Claude Lévi Strauss (28th November 1908 - 30th October 2009) was a French anthropologist and ethnologist. His argument was that the 'savage' mind and the 'civilized' mind both had the same structures, and that human characteristics are the same everywhere. His theory was that a universal aspect of classification is opposition, or contrast. He discovered that one of the most common means of classifying is by using binary opposition, for example; good and evil, old and young, bright and dark etc. A fundamental characteristic of the human mind is the desire to find a midpoint between these such oppositions. Narrative tension is based on these oppositions and conflicts, it functions at an ideogical level.
The meaning of this theory is that every story has opposites, either opposite characters or opposite 'teams' as such. This could mean that one side battles against the other etc.
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