Narrative of Mean Girls

Ok, I know, I am really stuck upon this idea of Mean Girls.

Equilibrium --> disequilibrium --> new equilibrium: The equilibrium begins when Cady moves from the home schooling environment of the wild jungles of Africa to the nice, normal, suburban high school. Normal right? WRONG. The disequilibrium begins as Cady discovers the social hierarchy of this nice, normal suburban high school. Her true friends, Janis and Damien, thrust her into a plot to take down The Plastics, the group of the most popular girls at school. Cady joins the Plastics and begins exhibiting cattiness and noticing a change in her attitude and actions. However, new equilibrium is restored when Cady takes the “top dog” position of the Plastics and dissolves the hierarchy.

Causality: The motive of this movie is to break The Plastics. Cady got sucked into this motive, by Janis and Damien, which causes the entire chain of events to occur in Mean Girls. However, Cady’s motive is in conflict with the girls in The Plastic, especially Regina, whose goal is to maintain as the Queen of the school.

Mode of Address: In Mean Girls, the audience hears the voice over given by Cady. This voiceover gives the audience “privileged information about what is going on.” For me, it adds comical effect as Cady voices over how she sees regular, high school scenes in terms of if it were to happen in Africa (like the scene where the mall resembles a watering hole). It also reveals to the audience her conflicting feelings over her transformation from a new student from Africa to the most popular girl in school.

Here’s a clip from the Watering Hole/Mall scene: