I think that Rollo at Play (and possibly other stories in the Rollo series) center around the binary of right versus wrong. This is very different from the binary of good versus bad in the sense that the right/wrong concept stems from duty, whereas good/bad can be more metaphysical or spiritual; or otherwise less connected to direct action and penitence for action. Examples of the right versus wrong binary are seen when Jonas talks to Rollo and James about their conflict with the wigwam (page 24). Jonas tells each child why they are wrong and why they are right. At first, when Jonas seems to agree with Rollo, he looked “pleased and triumphant”. This is because being right/ behaving correctly is usually associated with winning and rewards.

We also see this binary being used when Rollo’s mother tells him that he cannot go outside to play with Jonas because he has not done his reading (page 10). This is wrong. Because of this, he is punished. Rollo’s penitence for his actions is seen when he reads more than he was told in order to apologize for his actions and be rewarded.

I think that emphasizing the idea of right and wrong is important for a text like the Rollo series. This is because the series serves as a teaching guide for parents and also children. Abbot thought good parenting involved rewarding right behavior and punishing wrong behavior. Also, a child can learn from the text by understanding what behavior is acceptable and what is not.

The binary I had noticed was instinct vs. reason. All throughout the novel, this binary clashes against each other. While instinct defines much of the childlike innocence of Alice in the novel, Alice has a hard time forming dependable reasoning.

This is revealed in the text as it states, “It was all very well to say “Drink me,” but the wise little Alice was not going to do that in a hurry. “No, I’ll look first,” she said, “and see whether it’s marked ‘poison’ or not;” for she had read several nice little stories about children who had got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts, and other unpleasant things…” (Carroll 12)

Carroll uses the clash between instinct and reason in order to create a form of balance. While, Alice claims to be very reasonable, her reasoning is often skewed and is not too different from relying on her gut instinct. Despite the fact the bottle was something she had never seen before, she decides to drink it after a simple ‘poison mark’ check. Her reasoning is very much unreasonable to the point where she might as well have followed her instinct to drink the bottle without any form of inspection. However, it is because she has this form of reason that Carroll is able to balance foolishness with innocence throughout the novel.

A prominent binary that I noticed in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” was small vs large. Carroll juxtaposes small and large throughout the book.

I think the small vs large binary really represents power and control. This is especially relevant considering the book has undertones of colonialism–where power and control are of the upmost importance.

A classic, and quite literal, example of this binary in the book is when Alice is trying to get through the door of Wonderland. She is growing bigger and smaller depending on if she is eating the dessert, or drinking the elixir on the table. She begins crying because she feels out of control and starts to wonder what kind of situation she got herself into. Her lack of control leads to feelings of fear and possibly regret. Being small or large, i.e. feeling in or out of control, is a major theme for Alice throughout the book as she encounters nonsensical things, and scary characters.

There are times when this binary is not so literal, also. Sometimes, Alice feels big or small throughout the book depending on what is occurring. For example, when she first sees the Queen she goes from literally being reminded that she is small when the Queen calls her “child,” to feeling large after she, surprising herself, stands up to the Queen and silences her.

————-
“What’s your name, child?”

“My name is Alice, so please your Majesty,” said Alice very politely; but she added, to herself, “Why, they’re only a pack of cards, after all. I needn’t be afraid of them!”

“And who are these?” said the Queen, pointing to the three gardeners who were lying round the rose-tree; for, you see, as they were lying on their faces, and the pattern on their backs was the same as the rest of the pack, she could not tell whether they were gardeners, or soldiers, or courtiers, or three of her own children.

“How should I know?” said Alice, surprised[100] at her own courage. “It’s no business of mine.”

The Queen turned crimson with fury, and, after glaring at her for a moment like a wild beast, screamed “Off with her head! Off——”

“Nonsense!” said Alice, very loudly and decidedly, and the Queen was silent.”
————–

Lewis, Carroll. “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” Gutenburg. Web. 5 Oct. 2015. .

The binary that I identified as the most appealing in the first chapter of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is mentally strong/weak. Alice is consistently found talking herself as if she had dual personalities.

Although she is not given a distinct age in the text, Alice seems to have the naivety and innocence of a young child while still having a slight sense of reason and maturity. Many times throughout the story, she is found in tears because of a situation she could not immediately get out of. It seems that in those moments, she did not think of how to fix the problems but only quickly resorted to crying. Following her very child-like behaviour, Alice tries to remedy her own sadness by scolding herself as if to snap herself out of being so immature.

Come, there’s no use in crying like that!’ said Alice to herself, rather sharply; I advise you to leave off this minute!’ She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into her eyes; and once she remembered trying to box her own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet she was playing against herself, for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people. But it’s no use now,’ thought poor Alice, to pretend to be two people! Why, there’s hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!’ (Carroll, Ch. 1)

I believe that Carroll wanted to analyze the severe differences of being mentally strong or weak. He associates irrational distress as weakness and strict reasoning as strength. Although these aspects don’t necessarily apply directly to reality, they still reveal a sort of confusion between how one feels and how one should feel.

Carroll, Lewis. The Annotated Alice: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass. New York: C.N. Potter, 1960. Guttenberg.org. 19 May 2009. Web.

The binary that I identified was sense vs. confusion.  Alice’s curiosity led her to chase after the Rabbit “down a large rabbit-hole”.  As Alice falls down the hole she finds herself  wandering off into her thoughts to the point where she isn’t making much sense.(Carroll,1)

“Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end? “I wonder how many miles I’ve fallen by this time?” she said aloud. “I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down. I think—” (for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a very good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) “—yes, that’s about the right distance—but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I’ve got to?” (Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.)

Presently she began again. “I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it’ll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downwards! The Antipathies, I think—” (she was rather glad there was no one listening, this time, as it didn’t sound at all the right word) “—but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma’am, is this New Zealand or Australia?” (and she tried to curtsey as she spoke—fancycurtseying as you’re falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) “And what an ignorant little girl she’ll think me! No, it’ll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.””(Carroll,2)

This selection from the beginning of Alice in Wonderland sets the premise for the rest of the story.  What normally made perfect sense to Alice becomes removed from rational thinking to confusion as the deeper and deeper she is falls down the rabbit hole.  Alice “wonders” if she will fall “through the earth”, she gets confused about calculating distance, and when she says “The Antipathies, I think” (antipathy means an instinctive contrariety or opposition in feeling) confirms that her sense and reasonable way of articulating her thoughts has become a place in which she is feeling exactly opposite of herself, hence the confusion.

Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2015.

Carroll, Lewis, John Tenniel, and Lewis Carroll. “Down The Rabbit-Hole.”Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1946. N. pag. Print

One binary I noticed when I read "Alice in Wonderland" is big vs small. Alice's size continuously changes, which gives her an identity crisis. Identity is also a recurring theme in "Alice in Wonderland." In chapter five, Alice is very simply asked, "who are you?" which she struggles to answer. 

"'Who are you?' said the Caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied,rather shyly, 'I hardly know, sir, just at present--at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then[...]I'm afraid I can't put it more clearly,' Alice replied very politely,'for I can't understand it myself to begin with; and being so many
different sizes in a day is very confusing.'"

She also goes on to tell the caterpillar he may understand her confusion better when he turns into a chrysalis and then a butterfly, but the caterpillar disagrees. Alice is continuously mistaken throughout the story as anything other than a little girl. She is confused because no one else labels her as a little girl, which is what she is used to. She is used to being labeled by society as a little girl and when she is being labelled as so many different things by different creatures she questions whether she actually is a little girl. Although, a "little girl" is just a man made term meant to identify people. Although her exterior surface changes and it definitely does not help her with her identity crisis, her thoughts and feelings are still hers. She works through understanding herself outside of what people see and assume, but she struggles in the beginning.

Work Cited: Carroll, Lewis. The Annotated Alice: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass. New York: C.N. Potter, 1960. Guttenberg.org. 19 May 2009. Web. 16 Sept. 2015

At the end of the story, we are told that Alice’s adventures were a dream. Alice wakes up in her older sister’s lap and tells her all about them. This immediately brings up the binary of dreams versus reality. We can correlate the fantasy aspects of the story with Alice because of her out of the world journey. The reality topic would be linked to her sister. Lewis Carroll is implying that dreams are more vivid with children than in adults. We do not know for sure if the sister is an adult but we do know that she is older. Therefore, we can say that reality overtakes imagination as one ages.

“Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago: and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days.” (Carroll, Page 162)

In this last paragraph of Carroll’s story, Alice’s sister is thinking about how children see the world in a “simpler” way. The way it is written implies joys and sorrows are much heavier in adulthood.

Carroll, Lewis. The Annotated Alice: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass. New York: C.N. Potter, 1960. Guttenberg.org. 19 May 2009. Web. 16 Sept. 2015.

The first binary that I was able to see when I read the text is the expected vs the unexpected. The author uses this binary to answer what will happen next in the story. An example of this is shown at the end of the first chapter when Alice discovers a drink that makes her shrink. After doing this she discovers a piece a cake and says to herself ” Well, I’ll eat it, and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key, and if it makes grow smaller, I can creep under the door” (Caroll, pg 13). The door and key refer to a garden that she is trying to get into. The reason Alice believes that the cake possesses some form of power is because everything around her seems out of the ordinary and what she drank beforehand made her shrink. She figured there was a pattern here, but to her discovery, “she was quite surprised to find that she remained the same size” (Caroll, pg 13). What this demonstrates to the reader is that the author uses the binary pair of expected vs unexpected to create a pattern for the story. This pattern is that things will go the opposite of what Alice expects it to go. This is validated again when Alice convinces herself that the cake will not change her size, she grew again.

Work Cited: Carroll, Lewis. The Annotated Alice: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass. New York: C.N. Potter, 1960. Guttenberg.org. 19 May 2009. Web. 14 Sept. 2015.