an attempt at rescuing the princess is made, fighting him and eventually being slain by him. The lack of morals and weaknesses of the villain serve to highlight the superiority of the Hero. The helper of a story has one purpose, to aid the hero in their quest or journey to meet a goal. They often appear in critical moments to offer help or provide support to the hero. The helper is never as good as the hero, and these shortcomings; often in intelligence, courage, skill or determination again serve to highlight a hero’s defining characteristics. The princess/prize can is the actual thing that the hero searches to get, as they may have been stolen by the villain. They are be the reward the hero will gain having completing a quest or mission, as through doing so they gain their affection and/or hand in marriage. Often the princess is scarcely seen during a story perhaps only appearing at the end of a story. The princess is also often pursued by many characters including the false hero and villain as well as the hero himself. In my story the Dragon princess is takes on this role. She falls for the hero when she's saved by him and the hero then gains her affection. The princess’ father sets the hero on their task or quest. They are a key figure as they are often very protective over their daughter and so the hero must persuade them to grant the princess’ hand in marriage. The hero and princess’ father also can start competing for the princess’ affection forming a triangle between the three characters, this could be the reason behind the princess’ fathers common over protectiveness. The princess’ father is quite an outdated character as the idea of having to gain the father’s permission for marriage isn’t really common anymore so this character is difficult to identify in modern storytelling. The Emperor is the Princess’ father in my story and he grants the hero permission to marry his daughter after rescuing her and reuniting them.
  • 4. The donor is a person who gives the hero something special to aid them, perhaps a magical weapon, a clue or piece of wisdom or a special ability/power. This gift enables or at least helps a hero in completing their quest. A donor may not always let the gift be taken for free, often setting the hero another task such as a simple riddle or even another quest. This role is often merged with the role of helper. The hero usually leads the narrative and the story being told is the hero’s story. They are often looking for something such as a quest or are seeking to solve a mystery or crime. Usually they are the person we want to succeed as an audience. In my story the young samurai is the hero, he is at first searching for a quest and then completes this quest, slaying the villain and gaining the affection of the princess. The false hero always appears to act heroically and is stereotypically what we would expect from a hero as an audience so much so that we may even mistake them for the true hero. Eventually though it is realised that the false hero will try to steal the credit for the good deeds done by the hero and may even try to steal the princess from him. Another way false hero’s often try to steal credit is by gaining the respect or other control therefore becoming an even bigger obstacle for the hero in gaining the princess’ hand. The dispatcher is the character in a story who sets the hero on his mission or quest. This could be a family member, friend or even a completely new person that appears it the hero’s life. This role can be combined with the role of the princess’ father or even the false hero. In my story it could be argued that the princess’ father is also indirectly the dispatcher as it is a quest that he sends out a reward for. The hero finds out abut the quest from an old piece of scripture advertising it however and so it could also be argued that there is no real dispatcher.
  • 5. Comparison-31 functions There are a lot of functions that Propp thought up to try and show that the structure of all stories fall into some kind of pattern. Not every tale includes every one of the 31 functions but when they appear the functions usually come in the original order Propp put them in. Here are the functions I believe appear in my story; ABSENTATION: someone goes missing (the princess is kidnapped by the dragon king) INTERDICTION: the hero is warned (hero finds a flyer warning of the abduction and advertising a quest) BEGINNING COUNTER-ACTION: hero chooses positive action (he decides to rescue the princess) DEPARTURE: hero leaves on mission GUIDANCE: hero reaches destination STRUGGLE: hero and villain do battle BRANDING: hero is branded (could be when the dragon strikes him and disarms him) VICTORY: villain is defeated LIQUIDATION: initial misfortune or lack is resolved (princess is found) RETURN: hero sets out for home (with the princess) RECOGNITION: hero is recognised WEDDING: hero marries and it can be assumed them ascends the throne.
  • 6. Toderov, a Russian structuralist believed that all narratives followed the same simple pathway. He devised a 3 and 5 step version of this theory. I have compared the three step version to my story; Equilibrium: is where the story starts and is the everyday life of our character. This doesn’t mean its nice, no mater what is going on, its just the norm for the people in the story. My graphic novel almost skips this part as the first panel shows the princess being abducted, but you get the idea that before this event it was quite a nice environment as the whole palace were just asleep when she was abducted. Disequilibrium: is the where the story really starts because of an event occurs disrupting the equilibrium known by the characters in the story previously. Now, the whole story resolves around the characters, mainly the hero, reacting and trying to return to the equilibrium. In my story the disrupting event happens immediately and the rest of the story does consist of people trying to slay the dragon king and rescue the princess, firstly with war being declared, then with many people attempting single handedly before our hero is successful 16 years later. New Equilibrium: is the ending to a story and the re-establishment of a equilibrium. As an audience we expect that things will continue like this after the ending. In my story the Princess is rescued and re-united with her father; the Emperor and the hero is granted her hand in marriage.
  • 7. Claude Levi Strauss, a French theorist, came up with the idea of binary opposition believing that the conflict between two opposites is the driving force behind a story and you can find this in every narrative. Often many binary opposites can be found in one story, here are a few I think appear in mine; Good Vs. Evil- The dragon kidnaps' the princess and is clearly a very evil and villainous creature. The savior of the story who's job it is to defeat the dragon is there hero and he is good. In traditional good Vs. evil stories good always prevails and this is true in my story. I think that in keeping with the original version of the folklore tale I have really done it justice and it works better than if I would have changed it and given it a more modern, tragic ending where evil prevails. Humans Vs. Dragons- This is a very old and traditional version of stories that goes back hundreds of years. Dragons have been a part of folklore in many places, not just in Asia but in England too with stories such as St. George and the Dragon. The dragon usually represents evil but in some Asian cultures where the dragon is seen as a Godlike creature it can often be the human that is the Villain. Natural Vs. Supernatural- Dragons are magical, powerful beasts that are definitely supernatural. The human in my story, although a great warrior is just a normal person. This fight between natural and supernatural is another very old one with fights between witches and priests, daemons and kings, werewolf's and hunters dating back hundreds of years. I believe this kind of story is effective as the reader can relate to the natural protagonist who is normal like them and this makes the root for them. This is the same in my story and I believe it allows the reader to want the hero to succeed more.
  • 8. Task 2 My graphic novel is a closed, single strand story. It is closed strand because it reaches a conclusion at the end, this means there is a clear end to the story and it isn't just continuous as an open narrative is. Multi-strand narratives have a number of different storylines before they all meet usually at then end of a story to allow connections to be realised and for the story to make sense. My story has only a single storyline and so is single strand. I think this single strand model works well in a graphic novel as it allows you to follow the one character well and get to know them. This allows the audience to grow fonder of the character and root for them more in the final battle. In the limited time I had it also made it easier as I would have needed more time to think up an effective multi strand story as they are very complicated. A Linear structure is one that starts at the beginning and goes straight through to the end without any backtracking, each step to progress the story follows the last. It is a very simple ,method of getting a story across and largely due to this is the most common structure for stories. Non-linear narratives don’t progress through a story in the conventional way, instead jumping backwards or forwards to give the storyline more depth. The structure of my story is linear as it just runs straight through from start to finish. This again works well in the graphic novel as the simple story allows the reader to focus on the artwork and on the characters. The original story follows this model and as I wanted my novel to do justice to this I wanted to keep it traditional and accurate. A realest narrative is one that reflects “real life”. It handles events that could actually occur in real life and an audience finds these events believable or at least plausible. An anti-realest narrative on the other hand is one that include events that couldn’t take place in real life often including fantasy characters such as dragons, as the ones that feature in my story. Because of this my story is anti-realist. These anti-realest stories are very interesting and allow the reader to use their imagination and escape to another land. I think that my story does this well and by using dragons and magic in my story the reader can pretend they are real for a brief moment.