NARRATIVE THEORY

.Vladimir Propp (1895-1970) was a russian teacher after studying dozens Russian tales, he realized that almost everyone had asimilar narrative structure. The characters, different as they were,used to develop actions very similar in all stories. Propp defined "function" as the action of a character from the stand point of its significance in the development of the plot. The professor found  31 functions. A story may take them all or just some, but always features appear in the same order.


.Todorov (1939- ), franco-bulgarian philosopher, suggested a slightly more complicated description of narrative structure than the simple situation/ problem/ resolution structure. He posited five stages:
A. a state of equilibrium at the outset
B. a disruption of the equilibrium by some action
C. a recognition that there has been a disruption
D. an attempt to repair the disruption
E. a reinstatement of the equilibrium

.Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908- 2009) was a belgium-french anthropologist and ethnologist. He said than the human minds have certain characteristics that originate from features of the brain of Homo Sapiens. These common mental structures thatlead to people everywhere think in a similar way regardless ofsociety or of their cultural background. Among these universal mental characteristics are the need to classify: to impose order on aspects of nature, on the relationship of people with nature and the relationships between people. A universal aspect of classification is the opposition or contrast (Binary Opposition). God and devil, white and black, old and young, high and low, rich and poor, good and bad ...

.Minority Report_narrative structure

Conventional narratives follow the three act structure – initial situation/ equilibrium, a disruption, and resolution/ new situation. “Todorov suggested a slightly more complicated description of narrative structure than the simple situation/ problem/ resolution structure. 


Applied to Minority Report one might offer a structure as follows:
A. The Precrime system spearheaded by Anderton and Burgess is about to go national.
B. During a routine case Anderton sees himself appear on screen as a future perpetrator.
C. Anderton tries to cover his tracks but his colleagues soon discover the news of the Pre-Cogs’ predictions.

D. He flees and begins his quest to find the truth; meanwhile the full force of the criminal detection system is brought to bear against him.
E. he narrative is resolved with the exposure and destruction of Burgess, the winding up of the Precrime experiment, the reuniting of the Andertons and the freeing of the Pre-Cogs – Agatha and the twins..

About Vladimir Propp, Minority Report has a fairly conventional narrative structure though it does contain a multitude of enigmas and intrigue.