Structuralism deals with the culture and dissection of text by using methods, techniques, and approaches of linguistics to fully comprehend the material. Many different literary devices play an imperative role in structuralism that complicates how the story is perceived, read, and analyzed.This is the breaking down of texts in order to find the inner workings and underlying meanings of the functions of the text. This theory gave rise to a great change in the fields of psychology and philosophy. Structuralism argues that everything has a meaning and it originated from the hands of Ferdinand de Saussure. Ferdinand de Saussure says this, “A linguistic system is a series of differences of sound combined with a series of differences of ideas.” *Basic Definitions*

Ferdinand de Saussure is considered the father of structuralism. He also contributed greatly to linguistic values. There are many other theorists that have piggy-backed off of his findings and with all of their knowledge, structuralism has grown to be a prominent tool for critical theorists to analyze text and society. He believed we need to understand works as a structural system of relationships that can be used in a situation or any given time.

Northrop Frye wasn’t a “mainstream or popular structuralist, but his work helped change the way literature was perceived and he created his own in depth diagrams that helped him categorize literature. Some of these categorizes included comedy, thematic, and tragic. Some of his key works were the “Theory of Modes” and the “Theory of Myths”.

“Literature is like one big, huge, imaginative system, and you can break that system down to a number of common archetypes.”