•Famous Practitioners-Claude Levi Strauss, Mary Douglas
•Time Period-1940’s to 1970’s
•Believes that in order understand cultures you must understand
their rules about binary opposites
•Binary opposites : humans tend to see things in terms of two
forces that are opposite to each other ( night and day, good and
evil, female and male)
•Binary opposites are defined in a particular culture in a way that
is logical to its members
•Items are not inherently good or bad but, become so when placed
in the right or wrong element
Pros
•Creates a clear outline of what behaviors
are accepted in a culture
• By using structuralism you can
understand and predict human behavior
•Gives clear information of how humans
use logic to meet their needs
Examples in text:
•The children were allowed to imagine
Alice in Wonderland, Rima and Aladdin
but Africa was not accepted
• The nursery was for the good of the
children the threatened removal lead to
their bad behavior
•When threatened with the closure of the
nursery Peter and Wendy erased the
images of (bad) Africa and replaced it
with the (good) Rima
Cons
•Overemphasize the logic and stability in
human society- even though rules are
enforced society does not always
perform constructively
•Only focusing on structural disables the
literary devices used in the text. E.g.
imagery, personification, semiotics...
Examples in text:
•Mr. Hadley’s changes in the structure of
the household (creating new rules)
resulted in the children rebellious
behavior. i.e. visions of Africa.
• Rules about what was and was not
acceptable were put in place but not
fallowed by the children.
•Instead of imaging fairly tales (good)
the children imagined the dangerous
veldts of Africa (bad).
Questions asked:
•What are the main principles that
govern the way human mind works?
•How are those principles reflected in
the way human cultures work ?
•Why cultures develop complex rules
about where items are good and bad?
•Veldt- an elevated open grass land in southern
Africa
•The veldt challenges the audience to take a
further look into the rules of good and bad-binary
opposites
• The addition of the nursery was initially for the
“good” of the household but the increased
element of Peter and Wendy’s destructive
thoughts turned it into a “bad” thing.
•The conflict between the parents and children
involving the rules of the household eventually
lead to the downfall of the family
Name
Mr. Hadley
Mrs. Hadley
Peter and Wendy
Mr. McClean
Role
Dominate father figure (decision maker,
i.e. He decides to cut off the nursery)
He is unaware of the chaos that
surrounds him.
Submissive female- alert observer.
Mrs. Hadley was always suspicious of
how real the nursery felt.
Deceiving kids- vivid imagination
(plotting the murder of their “parents”)
Psychologist- aware of the disaster
brewing in the nursery. He was able to
convince Mr. Hadley to put a halt on
the nursery.
Good
Bad
“One of the original uses
of these nurseries was so
that we could study the
patterns left on the walls
of the child’s mind...
however, the room has
become a channel
toward-destructive
thoughts”
“How often had he seen
Pegasus flying in the
ceiling or seen fountains
or red fireworks...But
now, this yellow hot
Africa, this bake oven
with murder in the heat”
The children began to
The addition of the
use the nursery to create
nursery was intended to negative imagery. Leisure
be good because it was to time was now filled with
Africa, the hot sun and
be a place where the
murder
children could have
leisure time
Good
Bad
“ But
nothings too good
for our children.”
“I didn’t like it when you
took out the picture
painter... I wanted you to
learn to paint all by
The parents tried to show yourself.”
their love to their
children by giving them
everything they wanted
The children were
spoiled so when their
parents tried to change
things they couldn't
handle it
Good
Bad
“The house is wife
mother now and
nursemaid.”
“You're beginning to feel
unnecessary too.”
The intended purpose of
the house was to help the
family
The family depended
solely on the house.
Without the house they
were useless. It also
brought tension between
the children and their
parents.
Good
Bad
They were awfully
“Long before you knew
young, Wendy and Peter , what death was you were
for death thoughts.
wishing it on someone
else.”
It was good that the
children were aware of
death
It was bad that they were
so occupied with thoughts
of murder (and planed
their own parents death)
Good
Bad
“I thought we were free to
play as we wished...You
are within reasonable
bounds. What's wrong
with Africa Father?”
When rules were
enforced the children
rebelled( Taking the
rocket to New York) and
came up with a plot to kill
their parents
The father tried to
establish rules when the
children's behaviours
began to get out of
control (ex. Cutting off
the nursery)
Good
Bad
They walked down the
hall of their
soundproofed, Happy life
Home, which had them
thirty thousand dollars to
be installed...”
“How did we get this
house? What prompted us
to buy a nightmare?
Pride, money,
Foolishness.”
The family had money
and were able to take
care of themselves
financially
The parents made bad
investments by buying
the house and nursery
•
Colin Bain, Jill Colyer, Dennis DesRivieres, Sean Dolan. 2002.
Transitions in Society. University of Oxford: Oxford University
Press
•
Houghton Mifflin Company.2003-2008.The Free Dictionary.
Retrieved September 28, 2010, from
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/veldt
Istockphoto. (2009). Cartoon judge. Retrieved September 28, 2010,
from
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02&tbnw=123&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcartoon%2Bjudge&zoom=1&
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=&sa=X&ei=p7GsTKDZA4G78gaPiMyTCA&ved=0CBoQ9QEwAA
•