Understanding Binary Oppositions

This post will give a brief account of what binary oppositions are and how they come into effect in teen movies.

Positive and negative connotations evoke how a word is understood. Binary oppositions demonstrate controversy and/or conflicting ideas in media and literature features. For example, 'hero vs coward', 'pretty vs ugly' and 'poor vs rich.' In teen movies this is usually exposed through mise-en-scene and sound. A classic example of this comes from the film "Freedom Writers."

The binary opposition present in this film are 'poor vs rich,' 'hero vs coward' and 'calm vs angry.' This is depicted through each actors' costume, props, gestures/movement as well as diagetic and non diagetic sound.