Binary Opposition in Fruit Salad by Richard Swan

-Hello-

Humans are created with a different character. In everyday life, humans also always have differences of opinion with one to another. In fact, these differences lead to debate or conflict that can divide us. However, these differences remain related to one another, they still need each other, such as for example dark-light, good-bad, empty-full, and so on. This is what is referred to as Binary Opposition. According to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_opposition , binary opposition (also binary system) is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. It is the contrast between two mutually exclusive terms, such as on and off, up and down, left and right. Binary opposition is an important concept of structuralism, which sees such distinctions as fundamental to all language and thought. In structuralism, a binary opposition is seen as a fundamental organizer of human philosophy, culture, and language.

In children's literary works, binary opposition often appears as the theme of a story, which is in Fruit Salad by Richard Swan. Fruit Salad outlines the inner conflict of an apple with itself, which is confused what will it become in the future, while Apple’s other friends (Banana, Orange, and Grapes) have decided that. Apple tried various things in order to be able to decide what it wanted to be, such as being a bobbing apple at Halloween, a toffee apple on bonfire night, and being given to a teacher until it forgot  time and became an old apple that was less useful to humans, but none of it enlightened him. One day, Apple accidentally reunited with friends who turned out to be not much different from Apple, a banana that was not used because it had changed color, oranges that waited very long because many other oranges wanted to become juices like it, and the grapes that become useless because it has seeds. Until they go to a place that makes them useful, which makes them compost for other plants. At that place, they met with fruit and even other vegetables that were old and not tasty to eat. Then they exchanged stories with each other with enthusiasm.

This book teaches that conflict with yourself can affect other people and things around us. Like Apple, who is busy with itself till’ it forget the time even though its friends have one stepped ahead Apple. However, conflicts with ourselves are related to the future that we will go through later, such as what we want to be, what we want to do, and so on. That is how a Binary Opposition took place in children’s literary works.

-Thank You-

click here for the story ^^