Applying Todorov's Theory of Equilibrium

The protogonist in 'Mean girls' is 'Caty' she is a new student at her high school from africa and she is very new to American life. The antagonist are 'The Plastics', a set of three girls that seem to run the school.

'Caty' is new to her school, she is different to all the pupils at her new school as she i from Africa. The plastics run the school at the moment, the are the most popular people in school, and there is a clear divide between all the people at the school. The film starts with a low angle shot through 'Caty's' eyes, of her parents looking down at her, this is used to show how helpless she is, she sn't confident about starting her new school. As she is walking up to the school, many pupils are on either side of her doing their own thing, this shot shows how they are closing in on her and she is on her own. Also the first time we get to see the plastics the director uses a long shot, this makes us feel that we are far away from them, so we feel like a student at the school, we want to get toi know them but we cant as they are more popular than us.

It is clear from the opening scene that there would be some sort of disruption of 'caty's' life by 'the plastics', the way that even though she is the main character alot of the attention is on 'the plastics' makes us think that we would see them again shortly. She has been told by her friends to fear the plastics, her friends dont like them, but they clearly have respect for the most popular girls in school.

The title of the film 'Mean Girls' gives us a clue that 'Caty' won't have the best of relationships with 'the Plastics', another clue we are given is about 'Caty's' friends in the future, the boy and the girl that help her where to sit will clearly be her friend in the rest of the film as they are the only people at school that are willing to talk to her.

There will be a new equilibrium at the end of the film, The whole point of the film is to show the difference between all the social groups in high school, so at the end of the film everybody gets on, there is no more clear divides between the pupils, but instead there is one large group of friends, everybody seems much happier and it seems like a much more enjoyable place to study.