Narrative Theory

Narrative Theory

Five Stage Narrative Structure

There is a five stage narrative structure to every film, this is how the stories are told and how the meaning is conveyed to captivate the understanding for the audience. Usually in chronological order and following a set of main characters the story develops around their actions, what caused them to take this path and how they go about solving any obstacles.

1. Exposition - setting a scene and introducing the characters. In Zombieland the main character protagonist who plays Colombus is introduced, giving him background on his fears (clowns and people) and also his rules for surviving Zombieland. From this we can see he his a lone survivor in America, trusting people always ends badly for him therefore forshadowing his emotions about meeting others later on in the film.

2. Development - As the situation develops, there are more characters that are introduced. Colombus is forced to leave his home and starts travelling back to where his parents live, on the way he meets Talhasse who is a zombie-killing extraordinare and takes a lot of pride in doing so. On the motorway Colombus and Talhasse travel until they meet Wichita and Little Rock, two sisters that are found along the way which they begin to travel with.

3. Complication - Something happens to complicate lives of the characters. Columbus and Talhasse get their truck taken from them by Wichita and Little Rock, they were fooled by a feigned infection, a play made by the sisters. This makes it so that Columbus and Talhasse have to walk, in a zombie apocalypse you need to be moving fast to get anywhere.. eventually they find another truck with a load of guns in it and go forth to find the sisters.

4. Climax - Decisive moment reached; matters come to a head; suspense high. The sisters have gone to an amusement park alone, Little Rock wanted to do this for a long time hence why they are there by themselves. Wichita turns on the power to the rides, illuminating it from miles away, alerting zombies from all around to feast. Zombies begin to swarm the amusement park and Colombus and Talhasse are in front of them ready to protect the girls who are still on the rides. The infected climb up the rides to where the sisters are trying to eat them, this is the tense part when they start rushing into the park, all the survivors are killing as many zombies as they can but it seems neverending.

5. Resolution - Matters are resolved and a satisfactory end is reached. At the end of Zombieland the infected have been almost cleared out and the sun begins to rise. The rides have died and the suriviors are free to leave in the trucks.