Little Lord Fauntleroy

As I was reading Little Lord Fauntleroy, I was amazed how different Burnett described and explained childhood of a young boy. We haven’t seen anything like it; In fact, Ragged Dick was the opposite of Cedric.

Like many others, I automatically assumed Frances Burnett was a male. Because symbolizes the Revolutionary War and the relationship between Americans and the British in such depth lead me to automatically assume that she was a male.

It makes much sense now that we discovered that Burnett is actually a female. Cedric is acting as a female substitute. If Ragged Dick or Tom Sawyer were to be put into the elegant velvet suit with a frilly-laced collar like Cedric, they wouldn’t know what to.

I feel as though Burnett was trying to write about the perfect boy and how males should act in general. Through Cedric, Burnett is trying to teach boys in America to live with love and loyalty. She is teaching young boys how to treat their mothers and females in general just as Cedric does in the text. We see a good example in chapter two when Cedric sees that his mother is upset. Burnett wrote, “Then suddenly his loving little heart told him that he'd better put both his arms around her neck and kiss her again and again, and keep his soft cheek close to hers; and he did so, and she laid her face on his shoulder and cried bitterly, holding him as if she could never let him go again.”

Another thing that is amusing to me is the fact that Little Lord Fauntleroy swept the nation. Other texts we have studied about the childhood of a young boy have been so different; I feel like Cedric would almost offend boys through the way he dresses and the way he acts. Dick and Tom Sawyer act so masculine and all of a sudden Burnett publishes this text about such a feminine young boy. I really enjoyed this text and reading about the sweet Cedric but I think this is only because I am a girl. I think it is safe to say that females would enjoy having more boys like Cedric around!

Adventures of Tom Sawyer

In Chapter two, we read about Tom and Ben Roger’s whitewashing incident.

“Oh come, now, you don’t mean to let on that you like it?” The brush continued to move.
“Like it? Well I don’t see why I oughtn’t to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?”
That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom swept his brush daintily back and forth—stepped back to note the effect—added a touch here and there—criticized the effect again—Ben watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more absorbed. Presently he said:
“Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little.”

This episode of whitewashing gives us a preview of Tom’s ingenious character. Tom is able to stay ahead of his acquaintances because is gets them to act in a certain way with his clever communication skills; Tom is a trickster. Throughout the literature we have read so far, we have not really come across someone like Tom. Ragged Dick resembled Tom in some ways but Gerty, Ellen, Sybil, and all the other girls we have read about acted in the same manner as Tom or Ragged Dick.

The end of the scene ends with Twain saying, “Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.”

I think we can all relate to this quote as well. I think Twain is also telling people that people desire things just because they are forbidden or risky.

I have really enjoyed the change from the childhoods of boys and girls in the 19^th century. They are depicted very differently and seeing the differences in the two assumptions about girls in boys is pretty entertaining.

Ragged Dick

Through the didactic 19^th century literature we have read so far, boys and girls play very different roles. When we think about Gerty, Ellen, and Sybil, we think about very emotional girls being taught what to do, how to dress, and how to act. In Ragged Dick, the first time we see didactic literature for little boys, we see quite opposite roles. Dick is ragged, he is careless, and he is just living life to the fullest. If Ellen had to spend a night in Dick’s shoes she would probably have a heart attack.

When we look at the previous stories we have read about girls in society, we can recall how much religion was stressed and the importance of a roll model/parent growing up. Dick has heard of The Bible, but he has not read it yet. Dick is trying to trust in himself to live day by day by making just enough money to eat and a little extra to gamble, smoke, or go to a show. When Frank asked Dick if he ever read The Bible, Dick replied, “No, I’ve heard it’s a good look, but I never read one. I aint much on reading. It makes my head ache.”

I also realized that Alger is trying to enforce the rags to riches story. Alger is describing the “American Dream” through Dick. Ragged Dick was written in the mid 19^th century, a time where the middle class was the minority and there was a large separation between the upper and lower classes in society. Through Dick, Alger shows that through honesty, hard work, and ambition, one may achieve the “American Dream,” especially in the city of opportunity along with the luck Dick ran into.