Think the roller coaster will make you sick?
Check out Matilda's lunch!
Today I was provided a clear example of dichotomy. It was not from literature. Clarity came via my daughter's lunch.
Took the kids to Movieworld on the Goldcoast. They had a great day, going on rides, seeing shows, and, I had a great day - sitting under a tree with a book. For lunch, I took them to the buffet restaurant. They love to fill their plates with foods of their choice. Matilda's desert was particularly interesting: Garlic bread and jelly.
You gonna eat that Matilda?
I thought this might be a good opportunity to repost about dichotomy as a writing device:
Dichotomy is a writing device popular in fiction (it is the process of grouping themes or characters into binary oppositional groups). In order for opposites to reveal as dichotomies they must belong to one of the two opposing groups and never cross over. These days most writers using a dichotomy will have it strong to begin with but then start to blur the boundaries, showing that themes are rarely 'black and white'. Some popular uses are to show the dichotomy of:
- good and evil
- rich and poor
- human and alien
- life and death
In Warracknabeal Kids I will have a protagonist (12yr. old boy) begin with assumptions of the dichotomy of right and wrong. These will be supported by his father's view that the law decides and by the church's view that the soul decides. As the narrative progresses the boy will see the conflicts of defining right and wrong by actions, outcomes or intentions. The purpose of this is to support my novel's premise: Sometimes it takes a wrong action to make things right.
And, how did the garlic bread on jelly go down?
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