LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY

By knowing that Frances Burnett, the author of “Little Lord Fauntleroy” is a woman makes me look at the story differently. Especially in the way she describes Cedric, she says “He has a beautiful face and a fine, strong, graceful figure; he has a bring smile and a sweet, gay voice; he was brave and generous, and has the kindest hart in the world….”(442). The adjectives she uses are extremely famine and ones that I believe only a woman author would choose to use in describing a little boy. She also makes Cedric extremely sensitive to other people’s feelings and also the way he dresses is exactly how a woman would picture a clean-cut boy to dress like. After Cedric won the race against Billy we see him console him by saying “I guess I won because my legs are a little longer then yours. I guess that was it. You see, I’m three days older then you, and that gives me a ‘vantage. I’m three days older” (476). Most little boys are not usually sensitive to other people’s feelings, they usually only care about themselves and the glory they got from winning. In this passage we see signs of how Frances Burnett may have used Cedric to have a woman’s sensitive nature in caring and consoling Billy.
By not knowing whether the author of a story is a woman or a man it allows you to have no biases of how the story is written. If we can’t tell at the beginning of a story of whether the author was a male or female we tend not to look at that as a important part of the story. I think the gender of the author makes a difference in the story. Once we found out that Frances Burnett was a woman it made more sense that she was describing Cedric in words such as “beautiful.”

TOM SAWYER

One of the most interesting things that I found about Tom Sawyer is how likeable a character he is, yet he does create mischief and trick others around him for his own personal gain. This passage is an example of one of the ways he convinces a boy to do something mischievous.
“Say. Jim, I’ll fetch the water if you’ll whitewasl some.”
Jim Shook his head and said:
“Can’t, Mars Tom. Ole Missis, she tole me I goe to go an’ git dis water an’ not stop foolin’ roun’ wid anybody. She say she spec’ Mars Tom gwine to ax me to whitewash, an’ so she tole me to go ‘long an’ ‘tend to my own business-she ‘lowed she’d ‘tend to de whitewashin’.”
“Oh, never you mind what she said, Jim. That’s the way she always talks. Gimme the bucket- I won’t be gone only a minute. She won’t ever know.” (409).
Tom goes on to convince Jim, assuring him that he will not really get in trouble and that his punishment will never as bad as it seems. This shows one of the many ways that Tom is excellent at tricking people into getting his way. Even though he deceives and tricks a lot of people, we all still love him. In another passage we see Tom persuading the kids that painting is fun, “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” (413). Tom made painting look like so much fun that kids where paying him things such as a key, marbles, and bottle glass to be able to paint. Tom had an extremely strong personality that always got him his way, especially when he wanted other people to do his work for him. Even though we see this as extreme laziness, his witty personality made people like him as a character.

RAGGED DICK

In the other 19th century readings from Children’s Literature we have been dealing with little girls and their constant struggles and roles in society. In the story Ragged Dick, however, has introduced us to little boys. By comparing Dick to the other little girl characters, such as Ellen and Gerty, we are able to draw differences between the two.
We have seen that little boys tend to be more rebellious and mischievous, on that note, they always seem to get away with it too. "I am afraid he swore sometimes, and now and then he played tricks upon unsophisticated boys from the country, or gave a wrong direction to honest old gentlemen unused to the city"(367). Whereas little girls where always striving to be “good.” Little boys where also more self-relient unlike Ellen and Gerty who were extremely dependent on their guardians. In Capitola’s case she has to dress up like a little boy in order to fend for herself. That shows that little boys may have been a lot more respected.
Dick has no problem being self-reliant and living on his own. Unlike the little girls we see no type of parent figure in Dick’s life and he seems to be content about it. Humor is another difference we see between little boys and little girls. The little girl characters have not really shown much humor at all. In Ragged Dick we see Dick’s character with a very entertaining side to him. In speaking with one of his clients about his clothing Dicks says, comically, "This coat once belonged to General Washington" (337). The last difference I saw in little boys and girls was the importance of religion. We constantly saw Ellen and Gerty struggling with the Bible and the meaning of God in their lives, but in Ragged Dick we see no religious undertones at all. The one time the Bible was brought up Dick tells Frank, "I heard it's a good book, but I never read one. I isn’t much on reading. It makes my head ache"(387). Little girls in 19th century Children's Literature take on life much more seriously. They are always striving to be moral and good and please their elders. 19th century little boys, however, in a way "play" and "poke fun" at American society and all its seriousness.