Moral Dichotomies

When I was a kid, I used to get the magazine Highlights for Children. I don't remember much about it, except for the comic Goofus and Gallant, featured monthly. The 2-pane, captioned, strip was a snapshot into the lives of two boys, Goofus and Gallant, as they respond to the same situation. Goofus was forever doing something wrong (Goofus starts eating before others come to the table), while Gallant was a perfect child (Gallant waits for everyone to come to the table before taking food). Goofus and Gallant was my favorite part of the whole magazine, but I must confess, I remember it as a guilty pleasure. I couldn't wait to see what Goofus would do wrong next, mentally rebuking him while I read. But at the same time, I couldn't stand Gallant. Secretly, I loathed his character, waiting for him to slip up on page 6 every month. Clearly, I identified more with Goofus. He was much more interesting (how's he going to break the rules this time?), and got to wear his hair messy. Gallant was annoyingly predictable and an unwavering goody-two-shoes.

Anyway, a few other things that are interesting about this comic strip:
1. The author never explicitly states which boy is in the right. We are to infer that from their names alone. This is a bit like Galileo's use of Simplicio in his pope-angering publication, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, published in 1632. The character Simplico defended the Aristotelian Geocentric notion of the universe and often came across as a fool. The characters Salviati and Salgredo represented a heliocentric position and quite convincingly won the argument.
2. Goofus and Gallant have been consistent in behavior as long as the comic strip has been published, more than 50 years. Of course, this is not a realistic example for any actual person. No one is as good as Gallant, no one is as bad as Goofus. But the fact that the boys are reliable moral constants is still interesting. It is exactly the opposite of many characters in the literary world that are remembered as our most beloved. From Hamlet to Harry Potter, the tragic flaw in the hero is an essential element of their appeal. The mixture of good and bad is necessary for the story, as well as our acceptance of the character.

Read up on Goofus and Gallant here.
Follow along in a story adventure.
A quick google search will provide examples for you to peruse, as well as a few spin-offs and parodies.