Levi Strauss

Strans believed that the world was split into a series of binary opposites. Meaning that essentially one thing can only be defined in relation to somethting it isn't. An example of this would be that a fat person is only fat because there is a thin option. We are presented with binary opposites in the film Shallow Hal where Gwyneth Paltrow plays both the slim and fat character of Rosemary Shanahan.

Here we are also offered a semantic code which is an element in a text that suggests a particular, often additional meaning by the way of connotation. So in relation to the film Shallow Hal this refers to the fact that Rosemary Shanahan in actuality is obese however Shallow Hal see’s her as slender and beautiful due to her kind generous nature.