Kaitlyn Henaghan Email Response In structuralism, the sign is the relationship between the signified and the signifier.

Deconstruction takes this idea, but instead of something just having one, singular meaning, it would now break out into multiple meanings. Structuralists focus more on systems based on difference, and deconstructionists believe that differences cause these systems to unravel, thus leaving only the differences sans any sort of system. The strutcuralists rely heavily on language, as do the deconstructionists. In the words of the structuralists, language not only describes our world; it also produces the world it describes (47). This means that the way things are described heavily influence the way people interpret ideas. For example, something very simple can be described in extraordinarily complicated terms making it impossible for someone to understand. Deconstructionists feel that language is a very useful tool because it helps them to create multiple meanings through rhetoric and textuality. New critics often look for symbols, using paradox, ambiguity, tension, and irony as their basis for study. Structuralists use binary opposition as their main focus when analyzing literature, stating that things exist contrast to other things, such as black exists because theres white. A deconstructionist, however, more than likely skips these interpretations and looks for more multiplicity in their readings. Also, an important thing to remember about deconstruction is that it multiplies meanings that exist together; it does not remove any meaning. It is also important to remember that like structuralists and new critics, deconstructionists require evidence in order to provide any meaning.

I am in love with Derridas new word differance! This word indicates that there is no stable meaning to things, and that there is a continuous gap between the signified and the signifier. I like this idea because it provides for a limitless number of possibilities, provided that there is sufficient evidence to support these possibilities. Differance, in essence, is what makes the world go round. In the example provided in Parkers book, he used a car as a signifier and indicated that we cannot choose one secure signified. He basically says that once we get the car, there are still other desires that we will want to go along with it, and the car presumably is already replacing a previous desire, etc. The chain is really never-ending, and that is just how life is. I personally believe that deconstruction is the most practical of the theories because it does not give anything one, concrete meaning, which is really the truth. One persons meaning may seem laughable to another person, and this persons meaning may seem preposterous to another person, and so on and so forth. Deconstruction provides for more possibilities, and that is essential in this continuously growing literary world.