My classmate, Crystal, talked about how it seems that Alice has dual personalities. She scolds herself when she cries, telling herself that she cannot cry. Many children chastise themselves in order to calm themselves down to mimic an adult scolding them. Having a voice of reason from an adult is usually more comforting. However, in “Little Annie’s Rambles”, the adult is the one talking about himself, as if he too has dual personalities. He describes the situation from a third-person view, as if he was not the one with Annie. Here, Annie is not the one chastising herself for doing something wrong, or talking about the situation as if she were not there. Instead, the man who lures her from her house switches from describing Annie’s interest in the town crier’s announcements, to describing what he and Annie look like walking together from another person’s view. This disrupts Crystal’s binary because not only is the adult the one with the dual personalities, but he is doing the exact opposite of chastising. In fact, he is the one leading her away from her house without telling her mother, which is not something she should do.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Little Annie’s Ramble.” , by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1837, 1851. Twice Told Tales, n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2015.
It’s really interesting that you bring the narrator’s self conversations in Little Annie’s Ramble in conversation with Alice’s self conversations. I don’t know that I follow completely what you’re saying about the opposite of chastising. I seems though you are trying to say that the split personality can’t be seen as a clear childish thing or sign of irrationality and not being whole if the adult narrator too also seems to manifest this trait.