Frances Hodgson Burnett being a women seems to make more sense when it comes to the story of little Lord Fauntleroy. This is the first time we have read a story about a little boy written by a woman and I think this may explain Little Lord Fauntleroy’s appearance and attitude. The author describes her character as “so beautiful to look at” and “he had so sweet a temper and [was] always so charming that he was a pleasure to every one” (page 444). I don’t think these qualities were important to men or boys back in the nineteenth century. Only a woman would prize these qualities and wish for her own son or even husband to act this way. Ceddie was such a nice fellow that “there was not a person in the neighborhood of the quiet street where he lived- even to the grocery man at the corner, who was considered the crossest creature alive- who was not pleased to see him” (page 445). To me this whole story, besides the death of the father, is what every woman would want. A nice little house, a perfect child, and a handsome husband, who conveniently was the heir to a large fortune.
In the previous text featuring little boys, they were all described as rough and tough independent characters. Qualities that a man might prize more than a women, especially at this time. The whole country was starting over and so to be successful men believed you had to either be a very hard worker or very good at convincing people to work hard for you!
Another interesting thing about this text, not related to the author, was the fact that there was a boot black named Dick! In class, professor Irvin mentioned that all these authors read one another’s writing and this is pretty obvious in Little Lord Fauntleroy. Ceddie even says that Dick gets mad because his partner cheats and “it would make you mad…if you were blacking boots as hard as you could, and being quite square all the time, and your partner wasn’t square at all” (page 485). In Ragged Dick, Dick also expresses how much he hates cheating and how he works hard for honest money. This most certainly has to be the same character!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain makes it a point for us to realize that kids, not unlike adults, are constantly “showing off”. No matter how high or low you may be in society people are always trying to one up each other. Tom has been trying to win over Amy for months by “all sorts of absurd boyish ways…[such as] dangerous gymnastic performances” (pg 419).
I think this shows how Tom, and probably many of the other boys this age, can not easily express there feelings so the have to resort to “showing off” physically. When you think about this its almost like animals! Most of the times animals show off physically to attract a mate and out due other males in there society. Keeping this in mind, later in the text Twain describes a scene with many different kinds of people “showing off”. For example, the librarian ‘showed off’ running hither and thither with his arms full of books and making a deal of the splutter and fuss…the young lady teachers ‘showed off’ bending sweetly over pupils that were lately being boxed…the young gentlemen teachers ‘showed off’ with small scoldings and other little displays of authority…” (pg 434). The adults were showing off in much the same way that Tom did in the school yard trying to impress the little girl. This bridges the gap between adulthood and childhood. Twain makes us see that not only kids act this way, adults do to every day and probably unconsciously.
Also Twain steps out of the text at one point and tells us that “ in order to make a man or boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain” (pg 414-415). This creates an interesting point that can still be applied to life today. People are constantly working towards something better and bigger that they can not attain. Our world is so materialistic that we don’t realize we are always going to want more, more, more. Once we actually get what we were working for it is never as great as we thought it would be and it gets quickly replaced with another material that we work towards and it is a never ending cycle. On the other hand people who realize this use it to exploit and make a profit from others. For example, when Tom pretends to be having so much fun painting that fence he ends up getting a bunch of kids to do it for him and he doesn’t have to work at all!
I think this shows how Tom, and probably many of the other boys this age, can not easily express there feelings so the have to resort to “showing off” physically. When you think about this its almost like animals! Most of the times animals show off physically to attract a mate and out due other males in there society. Keeping this in mind, later in the text Twain describes a scene with many different kinds of people “showing off”. For example, the librarian ‘showed off’ running hither and thither with his arms full of books and making a deal of the splutter and fuss…the young lady teachers ‘showed off’ bending sweetly over pupils that were lately being boxed…the young gentlemen teachers ‘showed off’ with small scoldings and other little displays of authority…” (pg 434). The adults were showing off in much the same way that Tom did in the school yard trying to impress the little girl. This bridges the gap between adulthood and childhood. Twain makes us see that not only kids act this way, adults do to every day and probably unconsciously.
Also Twain steps out of the text at one point and tells us that “ in order to make a man or boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain” (pg 414-415). This creates an interesting point that can still be applied to life today. People are constantly working towards something better and bigger that they can not attain. Our world is so materialistic that we don’t realize we are always going to want more, more, more. Once we actually get what we were working for it is never as great as we thought it would be and it gets quickly replaced with another material that we work towards and it is a never ending cycle. On the other hand people who realize this use it to exploit and make a profit from others. For example, when Tom pretends to be having so much fun painting that fence he ends up getting a bunch of kids to do it for him and he doesn’t have to work at all!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Ragged Dick
Ragged Dick made me believe that, while litter girls were brought up to be quite and well trained in order to be successful in finding a husband, boys were expected to think of themselves first and become financially independent as soon as possible. It seems like since Dick has no parental figure the text suggests that boys to do not need a strict upbringing to turn out “good” while in all the other stories the young girls needed adults to raise them and show them how to act. This can be seen when Dick is talking to Johnny and they make the statement that Mr. Nolan had an “inflamed temper…[and] Johnny’s life was in danger” (pg 349). Parents are never seen as very good in this story.
Also, one main difference between boys and girls in literature that I think we can conclude is that boys will be allowed to make mistakes and sort of learn things on their own instead of being brought up in a strict home. Maybe because people want little boys to have fun while they can because much of their later lives will be spent working and supporting their wives and families? For example even though Dick was “always wide-awake and ready for business, [and] he earned enough to have supported him comfortably and respectably” (pg 340). In spite of how he could live, Dick chooses to live in the moment and spend his money on night life and gambling and things that will make him happy at this moment.
Another difference is that from the very beginning of the story we meet Dick’s friend. When we are introduced to Johnny we can see that Johnny refers to Dick as “his more fortunate friend” (pg 344). In most of the other books we read none of the little girls had friends or even people of their own age to hang around. They spent most of their time with adults. Later when Dick meets Frank, they become friends on their journey about the city. I don’t think if any of the female characters would have been introduced to another girl they would have embraced the friendships quite so readily.
Thinking beyond gender relations, maybe the author was trying to point out that people will never amount to anything without loads of ambition and a hard working attitude. She also made it a point to show us that although Dick had many bad habits he did not drink. The only person who drinks in the story is again, Johnny’s father who was portrayed as s drunkard and wasteful with his money, among other things. The author could have been hinting that alcohol ruins people, like we discussed in class.
Also, one main difference between boys and girls in literature that I think we can conclude is that boys will be allowed to make mistakes and sort of learn things on their own instead of being brought up in a strict home. Maybe because people want little boys to have fun while they can because much of their later lives will be spent working and supporting their wives and families? For example even though Dick was “always wide-awake and ready for business, [and] he earned enough to have supported him comfortably and respectably” (pg 340). In spite of how he could live, Dick chooses to live in the moment and spend his money on night life and gambling and things that will make him happy at this moment.
Another difference is that from the very beginning of the story we meet Dick’s friend. When we are introduced to Johnny we can see that Johnny refers to Dick as “his more fortunate friend” (pg 344). In most of the other books we read none of the little girls had friends or even people of their own age to hang around. They spent most of their time with adults. Later when Dick meets Frank, they become friends on their journey about the city. I don’t think if any of the female characters would have been introduced to another girl they would have embraced the friendships quite so readily.
Thinking beyond gender relations, maybe the author was trying to point out that people will never amount to anything without loads of ambition and a hard working attitude. She also made it a point to show us that although Dick had many bad habits he did not drink. The only person who drinks in the story is again, Johnny’s father who was portrayed as s drunkard and wasteful with his money, among other things. The author could have been hinting that alcohol ruins people, like we discussed in class.
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